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Rumpus Book ClubWhy I Created an App For My Book
The Adderall Diaries is now available as an app for iPhone and iPad.
The app is different from the kindle or iBook version, both just released. Like the kindle and the iBook it includes the entire book with a proprietary reader, but The Adderall Diaries app also includes a discussion board to talk about the book with other readers, extras like sixty pages of book tour diaries and a video interview, along with a feed to keep you up to date with news and events.
I built this app, with the good people at Electric Literature (I don’t actually know how to build an app) (so when I say “I built this app” it’s not technically true), because I don’t like the way current ebooks are packaged. The Adderall Diaries was coming out as an ebook whether I wanted it to or not and I wanted to offer readers a better experience.
The most important thing was the discussion board. I’ve learned from running The Rumpus the importance of community. In the fractured media landscape, when we get almost buried in content and shifting platforms, we want to be able to experience art with others. We want to talk with others about what we read and listen to. It’s what’s made The Rumpus Book Club such a success.
The Rumpus Book Club is also where I found that people, lots of people, were reading books on their phone. I didn’t believe it at first but the numbers were undeniable. Then when I saw how a book could look on an iPad I knew that a significant percentage of readers were going in this direction.
But if people were reading on their phones and iPads why were the books so bad? Why wasn’t there a discussion board included with the book? A news feed? Extras? And where was the cover?
I think packaging matters, layout, title, cover art, font. It all informs the bond between the reader and the text. We prefer books bound with covers to loose pages from a laser printer. I’m certain that a lot of these innovations, innovations that aren’t really innovations because the technology already exists, will soon be available for eBooks. But I didn’t want to wait. I couldn’t.
The Adderall Diaries was released in paper and electronic form last Thursday, September 28.
I prefer to read on paper but as a writer I want to be read. To be a writer is a gift and I’ve always felt that the reader is doing the writer a favor so I want my work available in whatever medium the reader wants to read it.
Click here to purchase The Adderall Diaries app. And please let me know what you think.
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See also Why I Write
October 4th, 2010 at 9:47 am
Stephen: It’s great to hear that you identified problems with the eBook experience and worked to provide a better reading experience with your App. This type of innovation is absolutely necessary in order for writers to keep audiences engaged with their work.
I’m elated that this article addresses how easy it is to connect your goal as a writer–”I want to be read”–with the realities of the way people read: 1) “lots of people were reading books on their phone.” 2: “Then when I saw how a book could look on an iPad I knew that a significant percentage of readers were going in this direction.”
This is such a simple equation. Writers want to be read. Readers are more frequently reading work in digital format. Want to be read more? Deliver your work digitally.
Thank you being both realistic and optimistic, and forging ahead the role of The Word in the digital age.
October 4th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
Smart. Ebooks are kind of horseless carriages–the mere translation of the old technology into a new format without taking advantage of the possibilities inherent in the new format. I think an app is a very good idea, and that the sort of innovation possible with an app will shove the ebook into new directions. This is also why the kindle will have to evolve or be passed up by tablets for the reader market, I think. Of course, amazon will probably take care of that just fine.
How will royalties work? Is it the same on the app as it is with an ebook? Does electric literature take a cut? Did the publisher have any hesitations about throwing their product into this new format? I can imagine you may not want to answer these questions on a comment forum.
October 22nd, 2010 at 10:38 am
Sweet Jesus on the cross, but I will never in this life read a book on anything other than paper. What else can we talk about?