Cory's novel as an RSS feed

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Oct 20
2005

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Cory's novel as an RSS feed

Cory Doctorow writes in email:

This is such a cool remix of my novel Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town -- an RSS feed that gives you a couple pages every day. No matter when you subscribe to it, it sends you the book starting from the beginning. Subscribe via Winksite and it'll come to your phone in daily bite-sized pieces.

Love the idea of an RSS feed that always starts at the beginning. This opens up whole new possibilities for publishing.

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Comments: 13

Mel Riffe [10.20.05 08:21 AM]

Seems like this may catch on. I've been subscribed to "The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci" for a while now and I get a page a day.

Here's the website link: http://interconnected.org/home/more/davinci/

Cheers

michael sippey [10.20.05 09:41 AM]

See also "Two Solitudes," an email romance. A short work of fiction delivered via email. By Carl Steadman. 1994.

http://www.freedonia.com/~carl/bp/bp.html

Dave Whiteland [10.20.05 11:56 AM]

"This opens up whole new possibilities for publishing."

Er, not quite new, but, yes, it works: Planetarium launched in 1999, and serves 12 weekly instalments starting from the moment you join. Still going strong seven years later.

Perl + email + HTML rather than RSS, but hey.

jharris [10.20.05 03:52 PM]

This is pretty interesting and it does have intriguing possibilities for publishing.

And socially it will fit right in with our desire to have everything in bite size chunks so we never need to develop the ability to concentrate on one thing for any extended period of time.

The serialization of a novel into two page chunks could lead to authors putting in mini-climaxes or conflicts every other page, which will make for very entertaining reading.

I have ADD and new technology like this makes me normal. ;-)

Roger Weeks [10.20.05 05:20 PM]

As a sysadmin, I spend my entire working day reading things on the computer screen: RSS, web, terminal windows.

Reading fiction online has never appealed to me. I like being able to unplug my brain and my eyes from the computer, and sit down with a book.

And only two pages? Sheesh. I can read a chapter a day or more if the book is really good.

Like a previous commenter said, this sort of thing is intriguing, but will basically turn us all into ADD sufferers.

David Harper [10.21.05 02:36 AM]

Some though are not unplugging from a computer...

...you would be surprised by the thousands we have observed (in aggregate) reading works from their mobile device.

750 million mobile devices will be sold this year compared to 250 million PCs.

2 billion mobile phone users worldwide.

�- creating a new generation of content creators & consumers.

The idea that paper and ink should be forsaken for mobile phones is enough to make readers give an almost Luddite shudder. After all, How can any mobile device approach the ergonomics and durability of a good quality book or reading the text on a PC or notebook? Who will read a book on a phone? Replacement however, is not the point. It's all about distribution.

You see, there is a revolution going on all over the world. People from Japan to India to Europe to the United States and South America are engaging content on mobile devices in record numbers - in fact mobile access to the Internet has already surpassed desktop access. For tens of millions their mobile phone is their one and only pipeline onto the Internet, to knowledge it contains, and to each other. Their entire "connected" world is what they can publish and consume directly on their phone. Let's connect everyone to all the great content and thoughts bouncing around the Internet. Don't leave anyone out or behind or without a voice.

By providing a greater number of people with knowledge, you provide an even greater number with the potential to become involved. As I see, it is more than just publishing content. It is about the individuals it engages, the people it connects, the dialogue that develops, the community that forms and the collective action that can result.

Tim O'Reilly [10.21.05 05:29 AM]

Re. ADD -- let me remind you that many of the great novels of the 19th century were first issued as serials. In fact, I was just in the used bookshops of Hay-on-Wye in Wales, looking at a first edition of one of Dickens novels, still in its original pamphlets. (Many were later bound into single volumes.) I love books, but it's presumptuous to assume that the way we consume information in some local time period represents "the one true way."

David Harper [10.21.05 09:51 AM]

On the flip side of consumption is creation. This type of publishing creates the opportunity for a new class of authors to create small clusters of content. Bloggers, Photobloggers, Podcasters, Vidcasters... are Bookcasters next?

The definition of Mass Media is changing from... Media Made FOR an Audience - to - Media Made BY the Audience. Why? The above technology lowers the barriers to entry for anyone to participate. Particpation journalist to some, participation novelist to others. While Cory's book is being delivered one chapter at a time - why not also write and distribute a novel one chapter at a time like Dickens? What's old is new again.

PeteCashmore [10.21.05 12:07 PM]

This is a great idea - and yes, the possibilities are truly endless.

Jayme Maultasch [10.21.05 01:57 PM]

I think Russell Beattie had this type of RSS feed setup for some of the freely available Gutenberg books. I'm not sure if he left the site up but he definitely tried it about 9 months ago.

David Harper [10.21.05 02:13 PM]

This individualized RSS concept is not new. Russell Beattie was thinking about it ages ago and had a brilliant implementation in Mobdex.

Kelly Evans [10.31.05 05:19 AM]

We are looking for a similar solution for our online book ( http://www.hackoff.com ). I know that Corey is using feedhoster.com but I would love to know of other tools. I am specifically looking for something which will run off a current rss and is feedburner friendly. Thanks.