TECHNOLOGY...the coolest thing EVER invented!

When I first saw this I squealed, a squeal that rivaled all fangirl squeals EVER uttered! I don't even know the author but just the thought of what she was doing had me all atwitter because it gave birth to just a smidgen of possibility that one of my favourite author's would do something like this, hopefully in the very near future.

What has me all atwitter and google-eyed? A tweet, by @goodreads that I retweeted on September 18th, 2012.

Just a little on what goodreads is, its a site where readers can keep track of the books they have read, the books they want to read and also the books they're currently reading. Of course it does more than that but those are the things I essentially use it for.

Now to the topic at hand, what was the tweet about? Check out the screen shot below.

Ok so the tweet is about an author, Silvia Hartmann who is writing and editing a book in real time online. What bit of sorcery is she using to perform this feat? A public Google Document, I wasn't aware something like that even existed but now that I am, I've filed it away for future use. I think this is one of the best technological advancements Ever! I also think it's pretty darn cool too! Yes, yes I am quite nerdy when it comes to anything to do with books, or games, or movies for that matter. But I digress, back to the topic at hand...

I had never heard of Silivia Hartmann before, so I used  Wikipedia.com to find out about her. What do you know they had a page on her. I copied and pasted an excerpt of her biography below.

Silvia Anne Hartmann (born August 23, 1959) is a United Kingdom based author and lecturer on energy psychology^[1] and personal development. She is best known as the primary developer of Energy EFT and EmoTrance (ET)^[2][3] which has been criticised as unscientific by two senior academics.^[4] She is also known for her books on Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) as well as her fiction titles under the nom de plume Nick StarFields.^[5]Hartmann co-founded The Association for Meridian & Energy Therapies in 1998 with Chrissie Hardisty^[6] and is presently the chairperson.

Silvia Hartmann's books are not my cup of tea but I love her choice of name for the project, "The Naked Writer Project." Wikipedia explains the concept of the project well, so I added it below.

The Naked Writer Project
In September 2012, Hartmann began a project to write a fiction title using Google Docs so that readers could see the writing & editing process in real-time through their web browser^[8]. The author also used crowdsourcing to allow readers to suggest a name for the new novel^[9], and to also decide on the level of sex that it should contain.

Now that, that's out of the way I have to say that my second reaction after the squeal, was to reminsce about author/fan relations in the past. I have been a reader for a very long time, ever since I learned to. I remember when the most interaction a reader and a writer had, was through the author biography at the back of the book. For those who were lucky enough to live in countries/areas where authors had book signings and reader/writer conventions got to interact with them face to face.

Then something changed, at  the back of the book under the biography, a website appeared. From the author's website you got the link to their Yahoogroup. Yahoogroups are a way of meeting like minded readers and also a way to interact with authors as they peek in ever so often to chat. After Yahoogroups came, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter etc. 

Blogs appeared in between but I singled it out because it brought something else to the author/reader dynamic, blog tours. Blog tours gave international readers, like myself  a chance to follow a book tour albeit virtually. Other ways international readers got to interface with authors was through virtual book signings and online reader conventions. The latter one I found out about this year.

Although I love all the ways I've listed where a reader and writer can interact, my favourite is the public Google Document because you actually get experience a personal journey with the author from start to finish. I REALLY hope some of my favourite authors begin to use this document soon.

Below I've added two links. The first is the one that was in the tweet, it's an article about what the author is doing and the second is the actual document of the story.

 http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/18/watch-this-author-use-a-google-document-to-write-and-edit-a-book-in-real-time/

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AwxZlO1uVnFFKh_NWAlZ78oK2c5gxzvVCfrYbe7EOE8/edit?pli=1