A Creator's Guide to Transmedia Storytelling: How to Captivate and Engage Audiences across Multiple Platforms

Book description

The First How-To Strategy Guide to Transmedia Storytelling

“Phillips’s book is a powerful tool for anyone who wants to make a career for him- or herself within the world of transmedia. Through her guidance, the reader is able to understand the fundamentals of transmedia and the power it can have when used with a compelling and strong story."
—David Gale, Executive Vice President, MTV Cross Media

“Transmedia storytelling is a bold and exciting new arena for creativity and innovation. . . . Andrea Phillips provides a compelling, thoughtful, and clear guide to a next generation of creators in this medium. She demystifies the process and proves that you, too, can push the envelope and be part of the future of storytelling.”
—Michelle Satter, Founding Director, Sundance Institute Feature Film Program

“An excellent and fair-minded primer and survey of the underpinnings and fast-evolving techniques behind multiplatform narrative. Andrea Phillips is one of a small handful of writers capable of both practicing and clearly conveying the principles of transmedia storytelling. Highly recommended!”
—Jeff Gomez, CEO, Starlight Runner Entertainment

“A no-nonsense guide for the fun-filled and strangely awesome world of transmedia storytelling.”
—C. C. Chapman, coauthor of Content Rules and Amazing Things Will Happen

Includes Q&A sessions with the world’s leading experts in transmedia storytelling

About the Book:

What is transmedia storytelling and what can it do for you?

It’s the buzzword for a new generation—a revolutionary technique for telling stories across multiple media platforms and formats—and it’s rapidly becoming the go-to strategy for a wide variety of businesses. If you work in marketing, entertaining, or advertising, transmedia storytelling is a must-have tool for pulling people into your world.

Why do you need A Creator’s Guide to Transmedia Storytelling?

If you want to attract, engage, and captivate your audience, you need this book. Written by an award-winning transmedia creator and renowned games designer, this book shows you how to utilize the same marketing tools used by heavy-hitters such as HBO, Disney, Ford, and Sony Pictures—at a fraction of the cost.

You’ll learn how to:

  • Choose the right platforms for your story
  • Decide whether to DIY or outsource work
  • Find and keep a strong core production team
  • Make your audience a character in your story
  • Get the funding you need—and even make a profit
  • Forge your own successful transmedia career

With these proven media-ready strategies, you’ll learn how to generate must-read content, must-see videos, and must-visit websites that will only grow bigger as viewers respond, contribute, and spread the word. You’ll create major buzz with structures such as alternate reality games and fictional character sites—or even “old-fashioned” platforms such as email and phone calls. The more you connect to your audience and the more you get them involved in the storytelling process, the more successful you will be.

This isn’t the future. This is now. This is how you tell your story, touch your audience, and take your game to the next level—through transmedia storytelling.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. A Creator’s Guide To Transmedia Storytelling: How to Captivate and Engage Audiences across Multiple Platforms
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication Page
  5. Contents
  6. Preface
  7. Section I Introduction To Transmedia
    1. 1 Once Upon a Time...
    2. 2 What Is Transmedia, Anyway?
    3. 3 Transmedia is More Than a Marketing Gimmick
    4. 4 significant prior Art to Learn From
  8. Section II Storytelling
    1. 5 The Four Creative Purposes for Transmedia Storytelling
    2. 6 Learn the Basics of Traditional Storytelling
    3. 7 How Story and Branding Affect Marketing
    4. 8 Writing for Transmedia is different
    5. 9 Online, Everything Is Characterisation
    6. 10 Conveying Action Across Multiple Media
  9. Section III Structure
    1. 11 Fine-Tune for Depth or for Scale (Not Both)
    2. 12 Special Considerations for Blockbuster Transmedia Franchises
    3. 13 Interactivity Creates Deeper Engagement
    4. 14 Uses and Misuses for User-Generated Content
    5. 15 Challenging the Audience to Act
    6. 16 Make Your Audience a Character, Too
  10. Section IV Production
    1. 17 Project Management: The Unsung Necessity
    2. 18 Finding and Keeping a Strong Core Team
    3. 19 Websites and Tech Development: DIY or Outsource?
    4. 20 Don’t Be a Jerk on Social Media
    5. 21 Email and Phone: Cheap and Effective
    6. 22 Making and Using Prerecorded Content
    7. 23 Bringing Your Story into the Real World
  11. Section V The Big Picture
    1. 24 How to Fund Production Costs
    2. 25 … And Maybe Make Some Profit, Too
    3. 26 Forging Your Own Transmedia Career
    4. 27 Critical Legal and Ethical Considerations
    5. 28 Get excited and make things
  12. Acknowledgments
  13. Index
  14. About the Author

Product information

  • Title: A Creator's Guide to Transmedia Storytelling: How to Captivate and Engage Audiences across Multiple Platforms
  • Author(s): Andrea Phillips
  • Release date: June 2012
  • Publisher(s): McGraw-Hill
  • ISBN: 9780071791533