Stories as Real Estate: A New Paradigm for Writing and Publishing

The traditional publishing model is teetering under the weight of digital technology, as evidenced in
legal battles over copyright and distribution schemes. These ongoing issues are driving a worried
discourse surrounding questions of copyright infringement, the oft-predicted 'death' of the author, and
the continued survival of the traditional publishing model.
But some artists are embracing this liquid phase in publishing, using digital technologies to not only
increase their opportunities for selling their stories, but to cut out large chunks of the publishing chain.
They offer their work directly to the reader, and invite the reader to collaborate. These mod-projects
create stories as places rather than objects, as theme parks where readers can play.
This paper examines several case studies including Robin Sloan's Annabel Scheme and Shelldrake
projects. These examples serve as models for a new paradigm in storytelling: the story as an interactive
and ongoing world, rather than a fixed text owned by a copyright-holder.
Bio: Lyle Skains is a 2nd year PhD student at the School of Creative Studies & Media. She examines
multimodal creativity through concurrent production of stories in both print and digital media.