Startup Subutai continues to charge ahead with its digital publishing experiment The Mongoliad. The writing team, which includes popular science fiction authors Neal Stephenson (who is the companya4a4s chairman) and Greg Bear (its senior creative advisor), has now published around 15 chapters, and the company has also released applications for the iPhone and iPad.
The app and website use a technology for electronic novels that Subutai calls the Personal Ubiquitous Literature Platform (PULP). At The Mongoliad&'s core is an adventure novel set in the 13th century of a4Aa universe very much like ours,a4 serialized with a new chapter coming out each week. The novel will be divided into seasons like a TV show, with the first season estimated to take about a year. Around the basic text, Subutai offers additional content like maps and illustrations. And readers can participate by discussing the story on the website, as well as writing and editing entries in an encyclopedia about the setting.
When The Mongoliad launched at the end of August, it was Web-only. President and chief technology officer Jeremy Bornstein said the company hadna4a4t quite managed to get the iPhone and iPad apps approved at the same time, leading to a flood of requests from readers. Subutai answered those requests with the app launch in October, and Bornstein said hea4a4s been frequently releasing updates to improve the experience. The team is also working on Kindle, Android, and Windows 7 apps &8212' with Kindle probably coming first.
I downloaded the iPhone app this morning. Even before you sign-up for a subscription, therea4a4s some free preview content, which you can navigate with a smooth swiping interface. (I actually prefer it to Applea4a4s standard iBooks interface.) Then with just a few clicks, you can purchase a six-month or 12-month subscription ($5.99 and $9.99, respectively) to get access to the full novel (which will eventually be released in print).
Bornstein declined to provide any subscriber numbers, but he said he&'s happy with the response to the subscription model. The story seems to have struck a chord with fans, with the first piece of fan art submitted three hours after the initial chapter was published, and fan-written stories showing up in the forum. (Bornstein said the app will eventually feature fan stories more prominently.) Subutai even found takers for the one-year a4Apatrona4 plan at $249.99 and a a4Alifetime patrona4 plan at $999.99.
a4AIta4a4s very gratifying, because when we were deciding how to price it, there were really no models for us to follow,a4 Bornstein said.
I also had a chance to talk to Bear about his involvement in the process. Ita4a4s not like writing a normal novel, because hea4a4s working with a team, but he said that team spends more time talking about the story than a4Anewfangled tech.a4 He added that ita4a4s a4Afascinatinga4 to see the digital format that hea4a4s been speculating about for decades become a reality, particularly because it enables such a high level of reader involvement.
a4AWhen Frank Herbert was writing Dune, he would keep a large notebook with all the details of the universe,a4 Bear said. a4AWhat wea4a4ve got with The Mongoliad universe is almost the opposite, where the readers are building that encyclopedia for us.a4
Although Bear is best-known (in my mind, at least) for classic science fiction novels like Blood Music and Eon, hea4a4s not a stranger to new media. Hea4a4s also writing a prequel trilogy of novels set in the popular Halo video game universe, starting with Halo: Cryptum in January. With an original novel (Hull Zero Three), a collaboratively written novel set in a universe that he jointly created (The Mongoliad), and a novel where hea4a4s a4Aa well-paid servant of the universe but also the fana4 (Halo) all coming out within a few months of each other, Bear said, a4AIa4a4m covering all the bases &8212' it really keeps the wrinkles in my brain going.a4
Subutai is based in Seattle and San Francisco and is self-funded.
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Companies: Subutai
People: Greg Bear, Jeremy Bornstein, Neal Stephenson
Companies: Subutai
People: Greg Bear, Jeremy Bornstein, Neal Stephenson
Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.
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