Fourth Story Media

Last week, MediaBistro’s Ron Hogan stopped by our offices to chat with us about The Amanda Project and what we’re up to at Fourth Story Media in general. We had a great time – jumping into a discussion about immersive fiction – soap operas, ARGs and role-playing games, books – the works! From his post:

“The effect, we commented to Holton, was like a participatory soap opera, or a massive Dungeons & Dragons campaign with one dungeonmaster and hundreds of players; she brought up the classic text-based puzzle games Infocom created for home computer owners in the 1980s, which set us both on a nostalgia kick for their adaptation of The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy, one of the truly great interactive fictions. (Interestingly, that was the second time this month we’d found ourselves in that conversation!)

“A lot of adults had a really hard time grasping this,” Holton says of the way the books and the website link together into one overarching immersive narrative, “but I would explain it to a 13-year-old girl and ” (she snaps! her fingers) “she’d get it in 30 seconds. In fact, beta users used to tell us it took them a long time to figure the website out, and it would turn out ‘a long time’ was five minutes.” Inspired by the initial success of The Amanda Project, Fourth Story is already preparing another series, a science-fiction-themed narrative aimed at young male readers. “In some ways, this is radically different than what I’d been doing for the last 20 years,” Holton reflects, “but the basics are still the same… What’s the story? And how do you think readers will be interested by it?”

Read the full piece now!

Today’s NYT mentions The Amanda Project in its front page article “Curling Up with Hybrid Books, Videos Included:”

The children’s division of HarperCollins recently released the first in a young-adult mystery series called “The Amanda Project,” and has invited readers to discuss clues and characters on a Web site. As the series continues, some of the reader comments may be incorporated into minor characters or subplots.

Susan Katz, publisher of HarperCollins Children’s Books, predicted that “there is going to be a popular kind of literature where the author is seen as the leader of a large group and will pick and choose from these suggestions” by readers.

Read the full article here.

UPDATE: Book Case (a blog by the editors of BookPage) has a great post about The Amanda Project including a summary of Invisible I, the TAP video, and commentary on the NYT piece. Check it out!

Common Sense Media, the well-respected, non-partisan, not-for-profit organization that provides media reviews for families and educators recently reviewed Invisible I and The Amanda Project and gave it 4 stars! Calling it a “compelling, quirky onion of a mystery” the review goes on to say:

The writing and the book design are both beautiful. Main characters are smart, resilient, and optimistic — Kantor’s dialogue is spot on, and the characters will resonate with readers. Callie’s life is a roller coaster, and yet her new-found friendships empower her. Amanda’s disappearance seems to lead to more secrets and more revelations at the same time, and Callie finds the strength, and the support, to make some big changes in her life. Courage leads to confrontations that help many people; but Amanda is still missing.

This is a cliffhanger that will have readers anxiously awaiting the next book, and the Web site may inspire them creatively.

Check out the full review, and learn more about Common Sense Media!

Bookselling This Week talked to FSM CEO Lisa Holton about the launch of the first book in The Amanda Project- Invisible I.

“First and foremost, the book is a great read and a fun handsell…It’s a perfect choice for Teen Book Clubs, Mother/Daughter Book Clubs, or for avid readers who love to write as well,” said Holton. “And if you look in the back of the book, you’ll find the work of Lisa Strumm — a 17-year-old girl whose writing on the website was chosen for the first book.” (For her piece, Strumm, who lives in Plano, Texas, received an honorarium of a $100 gift certificate to her local indie bookstore, Legacy Books.)

To booksellers, Holton said, “Encourage your customers to write on the site, and perhaps they will be chosen for book two!”

Read the full piece here!

YPulse Managing Editor Meredith Sires virtually sat down with a bunch of us at Fourth Story – Lisa Holton, JillEllyn Riley, Ariel Aberg-Riger, and Melissa Kantor (author of Invisible I) – to discuss The Amanda Project.

YP: Melissa, what was it like shaping a story that would be left open to interpretation by the readers? Do you have any favorite mystery stories or other sources that served as inspiration?

TAP: I was a HUGE Nancy Drew fan as a kid, then moved on to other great mysteries (Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) and more popular/contemporary writers (Mary Higgins Clark). TV has definitely played a role in inspiring me (Veronica Mars, anyone?). In terms of the reader/writer relationship that The Amanda Project has created, I find the whole reader-input idea really exciting; as a writer, I normally have to wait to hear what my readers think until after the fact, when the book’s published, and I’ve moved on to another set of characters. So to have the opportunity to be in a dialogue (of sorts) with people who are excited about the characters I’m spending so much time with is a real thrill. I love that the identity a reader invented is included in “Invisible I.” What a cool moment for her AND for me! (MK)

Read the whole interview here, and be sure to leave a comment about your favorite mystery over at YPulse for a chance to win a free copy of Invisible I!

