209 Examples and Trends Impacting the Future of Storytelling

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Storytelling comes in a variety of formats: as books, articles, podcasts, films, and more. It seems every week there’s something new and cool coming out of the works, so I thought I’d highlight some of them here (in no particular order). Also, there’s a lot that can be learned from other people’s stories!

New Tech / Tools / Platforms

Book Marketing

1. Book Title Generator
2. “Links to Happiness: Using Universal Links to Sell Your Ebook” on The Book Designer
3. SendOwl
4. Tailwind
5. Book Funnel
6. Mark Dawson’s Courses
7. “Closing Strong” on Businesse
8. “Goodreads e-book giveaway program now open to self-published authors” on Build Book Buzz
9. DesignEvo
10. Hatchful
11. “DesignOps: A List of Resources” on Medium
12. DesignBetter.Co
13. Covers Sell Books
14. Voracious Readers Only
15. Indie Author Day
16. “Patreon Powers Membership Across the Web” on Patreon (and Patreon App Directory)
17. SpyFu

Social Media

18. “20 Lesser-Known Tools for Smart Content Creators” on Content Marketing Institute
19. Instagram Polls on Instagram Blog
20. “Strengthening Our Commitment to Safety and Kindness for 800 Million” on Instagram Blog
21. Branded Content Tools on Instagram
22. “Instagram is testing a way to follow hashtags” on Mashable
23. “Leverage Your Instagram Followers into Mini-Course Enrollees” on Teachable
24. “7 Instagram Stories Ideas to Get More Followers” on Content Marketing Institute
25. “Welcome to IGTV” on Instagram
26. “Introducing Music in Stories” on Instagram
27. “4 Ways To Use Instagram To Market Your Books” on The Creative Penn
28. “Three Instagram Numbers That Matter More Than Followers” on The Shop Files
29. “The Ideal Facebook Cover Photo Size And How To Make Yours Stand Out (Including 12 Excellent Examples)” on Buffer
30. “Facebook Introduces a Simple Polling Feature With Support for GIFs” on Search Engine Journal
31. “The Ultimate Guide To Messenger Marketing and Facebook Chatbots” on Many Chat
32. “Keyword Snooze: A New Way to Help Control Your News Feed” on Facebook Newsroom
33. “Introducing Subscription Groups for Admins” on Facebook Newsroom
34. “Introducing a New Info and Ads Section on Pages” on Facebook Business
35. Facebook for Creators

Books

36. “How to create an eBook the open source way” on Open Source
37. reMarkable
38. “Reviewing Sony’s New Digital Paper” on Inside Higher Ed
39. “Is Offset Printing the Future for Indie Authors?” on The Book Designer
40. “Braille Neue: A New Version of Braille That Can Be Simultaneously Read by the Sighted and the Blind” on Open Culture
41. “Introducing Semantic Experiences with Talk to Books and Semantris” on Google AI Blog
42. Make Our Book
43. Wonderbly
44. “Self-Publishing 3.0: The Future For Indie Authors: David Penny” on ALLi
45. ePubCheck
46. “A (Block)Chain Reaction for Publishing” on Publisher’s Weekly
47. “2018 Book Manufacturing Outlook Includes Ranking of Top 5 Book Printers Based on Latest PI 400 List” on Book Business Mag

Writing

48. Reedsy Writing Tool
49. Beemgee
50. Short Story Ideas
51. Children’s Book Academy
52. Children’s Illustrators
53. oTranscribe
54. Rev (transcription)
55. “Macros for fiction editors and authors” on Louise Harnby
56. Power Thesaurus
57. “Best Book Writing Software” on Kindlepreneur
58. “Nine Manuscript Editing Software Programs You Should Consider” on Book Baby Blog
59. “Scrivener 3.0 Update: What’s inside, and is it worth the cost?” on Writer’s Digest
60. “Storyboarding with Scrivener (or, A Love Affair with Virtual Index Cards)” on Writer Unboxed
61. “Tech Tools for Writers Roundup from BW Tech Expert Carla King” on BookWorks
62. VitalSource
63. Docusaurus

