As if creating the CSI juggernaut wasn’t enough, Anthony Zuiker has now cooked up the concept for the first “digi-novel,” an innovative blend of novel, movie, and interactive website.
The blood-and-guts-soaked murder mystery Level 26: Dark Origins, co-authored with Duane Swierczynski, was released in book format in early Sept. Every 20 pages or so, there is a code that links to a website, where the reader can watch a short film clip featuring former CSI actors. The site, www.Level26.com, also features a discussion forum where participants can talk about the “digi-novel” and contribute to the story.
CBC News reports that Zuiker hopes the “digi-novel” will change how readers consume books and revolutionize the publishing industry.
According to Reuters, Zuiker believes the “digi-novel” is the way of the future:
Every TV show in the next five, 10 years will have a comprehensive microsite or website that continues the experience beyond the one-hour television to keep engaging viewers 24/7 … Just watching television for one specific hour a week … that’s not going to be a sustainable model going forward.
I wanted to bring all the best in publishing, in a motion picture, in a website, and converge all three into one experience. And when the book is finished … I wanted the experience to continue online and in a social community.
Zuicker doesn’t realize (or is deluding himself) that fewer people are watching the inane boob tube and the ones that are still watching are not readers; they are passive receptors and they are not going to engage in any type of reading—especially the type of tricks he’s offering. CSI is a show you watch a few times and then it becomes repetitive junk. These days people are “selective” in their entertainment. If you are going to spend an hour or so (or maybe more) on an entertainment, you want to get something out of it.
Zuiker himself comments: “Zuiker imagines a world five years from now in which every TV show has a microsite that will continue to give viewers an experience beyond the one-hour show, engaging them 24/7, he said.”
It seems that this idea is more a platform (quote, unquote) to promote episodic TV programs, not re-invent or do anything particularly new with the novel itself.