Pop Sandbox launches interactive film version of The Next Day

Toronto transmedia company Pop Sandbox has launched an interactive Web version of The Next Day, which chronicles the stories of four suicide-attempt survivors.

The animated online documentary, a co-production with the National Film Board, accompanies the 100-page graphic novella of the same name. The book was released in early May during Canadian Mental Health Week.

Pop Sandbox is best-known for its graphic novel Kenk: A Graphic Portrait (a Q&Q 2010 book of the year), which, along with The Next Day, was just released in the U.S. An animated film version of Kenk is also in the works, as is a photographic novella adapted from an original Russell Smith story, shot by Toronto artist Jaret Belliveau.

Click here to read Q&Q’s profile of Pop Sandbox and to read a review of The Next Day.

U.S. literary journals thrive with low overhead and dedicated audiences

A couple of weeks ago poet Michael Lista got the attention of the publishing Twitterverse with his National Post essay “Why literary magazines should fold.”

Now, we don’t need another American TV sitcom to point out the differences between our two cultures, but here’s an interesting article about the financial health of U.S. West Coast literary journals. Turns out, boutique publishers like The Threepenny Review, Zoetrope, and McSweeney’s Quarterly are doing just fine these days, but not for the reasons you might think. According to The New York Times:

If literary journals “are poised to do well,” as Laura Cogan, editor of San Francisco-based ZYZZYVA, said, it may be because they share qualities with many successful online ventures: skeletal staffs, low overhead and specialized audiences.

The article suggests journals associated with academic institutions have financially suffered the most over the last couple of years. Not that the successful print publishers are sitting around counting their money bags — they’ve been investing in the online side of their businesses by overhauling websites and promoting online subscriptions. McSweeney’s even hired a digital media director.

But, as the article concludes — and here’s where Canadians can nod in agreement — if these publishers are doing well, it is relative to their notions of success:

“No one has ever been able to make a good living writing or publishing literary fiction,” Stephen Elliott, a writer and founder of The Rumpus, said. “It doesn’t matter that there are exceptions. The rule stands.”

New media “unconference” in Toronto this weekend

It can be a little tricky staying on top of the latest in new and social media these days. A few hours at PodCamp Toronto this weekend could be time well-spent in figuring out how to make better use of these tools for your business.

On Feb. 26 and Feb. 27 at Ryerson University, the self-described “unconference” will bring together hundreds of professional and amateur Web content producers and online community-builders – writers, bloggers, digital publishers, e-commerce professionals, Web designers, photographers, and podcasters among them. The event has dozens of free sessions, a number of which might be of interest to publishing professionals. Saturday is particularly meaty, with presentations on copyright and social media, social media trends for business, the legalities of blog advertising, online reputation management, core messaging, plus a roundtable on e-book trends, and a panel discussion on community management (a.k.a. online customer service). The schedule is available at the PodCamp Toronto 2011 website. Though the conference is free, there is a registration process.

Last year’s event attracted nearly 900 participants. A video archive of sessions from 2010 is available here.

Awards presented to Shapcott, Walcott, and book apps

There’s been a flurry of book award activity over the past few days (take that, Academy Awards). The awards in this roundup range from the time-honoured and prestigious to the trendy and cutting edge.

Costa Book of the Year Award
Costa Book Awards named Jo Shapcott’s poetry collection Of Mutability (Faber & Faber) its Book of the Year. The U.K. award culls its shortlist from winners across five categories: first novel, novel, biography, poetry, and children’s book. The 2010 shortlist also featured Witness the Night, a first novel by Kishwar Desai; The Hand That First Held Mine, a novel by Maggie O’Farrel; The Hare with Amber Eyes, a memoir by Edmund de Waal; and Out of Shadows, a children’s book by first-time author Jason Wallace. Shapcott receives £25,000; the winner in each category receives £5,000.

T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry
Also based out of the U.K., the Poetry Book Society awarded the T.S. Eliot Prize to Derek Walcott for White Egrets (Faber & Faber). Walcott, 81, is a Nobel laureate and currently serves as distinguished scholar in residence at the University of Alberta.

The £15,000 prize is given annually to the author of the best new poetry collection published in the U.K. or Ireland. Anne Stevenson, chair of the judging panel, described Walcott’s collection as a “moving, risk-taking and technically flawless book by a great poet.” Also included on the shortlist were Sam Willetts, Seamus Heaney, and Pascal Petit.

Publishing Innovation Awards
Digital Book World opened last night in New York City by handing out the first-ever Publishing Innovation Awards for e-books and apps. The winners are selected based on “their merits in the areas of origination, development, production, design, and marketing.”

The inaugural winners are:

Fiction:  DRACULA: The Official Stoker Family Edition (PadWorx Digital Media)
Non-fiction: Logos Bible Software (Logos Bible Software)
Children’s:  A Story Before Bed (Jackson Fish Market)
Reference:  Star Walk for iPad (Vito Technology)
Comics: Robot 13 (Robot Comics)

Level 26: CSI creator’s new “digi-novel”

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.

Cheap shorts

The Book Standard takes a look at Amazon.com’s new Amazon Shorts program, which kicked off in July. Readers can download digital versions of short fiction by big-name authors for under 50 cents a shot, or have the files dropped off in their e-mail inbox. Some of the files are first chapters of upcoming books, while others are original short stories. According to the Book Standard piece, Amazon hopes the move will spur interest in short fiction: “‘We hope that by making short-form literature widely and easily available, Amazon.com can help to fuel a revival of this kind of work,’ says Steve Kessel, Amazon.com’s vice-president of Digital Media.

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Click here for the full story from The Book Standard