Online Tools

64. “The Times of London turns to a ‘digital butler’ named James to increase subscriptions” on Digiday
65. “How to record macros in Google Sheets” on Tech Republic
66. Quizlet
67. “Chrome’s Library Extension Will Change Your Life” on BookRiot
68. “Ask Google to recrawl your URLs” on Search Console Help
69. “A reintroduction to Google’s featured snippets” on Google
70. Checker Plus for Gmail
71. Browserling

Audio

72. “Google Pixel Buds are wireless earbuds that translate conversations in real time” on Ars Technica
73. Chrome Music Labs
74. The Mission
75. SquadCast
76. AudioBurst

Websites

77. “Attention, Authors: WordPress 5.0 Will Change Everything You Know About WordPress” on The Digital Reader
78. “30+ WordPress plugins that can use a lot of server resources and/or can slow down your site” on Freelancers Tools
79. “The Slowest WordPress Plugins (and Alternatives to Try Instead)” on wpmu dev

Coding

80. “No need to code your webpage yourself, says Microsoft – draw it and our AI will do the rest” on The Register
81. CenterCode

Miscellaneous

82. “How far ahead of Apple Maps is Google Maps?” on Justin O’Beirne
83. Pier 9
84. USNPL
85. “Introducing YouTube Giving: New tools for charitable giving on YouTube” on YouTube Creator Blog
86. Documentary Editing on YouTube
87. PressForward
88. Pixsy

New Ways of Storytelling / Publishing

Comics

89. “Protanopia – A digital interactive comic by Andre Bergs” on YouTube
90. “Netflix is going to test new ideas by publishing comic books” on QZ

Audio

91. “An Artificial Intelligence is Generating an ‘Infinite’ Podcast” on Motherboard
92. “The New York Times launches a Facebook group to discuss podcasts (and learn to make better ones)” on Niemen Lab
93. “The New York Times is giving early access to podcasts as a subscriber perk” on Digiday
94. “Exclusive: Inside The New Google Podcasts Strategy That Could Double Audiences Worldwide” on Pacific Content
95. “The Power of Podcasts” on ACX
96. “Serial Box Has New Funding for Audio Bundling With Reading, as a ‘Publishing Studio’” on Publishing Perspectives

Studios / Films

97. “BBC loses plot to offer busy viewers drama without the commitment” on The Telegraph
98. “The Transformative Experience of Writing for “Sense8”” on The New Yorker
99. From Canada, Wattpad Studios Aims at Hollywood With ‘Cupid’s Match’” on Publishing Perspectives
100. “With a Sprinkle of Pixar Dust, Debut Trilogy Takes Flight” on Publisher’s Weekly
101. “Caitlin Roper to Head The New York Times Magazine’s New Creative Studio” on NYTCo
102. “From Bookstore to Theater, Turning Your Book into a Movie” on Funds for Writers

Poetry

103. “This Couple Published A Book Of Poetry Based On Famous Vines And It’s A Bestseller” on Buzzfeed
104. “What it Means to Be an ‘Experimental Computer Poet'” on Motherboard

Online and Apps

105. “Serial Dilemma: Does ‘Belgravia’ Spell ‘Success’ in Book Apps?” on Publishing Perspectives
106. “Bookmark: The Art of Reading in a “Post-Text Future”” on Books on Books
107. The Monarch Papers
108. “Online Novels: The New York Public Library Introduces “Insta Novels” (Full Text, Illustrated Literature Posted on Instagram)” on InfoDocket

Retail / In Person

109. “Where the Water Tastes Like Wine turns American folk tales into a road trip” on PC Gamer
110. “The New York Times Store Introduces Its First NYT Cooking “Make-Your-Own” Cookbook” on New York Times
111. “Now Serving in Chinatown is the place to go for your chefy holiday shopping needs” on Los Angeles Times
112. Air BnB Host Experiences

