While it might seem the future of books is uncertain, many outlets are doing their part to make sure the book stays alive.
With Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle Fire selling 13 million and 5 million units respectively last quarter, digital publication is perhaps the most obvious successor to the standard book.
Chicago-based author A.J. Hanks, who just finished his first novel, “Someplace Unknown,” is attempting to use the growing preference for digital literature in a unique way.
“Someplace Unknown” is a coming-of-age novel of sorts, told in alternating narratives, about Mike, a young teenager dealing with many of the issues that people his age face these days.
Sex, religion, guilt, parental problems, suicide and even questions regarding the afterlife are touched on throughout the novel.
“With the rising incidence of suicides on campuses and, let’s face it, the cruddy economic times, I wanted to do something that encourages college students to be more confident in their futures,” Hanks said.
One might think “Okay, so Mike is like a modern-day Holden Caulfield. What’s the big deal?” While “Catcher in the Rye” might be a timeless tale of growing up, it’s not told in the same way as “Someplace Unknown.”
“Someplace Unknown” is an interactive book. Readers can visit www.SomeplaceUnknown.com to check out the novel, while taking detours to learn more about the characters and sharing their own secrets with other readers.
A preview of the novel is available for readers to decide whether they want to purchase access to it.
“Over the couple years I worked in publishing, I realized a lot of the decisions for how books are being distributed don’t have the reader as the primary concern,” he said.
“I wanted to think about how to use the technology at hand to best deliver a novel, to the most people as
possible, as inexpensively as possible, and in the most interesting way.
“E-books just aren’t the answer. Though we may be familiar with turning pages, they’re an anachronism. And do we need to be satisfied with text that simply sits on a page?”
This novel can be accessed from a computer, iPad, Kindle, or any other device that connects to the internet, for $5 initially.
For paying less than what’s paid for a physical book, readers get much more out of this experience.
Mike, the main character, is harboring a deep secret throughout the novel. Sticking with this theme, Hanks gives readers the chance to share their own secrets.
“I also wanted to be able to communicate directly with readers,” he said.
“To break the oddly intimate yet impersonal nature of reading in order to get at the reason we read fiction in the first place: to feel less alone.”
A week after the reader anonymously reveals their secret, they receive an email containing 15 other anonymous secrets that are similar to theirs.
“This all said, what I’ve done is hardly groundbreaking,” Hanks said, humbly. “But I hope it’s a step in the right direction.”
