Just like there is no such thing as a successful magazine, or a successful blog.
There are only successful stories, shared by talented storytellers, written by talented writers, designed by talented designers, filled with photos from talented photographers….
Sometimes a successful story is 140 characters long, like a text message or a tweet.
Sometimes a successful story fills anthologies of bound pages in book form.
And sometimes, a successful story is shared over beers with your friends.
But when was the last time a story was successful because it was in a book?
2 Comments
June 6, 2008 at 7:34 am
Cale, I’ve seen successful stories told in six words. Check out http://www.smithmag.net/sixwords/ or this Wired piece: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/sixwords.html
Perhaps the best and shortest story was told by Muhammad Ali in the film “When We Were Kings” when he said: “Me. We.” P.S. Three cheers for Sernovitz!
June 7, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Yes, great Andy.
I thought of the six-word story after I posted this. Thanks for pointing to Hemingway’s famous one:
For sale: Baby shoes, never worn.
Great examples, thanks for the links!
And agreed, a salute to Sernovitz.
By the way, I showed that Fresh Books example to my team for an upcoming tradeshow we’re looking to attend and it has completely refreshed our strategy.
Thanks!