Book App Entrepreneur

Smart E-Book Interface Prototype Demo - YouTube

2012-01-12T10:54:00.000-08:00

Smart E-Book Interface Prototype Demo - YouTube

This is a problem I worked on about two years ago: How to make it easy for someone to flip through pages and thumb-mark pages in an eBook. I think these researchers have hit the nail on the head and I hope to see these technologies licensed to others.

Chris Stevens on Alice for the iPad, Book Apps, and Toronto: a Q & A | The Toronto Review of Books

2012-01-09T13:45:00.000-08:00

Chris Stevens on Alice for the iPad, Book Apps, and Toronto: a Q & A | The Toronto Review of Books

Chris Stevens is kind of a founding father of book apps with his historic and ground breaking Alice for the iPad, which in my opinion, along side TouchPress' Elements launched the book app industry. When Chris speaks I listen and so should you.

Book Apps: State of the Industry

2011-12-26T21:14:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not there is a budding Book App industry but it is so new that you can hardly see it. The truth is that the vast majority of book apps produced today are crap. They are being developed by people from all over the world, on small budgets, big dreams, and little or no talent.

All Over The World
I look at the new releases in the Books category of the iPad App Store every day to see what new book apps have been released. There are plenty of new titles every day from developers all over the world. The majority of these are produced by individuals or small companies. This is good because it demonstrates one aspect of the book app industry I love; there is a low barrier to entry. As a result we get to see lots of different ideas - but there has a been a far great supply of really shoddy work than anything else.

Small Budgets
Since most of the book apps are being developed by small teams or individuals the budgets are extremely small for most books and that is nearly always reflected in the quality of work. I'm not saying that quality is directly tied to amount invested, but small budgets determine two things: The quality of the assets and the features provided by the book app. If you have a small budget you can't afford a great artist, animations, voice overs, or writing. Even if you get the content right, which is very rare, the enhanced features offered by most book apps are pretty lame. I'm sorry, but using basic physics is not going to cut it anymore. You can't just take old art work, wrap it in a 2D physics engine, and call it a wrap. That may have worked in 2010 with the first books but it rarely pays off now. To do something really interesting you need to innovate and provide a unique experience which means more sophisticated programming and a bigger budget.

Big Dreams
Most of the folks that enter this industry have very big dreams about building a publishing empire and making loads of money. The reality, even for the most successful book app publishers, is just the opposite. The truth is the audience for book apps simply doesn't exist yet. At least not at a level that can sustain a full time studio. That's going to change over the course of the next five years, but right now most book app publishers have discovered, or are discovering, that there is little or no money to be made in book apps. There are a few who may be doing well, but they are a very small percentage of the total number of publishers attempting to make money in this new media.

Little or No Talent
This is the other thing about book app publishers: The vast majority of us have no practical experience in either publishing, film making, radio, or anything creative. I think you really have to have a fundamental understanding of the entertainment industry to do a good job at publishing book apps. Most of the book app publishers have created a couple games - probably unsuccessful games - but few have a background in publishing, film, radio or any of the other high-production entertainment skills needed to make this work.

There is Hope
While the present is rather grim for anyone who wants to make a living at publishing book apps, the future is extremely bright. When I talk to other book app publishers I often compare the present state of our budding industry to the beginning of the film industry or automobile industry. At the beginning of the film industry there was far more people interested in making silent films than there were people interest in watching them. This changed pretty quickly, but at first a lot of movies were made that were (a) really horrible (b) never saw the light of day. The same is true of the automobile industry. There was an explosion of automobile manufacutures all over the world between 1900 and 1914 but few of them survived to become part of the really huge automobile industry that came into existence after the first World War. The shortage of consumers was exasperated by the shortage of infrastructure. Finding a decent road to drive on was difficult to say the least not to mention finding a gas station.

The book app industry, currently in its infancy, is suffering just as the film and auto industries did, but conditions are significantly different. For one, the app stores (in particular Apple's for now) makes it really easy to distribute book apps and to reach a potentially huge audience. Second, growth in tablet computers and advanced eReaders (the infrastructure of book apps) is growing really quickly. More quickly than anything else I've seen - even the Internet. In five years I suspect 80% of people in 1st World countries who own computers today will own a tablet or advanced eReader device. When we reach that level of adoption, the book app industry will explode into a mainstream media.

The folks who focus on producing great quality works today and on implementing a sustainable business model - one based on growing recognition not revenues - will be the ones best prepared to win in what will become a very big business. I don't plan to have a huge back list five years from now. Instead, I plan to have several extremely well executed works and a fantastic reputation for creating quality book apps. When 'Lord of the Rings', 'Dune', and 'Harry Potter' are ready to be adapted into book apps my studio, Noble Beast, will be on the short list for developing those titles. That's the goal.

SteampunkHolmes.com: The Web Site!

