Fourth Story Media

It’s been a busy month here at Fourth Story!

On May 18th, Lisa Holton spoke at MIT’s Sandbox Summit on a panel about innovative approaches in children’s digital books with Peter H. Reynolds (Children’s book author & illustrator and founder of FableVision), and Ben Vershbow (Digital Producer, NYPL), moderated by Alexandra Kennedy (Executive Director of The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art).

And on May 26th, Ariel Aberg-Riger, spoke at YPulse’s Youth Marketing Mashup on the panel “Multimedia Narratives: Engaging Youth on Multiple Screens” with Jordan Levin (CEO, Generate), Craig Bland (VP Strategic Partnerships & Content, Alloy), and R. Eric Lieb (Partner, Blacklight Transmedia), moderated by Mashable’s Ben Parr.

Both panels (and conferences!) were incredibly invigorating, covering everything from new distribution models to the importance of authenticity to managing sustained engagement. But, as Publisher’s Weekly picked up in it’s coverage “Regardless of Screen, Story Still Matters” – no matter what shape the future may take, good storytelling remains at the core, possibly more important now than ever.

Are you heading to the always invigorating SXSW Interactive this year?  Are you obsessed with the future of publishing? Storytelling? Print media? Digital media? Writing? Reading? Words? Awesomeness? Be sure to check out New Publishing & Web Content on Saturday March 13th @ 5PM CT in Ballroom A. Hosted by Happy Cog’s Jeffrey Zeldman, the panel will “explore the creative, strategic, and marketing challenges of traditional and new (internet hybrid) book publishing and online magazine publishing, and how these fields intersect with content strategy and client services.”

Fantastic (if we do say so ourselves) panelists include:

• Lisa Holton – CEO + Founder, FSM
• Erin Kissane – Web Project + Community Manager, FSM / Blogger, Incisive.nu
• Mandy Brown – Creative Director, Etsy
• Paul Ford – Novelist / Blogger, FTrain.com / Editor, Harper’s

Hope to see you there!

Lisa Holton discussed Fourth Story Media’s current thinking, and recent developments in The Amanda Project at Digital Book World January 26th on the panel “Synergizing the Book and Web: Books Plus in the 21st Century.” The panel – moderated by Market Partners International’s Lorraine Shanley, with Will Schwalbe (our office mate and CEO of Cookstr), and Hillel Cooperman (founder of Jackson Fish Market) among others – covered everything from the challenges of being a start-up to exploring new digital business models.

Some highlights:

• The twitterverse especially loved Lisa’s mention of The Amanda Project’s recent collaboration with Modcloth.
• ForeWord highlighted The Amanda Project as an “innovative application of reader engagement in authoring,” alongside other projects like the ever-popular book social networking site GoodReads, and HarperCollins’ new site for aspiring writers Inkpop.
• And (our favorite) Chapman/Chapman said in his DBW summary: “Fourth Story Media are doing very, very cool shit with transmedia storytelling.”

Publisher’s Weekly has a long article about everything from e-books to iPhone’s Stanza app to The Amanda Project in this week’s issue:

“We should worry less about the delivery system and more about inculcating sustained reading in kids,” says Michele Rubin, an agent at Writers House. “Books are something they should see as enjoyable.” No one is arguing. In fact, one scenario that publishers are exploring to raise the fun quotient is mixed media à la Scholastic’s The 39 Clues (the series combines traditional books with online gaming and card collecting).

Patrick Carman’s newly released ghost mystery, Skeleton Creek (Scholastic, Feb.), offers a book and dedicated Web site with videos, while The Amanda Project by Stella Lennon (HarperCollins, Sept. 2009) is even more ambitious. This mystery series, aimed at girls ages 12–14, brings together traditional print with Web games, social networking, blogs, music and merchandise.

Read the whole article here.