Trapdoor Books

Are You Ready: Digi-Novels or Reading Retro-Style?

Posted on 09. Sep, 2009 by Chris Matney in Book Publishing, Front Page Posts

Our local TV station ran an interview on the news yesterday that my wife recorded about Anthony Zuiker’s new digi-novel, Level 26: Dark Origins. The story is a spinoff of the TV show CSI. But, it’s not the content that caught my wife’s eye. What’s a digi-novel? Well, I did a bit a research and it is kind of a cool concept – although the proof will definitely be in the story.

Here’s how it works. You read a chapter of a book retro-style turning paper pages or hitting the “Next Page” button on your Kindle. (Notice that reading an e-book is already retro?). Then, at the end of the chapter, you log onto the digi-novel’s website (using a code from the book) and watch a two minute video clip that transitions to the next chapter. These are called “cyber-bridges” and there will be twenty of them (one every five chapters). Afterwards, there will be some interactive puzzles for would-be crime solvers and a community chat room for those who want to discuss how they would have ended the book.

Penguin has shelled out millions for the rights to publish Mr. Zuiker’s ideas under its Dutton imprint, so I’m not sure that this is an avenue that Trapdoor Books will be pursuing in the near future – although, I like the idea of the digi-novel with one big provision. The book still has to stand on its own – it still has to be a good story. As a supplement to the novel, it is great. As a replacement for good writing – no thank you. Now, I haven’t read Mr. Zuiker’s other novels, and I’m not a fan of his TV series CSI. It’s not that I don’t like CSI, I just have never been compelled to watch. Maybe this will win me over.

Here is the trailer for the novel. Wow, that is kind of a weird concept in itself. Here is an article by Reuters on the project. Novels, websites and movies coming together – how’s that for a 21st century idea?