Literature

German authors are exploring cyberspace and discovering more and more opportunities in the social net, where they are publishing their texts online and strengthening the dialogue with readers.

The Internet offers new ways of reading: hypertexts, blogs and co. are on the rise and there have never been such varied platforms for writers, who are publishing themselves online, cavorting in forums and social media groups, and presenting their works on their private websites, happy to serve readers with complimentary appetizers. The literary scene discovered Web 2.0 long ago and even unknowns may there hope to be discovered, for it has never been so easy to reach so many people with virtual reading samples, networking and blogging.

Bestseller thanks to the Net

Thanks to YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, the young American author John Green has even had a bestseller, although ultimately with the help of Amazon and his publisher. Such a case is surely not yet the rule but rather the exception in the Net jungle of social media writers. Those who are not in the position to seize such initiatives themselves can rely on online services such as XinXii, whose experts plan book marketing in the social medium and help make books ready for publication. Europe’s leading digital self-publishing platform is becoming more and more popular especially among unknown authors, who can engage a variety of services: book trailers for YouTube, press releases, bookmarks and much more in the social media landscape.

Literature in moving images

How do well-known German authors deal with these things? Do they also blog and twitter in cyberspace, or do they rely exclusively on the classical marketing strategies of their publishers, which are still geared to print media? Lettra.tv has published hundreds of videos on popular books and their authors, quite as if it were already perfectly normal to upload criticism and recommendations of printed books to this otherwise well-known mainstream platform for video uploads. It is not unusual for a writer to present a link to YouTube on his website and the latest news of the hustle and bustle on Twitter. All free and very social. Zehnseiten.de even shows professional lectures in flash mode and helps give the common video message a distinguished appearance, whereby it is also present on all other social media platforms and there maintains close contact to its readership. Thanks to the Net, the relationship between author and reader finds itself in a state that obliges publishers to re-define their role.

A book, a face

What do established professional writers do about Facebook, the most famous social media phenomenon of all time? Not all of them deal with it as liberally as prime example John Green. But even those who do not have an account are happy to end up in the directory, equipped with the characteristic “Like” button, which measures their popularity whether they like it or not. There are few famous writers with their own accounts on the popular facial platform. They prefer a photo on a book jacket. At her blog, on the other hand, the detective story and young people’s book author Nele Neuhaus directly references Facebook, where she carries on an avid exchange with fans. But that again is certainly not the rule.

Authors and their blogs

Among young German writers, having your own blog is more popular. Arno Geiger even has an official website at Carl Hanser Publishers with plenty of information, reading samples and feeds, whereas Silke Scheuermann has there only a small portrait of herself. So there are striking differences in how authors present themselves on the Net. Blogs are pure communication. They ensure a brisk bustle of latest news and documentation and help the inclined reader gain a deeper look into the world of the author. Literature Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek has published an entire novel on her website in addition to very extensive contributions on other media such as cinema, theater and music. Unlike the typical blogger, however, she foregoes communication with her readers.

Dialogue with the reader

Even some small and big publishers communicate with readers on Facebook. Suhrkamp Publishers, for example, maintains an updated site where they like to respond directly to readers’ comments. In dialogue with the reader a new literature emerges, impressions are taken up hopefully and digested, wittingly or unwittingly. Literature has never been so reader-friendly and intermedial as it is now in the age of the Internet. Publishers are confronted with new dimensions of publishing and advertising. They will have to rethink their function and adjust it to the rapid growth of the social media.