2011-09-26T14:27:00.000-07:00

I'm really excited to announce the SteampunkHolmes.com web site, which is dedicated to the discussing the development of "Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus" and the rest of the Steampunk Holmes series. I've copied all the blog posts originally posted here about the series to the new web site. In addition, there are pages dedicated to showing the art work including character portraits, device designs, and scenes!

I also want to announce that SteampunkHolmes.com has its own twitter account @NobleBeastBooks (Noble Beast is the name of the publishing company that is creating Steampunk Holmes). So if you've been following me to hear news about Steampunk Holmes than please consider following @NobleBeastBooks - if you are following me for general purposes just stick with @rmonson.

In the future this blog will go back to talking about the Book App (App/Book) business in general. My thoughts on the market, technologies, and offerings.

Steampunk Holmes: The Black Widow in Action!

2011-09-07T12:17:00.000-07:00

Click to Enlarge

I've spoken a couple times about the Black Widow, Sherlock Holme's super-chopper, in our story Steampunk Holmes: Legend of the Nautilus.

I announced the intent to use Mikky's design and to even manufacture the bike for purchase back in July and then about the addition of the side car and the Gatling Gun in August - the Gatling Gun will not be included in the real bike we are going to manufacture.

Now I get to show Holmes and Watson riding the Black Widow in a big shoot out toward the end of the story. Holmes is driving and Watson is shooting the Gatling Gun. Daniel has out done himself on this one!

I won't tell you what he is shooting at just yet but I have included a excerpt from earlier in the story about the Black Widow and Watson's apprehension riding in the side car. Here is the excerpt written by P.C. Martin - Enjoy!

“No; a telegram from my sister Mycroft,” replied Holmes, “which promises to be of exceptional interest. Mycroft never sends for me except in cases of the most baffling nature, and I thought you might rather accompany me.”

“Certainly I would,” cried I, leaping from my pillow and splashing my face from the basin in the corner.

“Very well, then; have some coffee before we go. I'll get my coat and start up the Widow.”

I winced at the prospect. Holmes' enormous motorized bicycle, the Black Widow, was his pet hobby, and so enamored was he with its power and terrific capability for speed, he could not keep his enjoyment of the vehicle to himself. As I had shown great unwillingness to ride pillion on the monstrous machine, Holmes had contrived a marvelous side-car in order that I might share in the excitement of the Widow's adventurous sallies in what he called perfect safety. I had been flattered by this excessive kindness on my friend's part, until about ten seconds had elapsed on my first ride in the Widow's side-car.

In defense of my own courage, I have been shot at, stabbed, and seen my own arm torn from my body upon the hostile battlefields of India and Afghanistan, and yet none of those terrors compare in my estimation with that of driving through London with Holmes at the helm. After that momentous and traumatizing inaugural ride, my mistrust of the vehicle had grown to a positive terror—less for the vehicle's sake than for my friend's tempestuous and unbelievably reckless driving skills.

As you can see P.C. Martin is an excellent writer and we are all working hard to match plot, to story, to art. I'm really excited about the whole project!

Steampunk Holmes: The Nautilus

2011-08-30T20:55:00.000-07:00

click image to enlarge

It took two weeks of trial and error but Daniel Cortes and are proud to present the final design of the Nautilus for Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus project. I want to thank Daniel for his patience and for re-conceptulizing the Nautilus many times until we got it just right.

As we work on this project I'm getting a very good idea of what it must be like to produce and direct a movie. You have an idea that you share with talented people and they work their butt's off to make it tangible. I imagine that this must require as much give-and-take as Daniel and I have when working on characters, scenes, and gadgets. The same kind of back-and-forth I have with P.C. Martin about the story. Truly wonderful things are not built in a vacuum; they must be the result of passionate collaboration among peers.

To the left you see the final design for the Nautilus. This is a mechanical drawing that will be featured in the book along with Doctor Watson's Arm, the Black Widow, and other gadgets yet to be announced.

The Nautilus design went through many variations as we experimented with one idea after another. We have, after all, very big shoes to fill. If you look at the design of the Nautilus by Disney in "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", a steampunk masterpiece, or the versions done by other adaptations such as "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" or many of the animated takes on the story, you'll soon agree that the design must rise to meet the merits of the story. We knew we had to get it right, and I think we did. Click on the image to above and judge for yourself.

The Nautilus sinks many ships in the original story by harpooning them to create a great hole in the hull that fills and sinks the ship. We needed a big-ass pointy thing on the front and Daniel gave us one. I also wanted to make the ship look somewhat organic, but not like a fish. Look at the curves and I think you'll agree that Daniel delivered on that request as well. I wanted the Nautilus to reflect Nemo's Indian heritage - Something Daniel took to heart adding beautiful India-like decorative designs. Finally, I wanted the Nautilus to be HUGE! Check out the "crew" label next to the ship.

Below are some of the earlier concepts that lead us to the final design.

