New Market Dynamics
The market dynamics of how we engage in storytelling have been irrevocably shaken up by technology. It’s not about format shift so much as the way we package and repackage content to suit different formats.
Many publishers, like other retailers, are being out-maneuvered by digital stores, selling direct to shoppers. Amazon makes shopping one easy click away.
Many content providers have moved to much less linear formats than a traditional book, offering rich 3d experiences more akin to a games experience. And then there is the rise of the tablet. Readers can choose from multiple formats for their content. Books can now be enjoyed across multiple platforms, from paper books to digital ebooks, to fully immersive apps.
New generations of readers look increasingly to the tablet. The visionaries in publishing are imploring: embrace disruption, lean thinking. That means optimising the potential along the value-chain from author to story, for each of the technologies that words can flow across, to inform, stimulate and delight.
Digital is being pushed into creative places that are opening up in an exciting way.
TV studios have had a renaissance in being able to provide a whole new wave of content for their fans who can use new digital realities to pick and choose drama series on demand, either original narratives or as book extensions, according to popular request.
Similarly film studios have grasped the commercial opportunity.
For BeyondTheStory TV and film studios are increasingly the storytelling channels where we can best create value-added product. That is because our book apps cannot be promoted where they should belong on an Amazon book shop – we have to deal with only an Apple store channel, where people look for games and travel guides.
Plus more often than not it is too difficult to convince a publisher that an app offers yet another rich alternative to giving readers a fantastic storytelling experience, and that it is well worth the investment as one more essential piece of packaging up content.