The Austin Children’s Book Examiner has an amazing review of The Amanda Project and Invisible I, calling it “the most innovative interactive fiction project from a major publisher yet:”

The first book in this series, Invisible I, is fantastic and gets you engrossed in the mystery right from the start.  The website is well designed and packed with fun and engaging features.  With eight books planned, one can only assume that more will be added to the site as well (such a dynamic website couldn’t stay the same for that long).  There is so much potential in this project and the idea that readers get to actually help create the mystery as it is written is really innovative and exciting.  It’s a perfect interactive project for a teen audience!  The ability to actually be a part of the story is fantastic and if HarperCollins starts to incorporate more multi-media content to the website as well it would be a sure winner.  There’s so much fun content both in the engaging book and the interactive website that The Amanda Project is really something to check out and keep an eye on as it continues to unfold!

Read the entire article here!

Calling Invisible I a “carefully crafted whodunit…which will compel readers to pick up the subsequent books,” Publishers Weekly gives the first book in The Amanda Project series a starred review:

invisible i Stella Lennon. HarperTeen, $16.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-06-174212-5

There are far too many scintillating, hand-clenching facets to this carefully crafted whodunit to count. Doors are purposefully left open and clues expertly planted (in the book’s text, artwork—even the endpapers—and on a dedicated Web site readers can explore), all of which will compel readers to pick up the subsequent books in the interactive Amanda Project series. (The books, all appearing under the name Stella Lennon, will be written by various authors, with Melissa Kantor [Girlfriend Material] kicking things off.) In the opener, three unlikely allies—narrator Callie, a member of the exclusive “I-Girls” clique; Nia, the “biggest freak in the ninth grade”–cum–hidden beauty; and Hal, an “uber-cool” artist—are brought together as they attempt to find 15-year-old Amanda, who has disappeared. The story unfolds at just the right pace to build curiosity, but not overwhelm with unanswered questions (Why did Amanda tell Callie, Nia and Hal three separate stories about her past? What’s up with the animal totems she gives them?). If there’s too much high school social politics at points, the catty backstabbing is unlikely to distract most readers from the mind-bending mystery shrouding Amanda’s whereabouts. Ages 12–up. (Sept.)

(via Publishers Weekly)

Seventeen Magazine has a great post up about The Amanda Project launch on their 17 Buzz blog and on their Facebook fan page today!

Do you ever wish you could write yourself into a mystery? Now you can transform yourself from reader to character in The Amanda Project, the first ever interactive book series and Web site!

Get to know Amanda, a mysterious girl who’s…gone missing! On the site, you can become a character, create a profile, uncover clues about her disappearace and comment on weekly stories, all with the chance to be included in the published book series! The things you contribute to the site will shape the outcome of what goes into the books, and there are tons of ways to interact, like sharing art, music, and writing.

The first book of eight, Invisible I by Stella Lennon and Melissa Kantor, will come out September 22^nd…

They posted the video as well. Check out the full post here!

HarperCollins UK recently announced their partnership with Fourth Story Media through an interactive online press release which has been picked up by The Bookseller and Pratham Books among others.

From Rachel Denwood, publishing director for HCUK’s children’s books, in The Bookseller:

“We’re delighted to join our US colleagues and 4th Story Media on this fantastic venture, the first of its kind for teenage girls. Each element is brilliantly conceived and delivered, but it was the quality of the books that got me so excited about this series. A pitch-perfect voice, a really strong and unusual story – plus cool, compelling characters: this is commercial teen fiction at its very best.”

For more information, view the interactive press release, and read the entire Bookseller article.

Spectrum has a great write-up of the Internet Week panel Beyond Facebook: How Today’s Students Will Use the Web of Tomorrow, which Fourth Story’s Ariel Aberg-Riger sat on last week.

The challenge, and perhaps opportunity, which Michael Staton noted, is to engage site visitors and charge for content. However, the key is not to sell content, but rather to sell a community’s trust.

While we have already seen this idea in practice with the likes of Yelp and Wikipedia, FSM took the concept to an entirely new level by using the Internet and new forms of technology to enable girls (ages 13 and up) to submit their own story lines to The Amanda Project. The premise behind The Amanda Project’s concept is to create online niche communities not only centered around a brand or product, but also around feelings and beliefs. The idea is for this to maximize user participation and partnership.

The article goes on to discuss The Amanda Project, and why one “former Hollywood film producer” thinks it “has the potential to be the most successful out of all the start-up ideas we heard from.”

Read the whole piece here!

UPDATE: Read more about the panel on Orient Lodge, PepsiCo’s Internet Week coverage, and Destination CRM.

UPDATE: Ariel has uploaded her slides from the panel, and findingDulcinea has uploaded videos of the panel.