WINKsite Overrun With Zombie Madness
Monday, September 27th, 2004Monster Nation, the second of a trilogy of zombie novels serialized in blog and mobile format, launched September 20th, 2004, and readers have responded with a resounding, “Wooooot!”
The explosion of weblog media and RSS syndication has created a vast audience of readers accustomed to checking-in on their favorite blogs daily. To tap into this new network of readers, novelist David Wellington, publisher Brokentype, and mobile publisher Wireless Ink have joined together to distribute David's novels directly into blog and mobile formats.
David Wellington's Monster Island – a horror novel about a zombie apocalypse in New York City - was one of the first novels written and published especially for the weblog format. The work was serialized under Creative Common license between April and September 2004, and was featured on a number of well regarded weblogs, including Gothamist, Boingboing, Fark, and Allthingszombie.com. The entire novel is now available online. The second novel in the trilogy, Monster Nation, began its serialization in September 2004. Both novels are available for mobile devices at WINKsite.com
The blog format has been extraordinarily effective at building a loyal audience of readers. Mr. Wellington posts new chapters three times a week and responds directly to readers in the comments section of his weblog. Unlike ebooks or traditional hypertext novels – which have struggled to find wide readership - the weblog format appeals directly to readers already accustomed to receiving news daily through blog posts, RSS feeds, and trackback pings.
Mobile syndication is also an expanding area for readers of fiction. “The mobile audience is huge and starved for content,” stated David Harper, co-founder of Wireless Ink. “According to the GSM Association, the number of subscribers to mobile networks has surpassed the one billion mark.” Novels published to cell phones and mobile devices have found large audiences in Japan and China and Monster Island is among the first English-language serial-novels published directly to mobile phones and PDAs in the United States (no downloading required).
Brokentype estimates that by utilizing these emerging publishing technologies more than 30,000 users will have read the indie novel by the end of the year. “It's like left behind, only with zombies,” publisher Alex Lencicki enthuses. “David is a talented author and he knows how to keep an audience coming back for more. He's perfectly suited for the medium.” The company plans to offer advertising on the site in the coming months, and hopes to sell rights to the trilogy.
Mr. Wellington admits that he had turned to Internet publishing as a last resort. After years of dutifully sending manuscripts topublishing houses, to no avail, he finally turned to onlinepublishing, where for the first time he found an audience eager toread his work. And the audience is growing every week.
Blog Format:
http://www.monsternovel.com
Mobile Format (via mobile devices):
- Monster Island (http://winksite.com/monster/island)
- Monster Nation (http://winksite.com/monster/nation)
About David Wellington. Author
David Wellington is the author of Monster Island and Monster Nation. He is an archivist for the United Nations, and lives with his wife in New York City. He knows just about everything there is to know about zombies. Form more information, visit MonsterNovel.com
About Brokentype
Brokentype is an online publisher and literary agency founded by writer and publishing professional Alex Lencicki. The company is developing new markets for fiction. For more Information, visit Brokentype.com
About Wireless Ink, LLC
Cold Spring Harbor, NY - based Wireless Ink, founded in 2001, provides mobile publishing solutions. Wireless Ink's award-winning, community, WINKsite™ has been created to change the face of the mobile Internet — making it easier for, and more accessible to, the masses. For more information, please visit: WINKsite.com
