Corey Lynn Fayman is an award-winning San Diego musician, multimedia designer, and mystery author. He has recently released App Edition of Border Field Blues, the second novel in his Rolly Waters crime series. The series has been a success, and Corey has been offered a publishing deal by Severn House Publishers for his next book.
Here, Corey Lynn Fayman answers some frequently asked questions about his new book.
Border Field Blues
– App Edition
by Corey Lynn Fayman
AISN: B00JUEUXFY
Granada Pacific Publishing, April 2014
$4.99
www.borderfieldblues.com/app-edition/
www.amazon.com
www.itunes.com
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What inspired you to
create an interactive edition of Border
Field Blues?
I did a lot of research for this book,
visiting Border Field Park and reading books (both fiction and non-fiction)
that related to the Tijuana River Valley and the San Diego/Tijuana border. I’d
seen some interesting interactive books developed for non-fiction titles, but
they often involved what I’ll call “gadgetry” within the text, such as
interactive graphics, charts, and videos. The fiction books I read were more
like games, with text section as part of the game world. I felt like those
kinds of things interrupt your reading, which may be okay in non-fiction since
those features are often used to illuminate a key concept. But with fiction,
you don’t want to interrupt the flow of the text. The author has worked hard to
make it flow and capture the reader’s imagination. I wondered if I could
include of those interactive technologies, while still keeping the traditional
qualities that make a book a good read.
2. What’s included in this new App Edition?
First, there are my author’s notes and
photos on how I came up with plot, locations and characters, as well as some
background information on some of the social and political issues touched on in
the book. There are also related videos from YouTube and Google Map
presentations for each of the locations in the book. Additionally, the app
allows users to add their own comments to each chapter, which other readers
will be able to read. Readers can also email me directly from the app or share
the information on Facebook. And it’s very non-intrusive. There’s just one
button at the bottom of the page that provides access to all of the features.
3. What role do you see
technology playing in the book/publishing realm?
I think books will remain books.
They’re a proven technology, that’s lasted in basically the same form for over
five hundred years. They’re still the most direct form of communication between
one person’s focused thinking and another person’s focused processing of those
thoughts. But I do think ebooks can expand the world of any particular book, so
that readers can more easily follow up on ideas, themes, and topics touched on
in the book. In a sense, the app edition of Border
Field Blues is like the longest, most complete book club presentation I’ve
ever given, but readers can choose how much of it they want to listen to. They
don’t have to hear me talk for ten hours. And the additional material is
updatable, so I can add to it as readers communicate with me. I think that’s
the greatest value of this technology. Also, readers can email me immediately
if a passage in the book was so wonderful they just had to let me know, or if
it made them so angry they just had to let off some steam. Hmm, maybe that
email function wasn’t such a good idea.
4. Can you describe what
was involved in creating this App Edition?
I started this project as part of a
twelve-week sabbatical I received from the Art Institute of California, San
Diego a few years ago. I was teaching Web Design there full-time and working on
the text for Border Field Blues in my
spare hours. Apple’s iPad had come out recently, and along with it the iBooks
store. I knew from my background in web design that HTML5 and web technologies
were part of the epub specification, but that most apps were built in specialized
programming environments, like Xcode. Part of my sabbatical assignment was to
investigate new technologies, so I could make an assessment of what we should
teach in future classes. As usual, each system had its pros and cons, but I
ended up working with Apple’s iBooks Author program and combining it with my
skills in HTML5, CSS and Javascript. This is still pretty new stuff, so you
kind of invent it as you go along. I’d think of a feature and try to figure it
out. I didn’t get every thing I wanted, but that’s the software business. I’m
pretty happy with how it finally turned out.
5. What are readers saying
about this new, interactive version?
The one thing I’ve heard the most is that
readers really liked it when they found something in the app section that
explained something they didn’t quite understand in the text, maybe a name or
place that I referenced. They didn’t access the app for every chapter, but
liked having it there when they weren’t sure about a reference or just wondered
what each the locations was really like. Some people said the photos and videos
from Border Field Park helped them picture the environment there better. Also,
since my protagonist is a guitar player, there are a lot of musical terms and
musicians mentioned in the text that your average reader might not know. For
instance, Rolly Waters, my protagonist, visits a guitar store where he talks to
the owner about the “Three Kings” of electric blues guitar. Most people know
B.B. King, but not everybody has heard of Freddie or Albert King. So in the app
section, I include some concert footage of them both. Readers will enjoy the
story just as well without hearing them, but it does expand their appreciation
of the characters’ world to see the videos and hear their music.
6. Do you think other
authors will embrace the idea of multimedia books? And will these types of
books play a big role in the future of publishing?
I think that will really depend on the
author. I think it works well for authors who have a lot of research behind their
book. I think it would work great for historical fiction, so authors could
provide some additional background. Now authors can include all that stuff their
editors made them leave out! I have to say, it’s quite a bit of work putting
together the additional material. I had lots of notes, and photos, and some
videos, but I couldn’t just plop it in there. It’s still got to be in some kind
of form the reader will be able to access easily and appreciate. It’s probably
not for everybody. Writing a book is a big enough job all by itself!
As far as the future of publishing, I’m
sure there will be more titles like this, but it’s still kind of an experiment
for publishers now. It’s not their area of expertise, but most publishers know
they need to be looking into this. When an interactive edition of a book
outsells the standard edition, that’s when they’ll really take off.
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