Each Tweet (Twunk (?) ) cannot exceed 140 characters. Publishing a novel in fragments may seem contradictory with the very nature of a book, which is a closed and tangible object. The project offers however opportunities to explore the new leads opened by the microblogging in the literature as well as in the publishing worlds.
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If the media requires a kind of truncation, the text has not been created under the 140 chars’ rule. The twunks are more an adaptation to the media that a writing matrix.
The most innovative aspect lies on the reader’s and book buyer’s side. By definition a book buyer ignores the content of what he or she is paying for, since the content can only be known once the book is read. Buying a book is buying a cat in a bag .
This is all about revolution: “The French Revolution”, is the first ever novel Twitted in the US since July 14th by Matt Stewart, a Californian writer, when some Twibooks have already busted the million readers line in Japan.
Here lies perhaps the Twitter’s revolution in publishing: there is no need anymore to buy the book to know what it is about. The author twitts it and, tweet by tweet, fragment by fragment, the reader is able to taste the text: You knowthe color of the cat.
But reading on a screen is not easy. That's why, pleased or not, but fully informed, you may decide to buy the book if you wish. The text may be either downloaded for a cheep price in an electronic version; it’s then possible to print it, though the ultimate result is not a real book.
The printed book may also be ordered - directly to the author (POD) or through a publisher and/or a bookseller who can still play a role if they adapt to this new situation.
All attempts made until now to create electronic books have failed. For a simple reason: giving to an e-book the printed book’s appearance combines the disadvantages of both. It's a bit like giving the shape of a horse to a car: the driver would seat atop of it.
No, the electronic medium should be used for what it is: immaterial, virtual, without weight, without pages nor paper (nature friendly), more nomadic in its way than its 500 years old predecessor the book, readable from any internet linked terminal or phone.
Roland Barthes wrote in a premonitory way: "A text is made of multiple writings, drawn from many cultures and that dialogue with each other... But there is a place where this multiplicity focuses, and this place is not the author ... It’s the reader: the reader is the very locus where resound all ... all the quotes of which a writing is made; the unity of a text does not lie in its origin but in its destination. "(in The rustle of language, Essais critiques IV, 1984).
Many wonder what Twitter is for. Yes it’s truly in its multiple destinations - i/e in and by its readers - that the book lives. This is why at the very least Twitter should make the literature and publishing worlds think: a new relationship between writer and readers is born. Now you can tell the color of the cat before buying it.
About the Author
Christopher Sims divides his time between Portugal and Brittany, France. Where says he, he spends, at last, most of his inactivity to his favorite addictions that are in an indistinct order love, sea and writing, preferably under the sun.
His website is at: http://christophesims.blogspot.com/
His books are http://stores.lulu.com/