Concept Drawings of the Nautilus

The Steampunk Holmes Sound Track

2011-08-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

One of the things I'm going to do with our app book, Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus, is incorporate a sound track with the book. This goes beyond simple sound effects where you click a button and mechanical gear sounds are heard - that's a given. When I talk sound track I mean a sound track like a movie has - mood music.

At the very least I hope to provide appropriate ambient music derived from the instrumentals of songs from Abney Park who has contracted with me to provide music for the book. It would also be good to provide ambient sound effects so, for example, a scene that takes place a busy street has street sounds in the background.

The idea first came to me last year when a MMOG I played, EVE Online, incorporated a more sophisticated sound track into the gaming experience. If you have the sound track playing in EVE it varies over time and the music gets more intense and changes if you entering battle, engaged in battle, or simply floating peacefully through space. It's really a cool effect.

My original thought, and one I considered submitting a patent application for, was to use eye tracking to determine where the person is reading and to have the music and ambient sound effects change seamlessly according the content. I gave up on that idea because of complexity. For Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus I plan to base the music on the page you are reading which is technically much simpler.

Yesterday, I discovered an app book developer called Backtrack which uses a sound track for their books, most notably an app/book version of Sherlock Holmes: Adventure of the Speckled Band and The Power of Six a modern young adult novel. Backtrack has a pretty cool approach. They have a very non-invasive carrot (arrow) that moves along the right side of the page at what they predict to be your speed of reading. As the carrot moves to different paragraphs and even different sentences the ambient music and sound effects change to match the content. I think you can train it to read at your own speed pretty easily - it seems to have slowed down when I kept double tapping the carrot back to the sentence I was still on as it was way ahead of me (evidently I'm slow reader). I really enjoyed the experience and I tip my hat to the folks at Booktrack for the engineering and quality of music and sound effects.

Today, I discovered that iOS 5 just might ship with facial recognition APIs in the SDK including eye tracking. If that is true, and it works well, I can see combining eye tracking with context sensitive sound track and ambient sound effects to improve the experience. That's a nice to have.

For now I'm sticking with page level sound track as that's is easier and my budget is not unlimited. I hope, however, to incorporate eye-tracked ambient sound and music in an update providing the APIs exist and I have the money to afford to implement it.

There are so many things I want to do with the app/book but I'm going to have to throttle my ambitions if I want to be able to afford produce the book. However, just because I can't do them now doesn't mean I can't talk about my ideas which is one the main reasons for this blog. I want to be totally open about what I'm thinking and producing.

Why I Develop Interactive Books

2011-08-25T07:57:00.000-07:00

Steve Jobs speaking at Stanford's
2005 Graduation Ceremony

This is a bit of a personal note, but I wanted to post it here so folks understand me and what my company, Noble Beast, is all about. There are a lot of other things I could do that would make me a lot more money than I will ever make on Interactive books, but I don't do them and here is why.

When I was 19 years old I came to the realization that I didn't want to work in my Father's business, which I had assumed I would do since I was about 10. My father is self-made man from humble beginnings and his business (now over 50 years) is very successful. When I confided in my father that I didn't think his line of business was of interest to me, he supported me. He gave me what I think is the best advice you can give to any high-school or collage graduate. He told me to discover what I love and stick to that. He warned me not to work just to earn a living, but to work at something I'm passionate about.

It turns out that Steven Jobs gave exactly the same advice during a commencement speech at Stanford more than a decade later, in 2005. You can see a video of the speech and the transcript here but I wanted to quote a couple of lines from it in the hopes that his words, far more elegant than my own, will inspire other people to follow his and my father's advice.

You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

-- Steve Jobs

It took me 12 years to graduate from collage with a degree in a field I love, computer science. I dropped out of collage three times, joined the army for three years, started a few businesses, and then discovered programming. I was 30 years old when I graduated - an age at which other people are established in their careers. Since then I've done well in my field and have loved nearly every day as a software professional.

Last year I discovered a new passion: Producing interactive books for the iPad. This still involves my first love, software development, but it also allows me to work with very talented artists and to produce a product that entertains thousands, perhaps one day, millions of people. I'm so passionate about it that stopped working as a software consultant and spent most of last year earning nothing trying to build my business. I started the business with a talented individual but in the end we had very different visions of what our focus should be. In February, I left the company I helped co-found and landed my current position working for a software consulting firm. I enjoy the company I work for and the work I do, but I remain truly passionate about producing interactive books. Shortly after leaving my first publishing company I started a new one, Noble Beast, which is the company that is developing Steampunk Holmes. It's through this new company that I pursue my passion and because I do not have to compromise on anything - I'm the boss and only employee - I'm very focused and having the time of my life.

Along the way I have heard a lot of negative things about pursuing production of interactive books. The most painful for me has come from venture capitalists and the like who don't support the idea of a company that is a life-style business. Understandably, VC's want a company that you can start today and sell for a billion dollars in 5 years. Who wouldn't? Well, I can't create the company and books I want if that is my focus. I have to put quality before everything else including earnings to create the kind of interactive books I can be proud of and be passionate about developing. I'm creating a life-style business not a venture business and I'm proud of it.

