Behind the Scenes
All right, it’s Friday the 13th, I’m late in posting, and I find I just can’t be that serious today. So, I’ve been thinking about the self-publishing explosion, the Justice Department suit against Apple and the Big Six publishing houses,* and magazines that have started charging writers submission fees, so where did my mind go?
DVDs.
No, I don’t mean I ran off to watch a DVD.** I was thinking about them as a type of product. When DVDs first came out, they contained little more than their title movies, and perhaps a trailer. Then the special features bonanza began: deleted and expanded scenes, making-of segments, behind-the-scenes documentaries, interviews with the cast and crew, special effects features, commentaries by the producers and their cousins, directors’ editions and so on. I’ve even seen DVDs that included screen tests of the actors.
Now that we have e-books starting to move in the marketplace, I’ve heard people suggesting that we need to treat it like the DVD market. Oh, that’s not how they put it, but they bring up the idea of “enhanced” e-books, which would have “extras” of some sort related to the book.
This idea is easy to apply to nonfiction. Writing a book about home repair? Why not include video examples? Of course, once you leave the self-help market it gets a little weirder. “Here is my compilation of essays about living in Portland. The enhanced e-book features live maps of the areas I visit, audio recordings of the parks where I wander…” Is it me, or does that start to get creepy?
But when you apply this idea to fiction, suddenly it mutates. Are we supposed to include any character interviews and background work we’ve done? Are we expected to include guides to our world-building? Would anyone really want to read how the licensing system works for magicians in my fantasy space opera novel?***
This would involve a whole lot of extra writing, at least some of which could be published as standalone books. Consider that Katherine Kurtz wrote a book called Deryni Magic, an encyclopedic guide to the world-building of her Deryni series.
Wait, I’m in danger of getting serious. That’s enough of that.
What else might appear in an enhanced e-book? How about images of the fifteen or so redlined editions of the manuscript that went through editing? How about deleted scenes? Heck, some authors could double or triple the file size just by including what they cut out. How about day-in-the-life segments, where the author leads the reader through the routine of a typical writing day.
No, wait. That one would likely just bore or depress the reader.
We could include “writer’s editions” that undo all the changes done by those pesky editors.****
Can’t you just picture the writer’s commentary on your favorite scene: “Oh, this was hell to write. The scene wasn’t in the original manuscript, actually, but in revision I realized that I needed John to know what Mary had been doing before he had that upcoming conversation with Jane, which was the key to the whole novel. Now that was a scene. This scene, though, was crap. Just filler, really, but fortunately the tension between John and Mary played well and some great dialog came out of it. Saved it really, or it could have gone on the scrap heap where it belonged.”
Yeah. I think we’re better off letting books stay books.
* Apple and the Big Six. Sounds like a band name.
** Although I’ve started re-watching The Sopranos, if anyone is curious.
*** Apart from gamers, that it.
**** I hope it’s clear that this is meant in jest. I love editors.
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Submissions update: since I last posted, I have submitted pieces to Nightblade, the New Ohio Review, and Midnight Echo.
