Author Neal Stephenson Develops a New e-Publishing Model

Integrates Audio, Video, Social Media with a traditional book

[tedster]

I've been a fan of Neal Stephenson ever since his 1992 novel Snow Crash. That's an awesome read if you want to fantasize about where this interwebs thingie might take humanity. So for me this is especially fascinating news.

Sci-Fi writer Neal Stephenson has set up a new e-publishing venture to develop a new platform for creating and publishing digital novels...

Subutai [subutai.mn] is developing what it calls the PULP platform for creating digital novels, offering authors the ability to augment their core text with images, video, music and background articles.

[techradar.com...]

[tedster]

I think the choice of a .mn TLD is a bit peculiar. Yes, Stephenson's book title is "The Mongoliad" so there's a kind of tie in with a Mongolia TLD. And yes, beginning in 2006 Mongolia has offered Minnesota, Mobile Network and Music News domain holders the ability to have a custom branded web address ending in .MN reference [bloptimization.com]

Still, Google doesn't seem to treat this ccTLD as an international domain and Mr. Stephenson may need either to use an additional domain name or to pump a lot of resources into other kinds of promotion.

[ergophobe]

I expect folks like Neal Stephenson and Neal Gaiman can use any TLD they want and depend on fans to spread the word via twitter, blogs, facebook and whatnot. It's hard for me to imagine a Neal Stephenson book not becoming a bestseller.

PS - loved Snow Crash, but in three tries, I just never could get past the first five pages of Cryptonimicon.

[grandpa]

never could get past the first five pages of Cryptonimicon

An amazing tale. One page at a time....

I'm a little confused. Will this new e-publishing venture be open to allow others to self-publish (ala LuLu or CreateSpace) or will it be closely held for established authors?

[commanderW]

Hooray for Stephenson, whatever it is.

Has anyone read 'The Diamond Age'? It's really about a very futuristic kind of laptop or iPad, which is invented to educate a little girl. While Snow Crash was really funny, The Diamond Age is quite charming and fascinating. I just found a very hard to get used pocketbook (generally only available as a large Trade Paperback) and started reading this again. Wasn't able to enter the Cryptonomicon either. Don't know why. Tried several times as well.

Thanx for the 'heads up'

P.S. 'Subatai' is the name of Genghis Kahn's general. He was a Siberian and is regarded as one of the worlds great strategists, leading and winning the battles for his king. Everyone should read about the Mongols, as well as the Huns before them, and the Scythians before them. The various peoples of the steppe have been there on horses fighting with their unique strategies and terrorizing all the great civilizations and empires since before Herodotus. The Alans and Vandals and Goths rode out of this same area (Now the Ukraine, Southern Russia, Siberia, Kazahkstan and Mongolia) to overthrow Rome. The Chinese called these horse riding barbarians the Hsiung Nu, and built the Great Wall specifically to keep them out and eventually failed. The barbarians invaded and ruled China as the Manchus for several centuries. It's a central but ignored part of the history of Europe and Asia. Hooray for Stephenson again!

[jmccormac]

Snowcrash was great. But his later books were proof that he's very good at writing short books. I read Cryptonomicon in a day but it wasn't that bad. The Baroque books were tedious.

Regards...jmcc