All my life people have been telling me that I can't do this and that I can't do that. I failed English in high-school and couldn't write a simple note let alone a blog, but in 1999 I wrote my first book and have written five very successful books since then. I failed math in high-school and had to start out in remedial math in collage, but by the time I finished I had completed three semesters of calculus, a number of math intensive science classes, and was a computer programmer. Today people are telling me that I don't have the right ingredients to make a publishing company work, but I'm going to prove them wrong just as I proved all the other nay-sayers wrong. Success, I believe, has nothing to do with natural skills. It has to do with dogged determination and passion. Armed with these things you can accomplish anything.

I would like to quote once more from Steve Jobs 2005 commencement address. If you've read this far than thank you for taking the time to listen to what is probably a very narcissistic post. I only hope that my words, or more likely Steve Jobs words, will motivate you to focus on your passion and not get stuck doing something you don't care about.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

-- Steve Jobs

Steampunk Holmes Technology: The Black Widow's Gatling Gun

2011-08-24T10:17:00.000-07:00

Click to Enlarge

As I wrote in the blog entry "Steampunk Holmes Technology: Mechanical Drawings" one of the Steampunk Holmes book enhancements is to provide more information about the various gadgets that Holmes, Watson and others use or encounter through out the story. To the left is the mechanical-like drawing of the Black Widow which runs on a H2O2 steam engine and sports a Gatling gun under the hood of the side car.

I did a little research on the design of steam engines and ended up combining two designs available at the time into one. The Black Widow uses a two cylinder (or compound) engine for quick acceleration and power and a steam turbine as a second stage for sustained speed and long distances.

The Gatling gun fires 300 rounds per minute. At that time (1885) Gatling guns could fire much faster but there would be a problem with storing ammunition so I chose a slower rate of fire but instead of being driven by a hand crank, as was common, the eight barrels turn and fire using the kick-back for the previous round (aka Recoil-Operated). The ammunition is a smaller caliber .303 Lee-Metford bullet of lead encased (jacketed) in copper to improve accuracy (lead tends to warp its shape when fired distorting accuracy).

I don't know if most readers will appreciate all the work we put into these designs, but I know we are having a total blast developing the story, gadgets and art work. Stay tuned as we are currently working on the design the Captain Nemo's Nautilus!

Daniel Cortes Art Work for Novus AEterno

2011-08-22T13:15:00.000-07:00

Click to Enlarge

Daniel Cortes, the amazingly talented artist working with me on Steampunk Holmes, has also been working for the folks developing Novus AEterno as a character artist. Not only has he been developing character designs but he also worked on their web site. Daniel promises me that the Steampunk Holmes web site will be equally as cool when we finally get it finished.

Check out Novus AEterno and the great art work by Daniel and other artists - It looks like EVE on Steroids. Instead of running a single ship you get to become a Consul General and run an entire space Navy!

Steampunk Holmes Technology: Mechanical Drawings

2011-08-15T12:40:00.000-07:00

Click to Enlarge

In addition to portraits of characters and illustrated and animated scenes from the story, we are also developing mechanical drawings of the coolest gadgets in the story.

This enhances the interactive aspect of the book that much more. When you are reading the story you can already touch any character's name and see a portrait of that character and a little background. In addition, when you run across the mention of certain gadgets like the Black Widow, the Nautilus, Weapons, and so forth a mechanical drawing will display showing the device in more detail and how it works.

The mechanical drawing to the left shows the workings of Doctor Watson's mechanical arm. It's powered by a Hydrogen Peroxide steam (the byproducts are pure oxygen and water vapor) and its movements are coordinated by a small analog computer called a Lepine Caliber Engine.

Click to Enlarge

I like to think that these details add some realism to the story while also providing more art and background to add to the enhancement of the story. We've actually done a lot of research and thinking about the world in which Steampunk Holmes takes place and its fun to share some of that with readers. It also forms a solid foundation on which to develop future stories. To the right is the start of a mechanical showing how the Black Widow functions and is built. I can't wait to show off all the cool features this motorcycle is going to have - Batman and James Bond would be proud to drive it.

Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus

2011-08-11T15:08:00.000-07:00

Click to Enlarge

We have officially named our story "Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus." To the left is the promotional poster showing Holmes, Watson and Mycroft. I've been calling it just "Steampunk Holmes" for a while now but as we develop the story I can't help but hope it's a success and that we can do other stories with the same world and characters. If that does happen then we'll simply change the subtitles of subsequent storeis to things like "Steampunk Holmes: Jack the Ripper", "Steampunk Holmes: Dracula", or "Steampunk Holmes: Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde" as you can see I already have some follow-ups in mind.

As I've told Daniel Cortes (our artist) and P.C. Martin (our writer) a dozen times, speed doesn't matter. Take your time and produce something you can be proud of. If we release a better product later that's just fine with me.

