I have little experience with ebooks in general, so there is a lot of new territory for me to explore and understand as I make decisions about format and platform and hosting and distribution and the user experience.
So far I have roughed out a list of the kinds of content I think I want to include in this project:
- good writing and storytelling above all else
- brilliant design / layout
- exceptional still photography
- gorgeous video
- ambient sound and chapter-specific music
- audio recordings of the text (read by yours truly, the author)
- at least one version of a recipe for each bread
- profiles of each bread maker
- Behind the Scenes Making of the Bread Making book video and content
I want to make a 12-chaptered book, and I want each chapter to feel like it's own little world, and to have the whole thing held together with good design and the writing voice.
As I begin to try and really explain this idea to friends I am getting more clarity about what the thing is really about: it's about the bread makers and their stories. A book that celebrates, honors, enjoys, explores and beautifully shares their lives, their stories, their families and cultures, their bread. And it's about me: my work to find and get to know these people and understand and play and learn and be surprised and disappointed and delighted and find ways to share what I find, what happens along the way.
In my last post I mentioned The Artist's Way, and this week I'm embarking on a difficult assignment in that book: Reading Deprivation. One week of no reading. I'm taking that to the extremest extremes I can imagine in my media soaked brain: no Facebook Feed binging. No email. No texting (thank God). No re-reading any old work or notes. No research for the Twelve Loaves Project (frustrating). No holing up with somebody else's words.
This week, if I'm going to sit with some words, they are going to have to be ones in my head, or new ones I make on some new page: like this one. I don't think I will be too missed by too many folks in correspondence this week -- I think the much more difficult thing for me will be to focus my time and energy into making (or more frighteningly), playing. Today I spent a good 20 minutes of writing railing against this assignment and the crazy lady that issued it from the (nearly) antiquated pages of her book, and all that venting was good. It, at the least, showed me how much resistance there is in me to trying it. Which is about all the proof I need to see it will probably be a good and rewarding and surprising thing to take seriously, for seven days.
Maybe it will inspire me to build bookshelves for our 20 boxes of books this week instead of leaving them in their cardboard coffins. Maybe I will make better dinners. Maybe I will fish more. Maybe I will play. Maybe I will have less hair next Saturday than I do right now. Maybe I will give up the endeavor in a couple of days, or later this afternoon. Let's see what we shall see.
In the meantime, if you have any resources or examples of great ebooks or rich multimedia offerings that you would recommend to me, please post a comment here, message me on Facebook or drop me some mail (to be read and responded to next week): michaeldechane AT gmail DOT com.
Onward,
Michael
Love that you are doing this. Imagine how incredible it would be if we all poured our passion into the world! Here are a few things I've seen and liked (video, audio, multimedia):
ReplyDeletevideo: http://vimeo.com/27654447
video: http://vimeo.com/44654185
interaction: http://82nd-and-fifth.metmuseum.org/
audio: http://www.metmuseum.org/connections/
Have nothing for you in the ebook area off the top of my head (sorry)
This is kind of interesting though not very practical (using location to open up more info) http://theweek.com/article/index/234165/the-silent-history-the-strange-new-e-book-that-makes-you-travel-to-read-it
I've used apples ibook author to create an ebook and it was really easy to use - but I only had images and text in it. I love that you are planning on doing audio recordings of the text. There is something about the intimacy created between a narrator and a listener that is so special and can override the distance that technology can sometimes create. Could you add a sense of discovery to the piece somehow? A feeling that you can go deeper but you have to explore to do that? Good luck with everything, I'll be following your blog!
Oh and most importantly - what did you do with your week of being deprived of reading?
Thanks Kate! I'm still (barely) in my week of Reading Deprivation: I'm cheating in snatches here and there. It's so hard! Among other things, I've written (a bit), especially the latest post on the blog.
DeleteThanks so much for the encouragement and links: I can't wait to check those out.
And I completely agree about narration being able to bridge gaps: it's how I learned to love Robert Frost's poetry. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBw-OaOWddY
The idea of creating a space that can be explored by a kind of drilling down or 'going deeper' is interesting and such a challenge. I'm not sure how interactive in that sense I can (or want) to make this piece, but most ideas are still on the table at this point. A friend turned me on to Vook (http://vook.com/) and I've yet to explore it, but think this might be a great platform / publisher to consider! Very exciting.
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ReplyDeleteHey, did you know my mom's a bread maker? -Charity
ReplyDeleteHey Char! I did not, but I'm none surprised. I bet she's fantastic as a bread maker, too. I should ring her up in a consultation phone call so I can learn the secrets of working with bread (and catch up on your family news). Miss you friend.
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