The color of reading.

Two things happened this week that caused this post.

1. Ed Schipul, a good friend of mine, attended the Tools of Change Conference 2010 (TOC 2010) and told me that a lot of folks were talking about Nick Cave’s Death of Bunny Munro. It is “the shit.”
2. Don Linn posted his observations about TOC 2010 and said (among other good insights) two things: “[a]lthough there was lots of enhanced ebook talk, most of the conversation I heard was around adding a few audio or video enhancements to text-based titles” and “[w]e need to bring in some gamers and film-makers to open our minds to the possibilities here.”

And today, after considering both of these things I asked myself one question, which lead to more:

• What is the color of thought? If someone thinks something in my novel, can color represent the thought?
• What is the color of speech? If someone speaks in my novel, can color reflect their mood?
• Will you, the reader, hear the sound of my voice in an audio track?
• Will my book come with a soundtrack? If part of my story takes place in a bar, will you hear the din of customers, or the jukebox playing a song?
• What is the color of hatred? If my protagonist is angry, will the color of the text change to a dark crimson?
• Will the page change colors to set the mood? Can the background of my book ebb and flow to reflect its mood?
• If I write part of the book in a language other than English, will you be able to hover over it and read my (not the eReader or Google’s) translation?
• Will my book have sound effects?
• Will the book have a “feeling?”

Don Linn says that after four years, no one is talking about anything new. But with the iPad and other tablets, there is a great deal to talk about.

In the past, we have relied on the skill of the author to make us imagine and give visual context to stories. And I’m not advocating that this change, but merely recognizing that the author has a new set of tools to rely on to tell (direct) the story.

I believe that graphic designers and directors (D&Ds) will be our new publishers. We now have the ability to rethink both the book and writing with the help of design. And I’m not talking unique pieces like Danielewski’s Only Revolutions, which is amazing, or Plascencia’s People of Paper, which is equally impressive, or Savage’s Firmin, or the countless other re-imaginings of print. I see a new partnership forming with D&Ds and authors to create more robust, visually stimulating stories. Stories that eschew videos and stills—which are gimmicks—and embrace typographic design and visual narrative.

Tomorrow, the author is no longer a story teller. He or she is a director, not only making you read, but watch.

[Image (cc) by sabeth718]