Anyway, take a look at the movie poster and title and let me know what you think - we would love to do a whole series of books based on Steampunk Holmes and we are working hard to make the first episode the best possible experience.

Homes and Watson Battle Rajput Warriors

2011-08-05T23:23:00.000-07:00

If you've been reading this blog than you know the story, Steampunk Holmes, is an adaptation of Sr. Author Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans", a story about the theft of submarine plans.

When I started thinking about what the submarine might look like the first thing that came to mind was the Nautilus from the 1954 Disney movie "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea", which was an adaption of a 1870 book by Jules Verne of the same title. This book is considered one of the classics in steampunk culture.

So, if we are going to have the Nautilus than we have to have Captain Nemo in the story as the villain, right?

With this in mind we started outlining the adaptation. At the time we were figuring out the adaptation plot-line I got caught up watching this show from Spike TV (via Netflix streaming video) called, "Deadliest Warrior." The show pits historical combatants that never met in real-life against each other and asks, "Who would win?" They had shows with mock battles between Apache Indians and Roman Gladiators or a Spartan vs. Ninja. It's pretty entertaining although the way they figure out the winner (via a computer simulation) is a bit of stretch.

Rajput Armor - 18th Century

Anyway, I watched one episode where they pitted a Roman Centurion against a Rajput Warrior. What is a Rajput Warrior? They are kind of like the Samurai of India.

The Rajput weapons are very cool and their style of martial arts is very different from the Asian styles we have seen in movies and on TV. Captain Nemo, our villian, is also from India.

Well, it took me about 10 seconds to decide we needed to have Captain Nemo's henchmen be Rajput warriors and we absolutely, positively needed them to battle it out with Holmes and Watson at some point.

So now there are two scenes where the Rajput battle it out with the English. The image at top left (click to enlarge) is a scene painted by Daniel Cortes depicting a battle between some Rajput warriors and Holmes and Watson. I won't tell you how it goes but lets just say its a good thing that Mycroft is on the scene.

Daniel's Steampunk Rajput Armor

I love the Rajput weapons as shown on the "Deadliest Warrior". The armor, double edged long sword (Khanda), killer frisbees (Chakram), punching blades (Katar) and whip-sword (Aara) are simply too cool.

Of course, Daniel couldn't just use them straight away, he had to enhance them so the Katar, for example, can shoot out trailing a whicked steal ribbon as shown in the image above. Daniel also steampunkified the Rajput armor. The above image shows real Rajput armor from 18th Century. The image immediately to the right is a close up of Daniel's steampunk Rajput armor.

When you can take a cultural artifact and recast it with googles and brass work, that's steampunk at its finest.

Welcome to our new writer, P.C. Martin!

2011-07-29T13:00:00.000-07:00

I'm very excited to introduce our new adaptation author, P.C. Martin. Like Daniel Cortes, P.C. Martin is from Argentina - Daniel Cortes recommended P.C. when I told him I was looking for a new adaptation author.

P.C. presented me with some sample writing specific to Steampunk Holmes and I was very, very impressed. P.C. adds humor, drama, and action to the story and has plans to make some changes from the original "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans", which is fine with me since I don't think that story was working out so well. We'll keep many of the elements from the original, but we are going to re-arange things and basically modernize the short story. This may not sit well with traditional Sherlock Holmes fans, but the point is not to stick to cannon but to introduce a new interpretation of a classic set of characters in a steampunk universe. Anyway, P.C. is an excellent writer and will produce a story that is as engaging as Daniel art work. Welcome aboard P.C.!

The above scene is an unfinished illustration by Daniel Cortes of a meeting between Holmes, Watson, Mycroft and Lestrade in Mycroft's government office. It's not done and Daniel may not like me posting it, but its too cool and I just had to share it.

Steampunk Holmes

2011-07-28T22:27:00.000-07:00

Back in June 2011, I posted about an idea I had to develop an interactive iPad adaption of a Sherlock Holmes story with mashup of steampunk. Since them we've made a lot of progress on the project developing the script, hiring wonderful artists and writers, and making deals to promote music as well as merchandise along with the book when its launched.

We've already been working on the book layout and have created some character portraits for the main characters. Daniel Cortes is also working on illustrating scenes from the story that will be animated and interactive. The whole project is really taking shape! We've also landed some deals to promote steampunk artists including Abney Park (their music is fantastic!) and even a super cool steampunk motorcycle, The Black Widow, that will be available for purchase through the book. More announcements on promotion of artist is coming so stay tuned!

I was able to dip into my savings - thanks to the support of my wife - to finance part of the development of this project but I'm going to need more funds to launch it. The art work by Daniel Cortes is stunning but its not free. Either is the wonderful writing by P.C. Martin. In addition, there are lots of costs associated with development and marketing. To cover these costs I hope to raise some capital from Kickstarter.com a social funding site that is really awesome. I'm floored by the willingness of people to support so many different artist projects (musicals, comic books, games, etc.) and I hope we can get some supporters of our own.

