The Command Line

Say what you will about the differences between traditional media and “new media”, but its hard not to notice just how much more the most visible adopters of online distribution and amateur produced content get the fact that success hinges on engaging with your audience and giving them a more compelling experience than just transacting for a pre-packaged, impersonal good. (Here I use amateur in the sense of one who does for love of the work, definitely not the more modern usage that connotes lack of skill.)

Nowhere is this more evident than in the full court press currently underway by Mur Lafferty for her podcast novel, Playing for Keeps, set to launch this Thursday, November 1st.

I’ve known Mur pretty much since I started podcasting and with this latest endeavor have had opportunity to peek behind the curtain. Beyond the interest she has been able to generate through sharing her experiences first hand finishing, editing and shopping the novel on her writing podcast, I Should Be Writing, she has found a motivated core of contributors that are building an engaging experience around the audio of the novel itself. All of this, the novel and the fan built media, is free to the listener.

Mur could have continued to shop the novel or have trunked it after her first attempt to find a publisher. I am not sure this even occurred to her. Early on in the process of trying to get her work out through traditional publishing, she was already discussing with her audience sharing the work through podcasting if she did not find an outlet within a ten month span.

If you enjoy comic books, especially some of the more literate and sophisticated ones like Astro City, then you’ll almost certainly enjoy Playing for Keeps. And by subscribing, you’ll be supporting and encouraging more such clueful and innovative works of all genres and varieties.