There have been previous Notes from the Net about how writers (of any form) can and should use multiple forms of media to gain traction for their stories.

Ebooks, Webseries, games, QR codes, streaming, piracy, business models, Pottermore and much more will continue to evolve for years to come – but where I once preached that writers and artists needed a website and maybe a blog to get noticed, what I’ve learned recently makes those mandates small in comparison. The past couple of months my projects have really put me on the front lines of online media for film, publishing, screenwriting and documentary efforts. And at first, I thought it was one of those cases of just being in-tune with my current state, but the links and recollections that follow will have you thinking long and hard about how to best present your work no matter what chapter your storytelling career is in.

First up is the lovely and talented Julie Grey from JUST EFFING ENTERTAIN ME. Not only does Julie run some well known screenwriting competitions, she is co-founder of Stories Without Borders, a non-profit organization committed to fostering the creative voices of students and women through the medium of film and as well as a blogger for her own site, she is also a blogger for Huffingtion Post, a published author and is based on the Warner Brothers lot. So, bottom line – she has her finger on the pulse.

In a recent conversation with her, that was supposed to be about screenwriting development we got sidetracked about novel writing. And what do you know? The two have more in common than you can imagine.  It seems at Warners in particular, all of the development executives are soaking in as many eBooks as they can for source material and she has opened up her services to include not only consultation on those manuscripts but also promoting the books on her highly trafficked site. http://www.justeffing.com/consultation/.

Similarly, I was chatting with one of screenwriting’s hottest managers around last week, (he’s sold 13 specs this year alone) and the thing he is most excited about is ‘transmedia’. If you haven’t heard the term, transmedia is essentially various forms of viral and Internet items that tease people on the film or book and give them a reason to investigate further.

Here’s some of what he had to say:

I’m so excited about this. I just signed the creators, producers and co-director of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. Essentially, the first people to ever do transmedia in terms of a film. Right now, not only am I bringing them scripts and opportunities to direct, but I’m also bringing them transmedia opportunities for other people’s movies because they’re the go-to guys.

I think transmedia is a major component of selling and marketing a project.

If you don’t have an online presence that drives people to your movie, and especially when you don’t have a big studio marketing budget, you’ve gotta think outside the box and you’ve gotta create a viral way of introducing your story to the audience. Some transmedia campaigns are really on the nose, and you’ll see the title of the film associated with the campaign. And some are completely anonymous, and it’s up to the audience to discover what this is – What movie or TV show it pertains to. Transmedia can also include comic books and Videogames, which admittedly can get expensive. So the cheaper alternative can be viral videos, short films, YouTube clips, interactive websites… anything.

Now onto book publishing:

First up is Patrick Carmen, a very successful ink on paper book author that has now continued his success in transmedia. And not only has it brought new audiences to his material, it has also expanded his world of story. The next two links explain how and perhaps for you diehards, why…

His reasoning.

His DARK EDEN.

And before you write it off to just one author with money already in the bank, here’s two more:

GOBZRK

And an ipad media project about books winning film awards – it’s so transcendental it actually defies one specific media outlet

http://morrislessmore.com/

And finally, how one author got her publishing deal via a social media slush pile, much like those being absorbed by Warner’s Execs.

http://publishingperspectives.com/2011/11/social-media-sites-new-slush-pile/

Coming Soon: A film development Exec’s story development process.

Stay tooned.