Our hope is that this first episode, "Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus" will be the first of many!

This particular post is going to be pretty organic. I reference it frequently from other posts and I want to keep the overview up to date, so I plan to make changes now and then to reflect new progress on the project.

The Black Widow Gets a Side Car

2011-07-28T08:26:00.000-07:00

In Steampunk Holmes, Watson rides along with Holmes on the Black Widow in a very cool side car.

I asked Mikky Solifague to design one to Match the Black Widow and within a couple of weeks instead designing one side car he designed three! They are all cool, but the one we chose is shown here - its as beautiful as the bike itself and a credit to Mikky's design skills.

I'm not sure if Casey Putsch is going to manufacture the side car as an option with the Black Widow - it really depends on how Casey Putsch and Mikky feel about it. I'm fine with making just the bike available for purchase, but it would be cool if the side car was available too. We are discussing that now.

Steampunk Holmes and the Black Widow

2011-07-25T07:56:00.000-07:00

Our hero, Steampunk Holmes, needs a cool ride, something totally radical. After searching for ideas I came across the motorcycle on the left, the Black Widow. It was designed by Mikky Solifague of Solifague Design in Russia. You can find some other images of it here. This is Mikky's 2007 design he has since upated in 2010, but I really preferred the 2007 design.

To make a long story short I contacted Mikky and asked permission to use its likeness in the Steampunk Holmes book. It's such a beautiful design I asked if he had ever built it. The answer was no, but if someone wanted to order one he could get it built. That set me to thinking.

Solifague Design's Black Widow

Remember the post I had about offering Steampunk merchandise for sale from within the app/book - done non-intrusively and with taste? What could be cooler than offering the Black Widow for sale? I spoke to Mikky about this and he was interested, and had someone in Moscow that could build it with some design changes. I wasn't comfortable having it manufactured all the way over in Russia. They would probably do a great job but with the language, distance, and time differences it would be difficult to coordinate.

I remembered having read an article about a race car engineer in Ohio who had built a real Batmobile in five months complete with a working jet engine (see pic below). It's been featured on Wired, Top Gear, Born Rich, Auto Blog, Endgadet and many other sites. The workmanship is really execellent.

I reached out to the engineer, Casey Putsch, to see if he would be interested in manufacturing Mikky's Black Widow. I was delighted to find out that he is interested! What's more is that Mikky loves the idea of having Casey manufacture his dream bike. I'm in the process of connecting Mikky and Casey so that they can modify the design of the Black Widow to be street legal and manufacture it in the United States!

What is really cool is that we will have Steampunk Holmes driving around London on this incredible chopper and people will be able to order the real thing directly from within the book itself - or at the least contact Putsch Racing to order one!

Now if that isn't the coolest merchandise associated with an entertainment property I don't know what is. I'm so excited!

It's not a done deal yet, but both Mikky and Casey are confident we can pull it off and have given me authorization to announce our intentions on my blog.

Update: 7/28/2011: Mikky has designed a side car to go with the Black Widow.

Just in case you didn't read about Casey's Batmobile, watch the video below and go to his web site to check it out. With Mikky and Casey joining forces to design and build the Black Widow you can bet its going to be the coolest motorcycle on the road. I can't wait to see the art work that Daniel will come up with showing Homes riding this bad boy!

Holmes, Watson, and Mycroft

2011-07-24T20:35:00.000-07:00

Click on Image to Enlarge

Daniel has now finished the portraits of the three main characters in Steampunk Holmes

From here we move on to making portraits of minor characters, devices, and full page illustrations which will show different scenes in the book.

Abney Park to provide music for Steampunk Holmes!

2011-07-20T09:51:00.000-07:00

Abney Park

I'm really excited to announce that Noble Beast (my publishing company) has signed Abney Park, the best Steampunk Band out there, to provide music for the Steampunk Holmes app/book.

I've been discussing this with Captain Robert (Robert Brown) the lead, manager, and owner of Abney Park for about three weeks. Robert Brown is a prolific musician and entrepreneur. In addition to having produced, written and preformed six albums by Abney Park, Robert has just launched "Abney Park's Airship Pirates" a Roll-Playing Game based on the rich universe of Abney Park alternative universe. It looks like a lot of fun.

I've been listening to three of their albums "The End of Days", "Æther Shanties, and "Lost Horizons". I can't say enough good things about their music. It's excellent! I'm excited to work with Captain Robert to bring their music to the Steampunk Holmes app/book!

In addition to featuring Abney Park's music in the Steampunk Holmes book readers will also be able to access all of Abney Park's songs and albums for download to their iPhone, iPod, or iPad via iTunes from within the book. This is the kind of high-quality merchandising I was talking about in my an earlier post.

