If They Asked Me, I Could Write a...Vook?

"The day is coming—and much sooner than you may think—when authors will no longer be able to define themselves simply as creators of literary works. As electronic technology hurtles too fast for even futurists to keep up with, a generation of readers is emerging that will not accept text unless it is interactively married to other media. The twenty-first century's definition of "author" will be as far from today's definition as you are from the town scribe of yore."

I wrote that over ten years ago in an article called Author? What's an Author? I didn't know it at the time, but I was anticipating the arrival of the vook. And now it's here.

Brad Stone, writing in the New York Times, defines it as "a multimedia hybrid that is tailored to the rapidly growing number of digital reading devices. "Vooks, created and named by a Silicon Valley entrepreneur Bradley Inman, combine traditional fictional storytelling, online video, and other digital media to create an amalgamated art form. "Vook," explains Stone, "tries to address a big problem for book publishers as they expand onto digital formats.

"For all the hype and initial success of devices like the Kindle, they threaten to strip traditional books of much of their transportive appeal. Images on the jacket cover, inviting fonts and the satisfying feel of quality paper are all largely absent, replaced by humdrum pixels on a virtual page.

Even worse, on multipurpose reading devices like the iPhone, more immediately gratifying pastimes like video games are a click away for readers with short attention spans."

Defending himself against traditionalist criticism, Inman says, "Books are finally coming online but they are very one-dimensional. I think we can experiment and do this better.”

His observation would seem bear out an observation I made recently in a piece called Watching Books.

"Reading text on a screen without sound, color, or movement, one develops the uneasy feeling that something is missing. We wonder, Is that all there is? I’m not a psychologist but it seems more than likely that we are bringing to text viewed on screens the same expectations we bring to television, movie and computer screens. Indeed, something is missing! How can we not be disappointed - even, God help us, bored - when these blocks of words fail to stimulate the same intense response as a YouTube video? We are trying to extract a linear experience out of a nonlinear medium."

Okay. We how have a name for the art form. But what shall we call the vook's creator? In Author? What's an Author? I struggled to give it a name.

"As I acclimate myself to the rich atmosphere of computer technology, I hear the word 'author' used less and less and 'producer"'used more and more to describe those who assemble, integrate, and purvey multimedia software packages to consumers. As the trend toward multimedia accelerates, as I predict it will, the role of the author must, without question, become subordinated to that of the producer. Authors will become scenarists, creating story lines for or textual supplements to full-motion video films for personal computers. The real creative stars will be those who can produce brilliant and stimulating programs for display on home entertainment systems."

So where does this leave good old-fashioned writers and publishers? Well, if they want to survive they have no choice but to join the 21st century. In Author? What's an Author? I suggest some ways that authors can find their place in this rapidly evolving world.

Richard Curtis