Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

It's so funny how quickly snarky and know-it-all people can get when afraid of new ideas. What I think is most important here is the courage to try something ambitious first. Whoever has the guts to try many failures has the R&D time in to know how readers have changed, what kind of audience takes to this, what kind of content does best? When you know all that, you're first to know what kind of stories play best.

I just came back from a book tour and the industry is changing on a minute-by-minute basis, but so is the AUDIENCE. They're not even sure who they are anymore because they now know how to "out movie star the movie stars" on facebook and twitter.

They want things for free, but they don't value anything that is free.

And there is a lot of disbelief and cynicism out there, so the audience is hungry for new ideas on what to do, how to be, or what to expect. So you might be able to distract with breasts and blood for a while, but whoever gets in first, figures out where the eyes flicker and lose interest. They figure out what kind of writers to court, what kind of stories to write, and how to layer for many demographics.

You can cram in all sorts of crap with many links and tangential pages, but also incite things with "the quiet space" or the "blank page." Vying for attention, getting it, and keeping it, is an art.

So I give you the cool-guy up nod for giving it a shot. A lot of people are sitting on their hands, waiting for the ipad to have flash and a USB cable before they try books with images, or moving images.

My books are still totally analog. I'm one of the people sitting on my hands, waiting for the ipad to get tricked out before I even bring graphic novels to digital anything. It's about trying to control the experience when you make art.

So why "worry" about his success? Why not cheer him on? His success will enable other types of work to come into being, new talent that might not have thrived in traditional book publishing could come to the fore.

Don't be so into farting on people's heads. Let whoever's got some scratch go make all the mistakes first for us. Relax. His success doesn't take anything away from anyone.

Most electronic book stuff makes me cringe. This sounds like fun for a change.

Cheers, man.

--Erika Lopez, Monster Girl Media
and author of "Flaming Iguanas" and "The Girl Must Die: A Monster Girl Memoir"