Introducing Doctor Watson

2011-07-17T22:19:00.000-07:00

Doctor Watson

I'm really excited to show off the character design by Daniel Cortes for Holmes famous side-kick, John H. Watson, MD. As promised Doctor Watson has very cool mechanical arm in Steampunk Holmes - he was wounded in Afghanistan in the Battle of Maiwand in 1880. In the first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, Watson has an injured arm, not a leg as in subsequent stories. We decided to modify things it a little so that he lost his arm and now uses a steampunk prosthetic.

A mechanical arm powered by steam technology might seem like a stretch until you discover that researchers at Vanderbilt University actually built one in 2007 and continue to research the use of steam technology to better power prosthetics. Of course we are not revealing the actual mechanics of the arm, it might be steam or it might be clockwork but one thing is for sure it kicks butt and has multiple attachments including some firepower. In our story, Holmes and Watson have made a number of upgrades to his mechanical arm which will prove very useful later.

The process by which Daniel Cortes illustrates characters is pretty cool. I provide him with some ideas about the character and his background, Daniel adds his own thoughts, and then I get a concept sketch. I might suggest changes but in most cases I love the concept and approve it. After that Daniel creates a color portrait.

I thought it might be interesting to see how a character progresses from wireframe to painted portrait in Daniel studio so I asked him to provide me with some before and after images. He did one better: He sent me an animated GIF which allows you to see the art from conception to finished portrait.

Just click on the image at left to see the animation - it's very cool!

Concept Sketch for Mycroft Holmes

2011-07-13T13:19:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my last post we've decided to make Mycroft Holmes Sherlock Holmes' sister in Steampunk Holmes. When Daniel Cortes was told that Mycroft would be a beautiful genius, this is the sketch he drew up - he had other things to do but couldn't resist taking a swipe at it.

It's a great start - we need to put her in something a bit more practical for attire, but otherwise I love her look (click on the image to see a larger version)!

Marta and I have also decided to have Steampunk Holmes and Watson ride around on a big-ass steampunk motorcycle with a side car for part of the story. I can only imagine what kind of cool imagery Daniel will come up with for that.

UPDATE

Here is another concept sketch of Holmes' sister, Mycroft, by Daniel Cortes - we'll probably use both as she appears a couple times in the story.

Mycroft Holmes is such an interesting character. She is as brilliant as Holmes but applies this intelligence differently. As described in the original story by Sr. Arthur Cannon Doyle, Mycroft is an exceptionally important personage in the Government who takes

"The conclusions of every department are passed to him, and he is the central exchange, the clearinghouse, which makes out the balance. All other men are specialists, but his specialism is omniscience. "

In other words, Mycroft is an intelligence analyst that is so ingenious that Holmes says that he not only works for the Government but that:

"Occasionally he is the British government ... the most indispensable man in the country."

Our Mycroft is as beautiful and vain as she is brilliant. Where Holmes is unkept, Mycroft is immaculate. Where Holmes is uninterested in sex, Mycroft's sexuality oozes from her pores. Where Holmes loves to get his hands dirty, Mycroft is almost allergic to physical labor. She makes a wonderful counter point to Holmes himself.

An update on the art and manuscript of Steampunk Holmes

2011-07-11T13:10:00.000-07:00

Steampunk Holmes

Check out the portrait painting by Daniel Cortes for Steampunk Holmes (click on it to see a larger image). Daniel is going to start working on the book design with me next and then come back and do more portraits and scenes from the book. He's such a great artist I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

I've also been in nearly daily communications with Marta Tanrikulu about the story. Here are some of the things we have in mind - I don't want to give a way spoilers so I'm not going to reveal everything: Mycroft, Holmes is Brother in the Conan Doyle story, is going to be his sister. I wanted to have a strong woman character in the story so I originally thought of Lestrade. But Marta convinced me that Mycroft is a better option because Lastrade always plays second fiddle to Holmes while Mycroft is his intellectual equal.

We are also throwing Jules Verne's Captain Nemo and the Nautilus into the story. The original story, "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans" is about a submarine and the ultimate Victorian submarine is the Nautilus so this mashup is a lot of fun. Anyway, I'm excited about the direction of the manuscript that Marta is working on and I can't wait to see a first draft.

Steampunk Holmes Merchandise?

2011-07-05T21:29:00.000-07:00

Steampunk Holmes Pocket Watch

A while back I googled "Steampunk Holmes" to see if anyone had done a story with that title before. I was relieved to see that no one had but I was surprised to find that term was used to describe a pocket watch designed by a Steampunk jewelry and watch maker. This gave me an idea that I've been playing with:

What if the Steampunk Holmes app/book sold merchandise related to the story?

Since then I've been looking into it more and I'm really kind of excited about it. Imagine if you could read the story and then buy some of the cloths or devices in the story? For example, the pocket watch used by Steampunk Holmes. The other merchandise I had in mind was Music. I hope to have more to say about that within a couple of weeks.

