Endworlds, the Trailblazer of Transmedia and Reality Literature

Endworlds: Echoes of Worlds Past is an imaginative work of science fiction that weaves many unexplained scientific events such as the Norway Spiral together into one tale about the Earth coming into contact with another galaxy that would trigger an extinction event and a group known as longcoats trying to prevent it.

The author, Nicholas Read says that this work is not just a book, but rather a “transmedia” experience, which he believes is the way of the future.  He says, “Before the Ipad was invented I saw that people are going to want to take their entertainment in transmedia.”  Nowadays, on something like an Ipad, a kindle, or a Nook, a book can show a lot more than text to its reader.  Endworlds comes with not just words on a screen, but detailed concept art, such as the following picture.

Along with concept art, there is also a soundtrack recorded by a seventy-piece European symphony orchestra, including the song Into The GRID, uploaded here:  1.8 Into The GRID  Read says, “If you can compose music for a movie, why not a book?”

Read wanted to create an experience that truly immersed the reader within the world he created.  To this end, he added a concept he calls “reality literature” to his tale.  This has become known as the Hunt, and is taking the Internet by storm.  At the end of the first book, the characters asked the reader to help them find pieces to a machine that they have to assemble to save the Earth.  There are actual objects that look like pieces to this machine buried all over the world, and there are latitude and longitude puzzles for each one.  The people that find one of these objects record their adventure and their story will be written into the next book.

It’s this real world aspect of Endworlds that has caused its popularity to skyrocket.  The campaign on Facebook was important, along with articles in a few magazines and newspapers, however, it was the word of mouth that really got the word out.  The fact that this story gives fans an active role in this “treasure hunt” of sorts, is causing complete strangers around the world to collaborate in order to solve the puzzles and find the objects.  This causes the fans to keep coming back, checking the site, and talking about it, bringing new readers to the book in a self-perpetuating cycle rather than the fans reading it once and then setting it down.

10% of the over 200,000 fans on the facebook fanpage that started on December 11th are talking about Endworlds on a daily base. 2% is considered “good” in the industry. Endworlds now has more active fans than 90% of the NYT Top 10 combined (Everything but Patterson’s Guilty Wives).  Read cited The Neverending Story, saying that Endworlds is not a “safe book”.  The fans are able to live the story, which in turn, is partly based on actions they took, possibly changing them in the process.  Read has done everything he can to expand Endworlds to encompass the fans.  He has been approached over the following video by a paranormal investigation television show, who asked him if they could use the footage on their show and ask people whether it was real or not.

Poland Creature Original

This video is just one more piece of the Endworlds transmedia experience, one more thing that helps immerse the readership within the story.  Read says, “Is it real?  Is it fiction?  People wonder because we’ve blurred the lines so much.”

Due to the high filesize that comes with all of the extra content included in the book, Endworlds: Echoes of Worlds Past is currently available in three parts, (all of which are currently in the top 20 of Barnes and Noble’s Bestseller list) and only in an e-book format, though Read says that it will probably be going into print in the next six weeks.  Six books in total are planned for Endworlds, and each one will contain a real world element for the readers to get involved in and be a part of the story.  “Transmedia” and “reality literature” are the way of the future, with new book ideas in the works, Read hinted, after Endworlds blazed the trail.  The second book, Endworlds: The Fa’aer High Command, is scheduled to be released in mid-November of this year.

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