What I love about the Steampunk genera is the gadgets and cloths - there are a lot of people who like to dress up in Steampunk and have Steampunk parties. The possibility of doing merchandising tie-ins to the story is really intriguing because if this kind of business is going to work at all its going to have to have a commercial aspect to it and what would be cooler than selling Steampunk jewelry, cloths, and gadgets?!

Of course it has to be done right or not done at all. I can't just stuff a bunch of banners for merchandise into the story - that would ruin it. But, if I could provide a menu option where you could go, when not reading the book, to view merchandise related to the story. That would avoid tainting the story with adverts and blatant product placements while providing a possible venue for earning more income beyond the cover price of the book.

One of the things I want to be careful of, however, is that I don't end up buying merchandise wholesale and shipping it myself. I've done that before in one of my other ventures and it was horrible. Instead I would like to be the conduit to sales allowing the vendors themselves to handle the customers relations - I'll just take a small percentage for referrals. Anyway, there is a lot of thinking to be done before I go down the marchandising road but I wanted to share the idea with those of you following the blog - this is in keeping with my totally open policy on the entire venture.

UPDATE: 7/27/2011

Announcements about Merchandising Deals for Steampunk Holmes

7/20/2011 - Abney Park to provide music for Steampunk Holmes!

7/25/2011 - Steampunk Holmes and the Black Widow

PadWorx' Dracula

2011-06-28T22:27:00.000-07:00

Dracula: The Official Bram
Stoker Family Edition

Working on Steampunk Holmes has been a blast and when I started working on music to accompany the app/book it reminded me of PadWorx' Dracula: The Official Stoker Family Edition which was released last Halloween. Although I liked the app/book right away, for some reason I've never blogged about it. But, the more I work on Steampunk Holmes the more I see my efforts mirroring PadWorx'.

Dracula is a full length novel with animations, interactive elements, page effects, and even music from established artists. Steampunk Holmes is very similar in many ways which has given me a great appreciation for PadWorx' Dracula.

I went back and reviewed the application again and got so much more out of it the second time. I forgot what a wonderful story it is and I tip my hat to PadWorx for enhancing the experience in a way that really adds to the enjoyment. In the future we will all look back at PadWorx' Dracula and declare it a milestone in interactive novels.

Steampunk Holmes: Concept Sketch

2011-06-25T15:57:00.000-07:00

Daniel Cortes sent me this wonderful concept sketch of Steampunk Holmes. Daniel rightly wants him to be fairly tall, focused, handsome, and disheveled. As Daniel told me, "Holmes is so totally focused on his surroundings that he completely forgets himself. He doesn't worry about his hair being combed or condition of the cloths he wears." I love that.

Another thing that Daniel wanted to know is how punk is the world of Steampunk Holmes? Is everyone very proper and dressed only in victorian garb or do folks have rastafarian hair and nose rings? I said yes to both. Click on the concept sketch (left) to get a bigger image. Notice the intensity of Holmes gaze. Awesome!

I've also been talking with the adaptation author, Marta Tanrikulu. Marta is already trying to figure out how to shorten the exposition at the beginning of the story and add some more action. I've asked Marta (and Daniel) to read The Difference Engine and extrapolate what that world would look like 30 years later. Marta told me that he got the book in the mail today and would start reading it right away. I'm reading the book for the fourth time and starting to make some notes about how Steampunk Holmes world has advanced. For example, in the original book there were no airships yet. We are definitely going to have airships floating around in the background of our story.

UPDATE July 7th, 2011

Daniel just sent me another concept sketch of Holmes which is really cool. I think in this version he is a bit younger and punkier and, if possible, cooler.

Book App Entrepreneur

Smart E-Book Interface Prototype Demo - YouTube

Chris Stevens on Alice for the iPad, Book Apps, and Toronto: a Q & A | The Toronto Review of Books

Book Apps: State of the Industry

SteampunkHolmes.com: The Web Site!

Steampunk Holmes: The Black Widow in Action!

Steampunk Holmes: The Nautilus

The Steampunk Holmes Sound Track

Why I Develop Interactive Books

Steampunk Holmes Technology: The Black Widow's Gatling Gun

Daniel Cortes Art Work for Novus AEterno

Steampunk Holmes Technology: Mechanical Drawings

Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus

Homes and Watson Battle Rajput Warriors

Welcome to our new writer, P.C. Martin!

Steampunk Holmes

The Black Widow Gets a Side Car

Steampunk Holmes and the Black Widow

Holmes, Watson, and Mycroft

Abney Park to provide music for Steampunk Holmes!

Introducing Doctor Watson

Concept Sketch for Mycroft Holmes

An update on the art and manuscript of Steampunk Holmes

Steampunk Holmes Merchandise?

7/20/2011 - Abney Park to provide music for Steampunk Holmes! 7/25/2011 - Steampunk Holmes and the Black Widow

PadWorx' Dracula

Steampunk Holmes: Concept Sketch

7/20/2011 - Abney Park to provide music for Steampunk Holmes!

7/25/2011 - Steampunk Holmes and the Black Widow