Partnerships / Programs

113. “Walmart, Rakuten Kobo Debut E-Book Retail Partnership” on Publisher’s Weekly
114. “Publishing Mentorship Program Focuses on Representation” on Publisher’s Weekly
115. “The Washington Post launches most comprehensive Bestselling Books lists” on The Washington Post
116. “PBS NewsHour and The New York Times Launch Monthly Book Club “Now Read This”” on New York Times
117. Ethnographic by University of Toronto Press
118. “Gaming Anthropology” on Anthropology Con
119. “Flirting With New Readers in The Philippines: Wattpad Presents” on Publishing Perspectives
120. Podia (sell online courses, memberships, and downloads)
121. “Finding your mission” on YouTube

Other

122. “Literature by Degree” on The New York Times
123. “Protean Miniatures: The Adaptability and Sustainability of Flash Fiction” on Los Angeles Review of Books

Augmented Reality (AR)

124. “Augmented Reality: How We’ll Bring the News Into Your Home” on New York Times
125. “The New York Times Debuts Augmented Reality Experience Featuring Athletes From the Winter Olympics” 
126. “‘The New York Times’ Introduces Augmented-Reality Capabilities” on Media Post
127. “Movie theater in the sky? Alaska trials VR entertainment at 35,000 feet” on Alaska (also, “Alaska Airlines will make long flights more bearable with VR movies” on CNET)

Virtual Reality (VR)

128. “Beyond Reading: Saunders’s ‘Lincoln in the Bardo’ Goes VR” on Publisher’s Weekly
129. “Digital Publishing: Why the New York Times Continues to Invest in Virtual Reality” on Editor & Publisher
130. (Sort of) “Forget AR and VR – mixed reality is the next frontier for digital publishing” on The Bookseller
131. “Rumbling seats. Virtual reality. Booze. How cinemas are adapting to uncertain future” on LA Times
132. “Virtual Reality Is a Disappointment? Not in the World of Video Gamers” on New York Times
133. “Interview with VRS Executive Speaker: Brian Seth Hurst” on VRS Conference
134. “An Alternate Reality Game That Takes Freshmen Orientation to a New Level” on Wired
135. “Is literature next in line for virtual-reality treatment?” on Economist

Conferences / Places to Visit

136. Future of Storytelling
137. “Irma Boom’s Library, Where Pure Experimentalism Is on the Shelf” on New York Times
138. “Inside Meow Wolf, the amusement park for people who want a weirder Disneyland” on Ars Technica

Research / Things Learned

139. “Fictional characters make ‘experiential crossings’ into real life, study finds” on The Guardian
140. “Visualizing Nonlinear Narratives with Story Curves” on Visual Computing Group
141. “One year on, we’re still not recognizing the complexity of information disorder online” on First Draft
142. “How Technology Shapes the Way We Read” on Wired
143. “Language and literature create sanctuaries in Berkeley schools” on Daily Cal
144. “Tool: Review Google’s new manager training” on ReWork (and “Google Spent Years Studying Effective Bosses. Now They Teach New Managers These 6 Things” on Inc)
145. “The Dangers of Reading in Bed” on The Atlantic
146. “Zhou Youguang, Architect Of A Bridge Between Languages, Dies At 111” on NPR
147. “Wanted: Original Book Titles” on The Guardian
148. “Not All Book Startups Have Died” on Publisher’s Weekly
149. “Report from the Field: Gender Inequality Within Literary Prize Culture” on VIDA
150. “Book Publishing’s Weak Bet On “Fire And Fury”? Blame Data” on Fast Company
151. “‘The ebook is a stupid product: no creativity, no enhancement,’ says the Hachette Group CEO” on Scroll.in
152. “Embedding a Tweet Can Be a Copyright Infringement, Court Rules” on Torrent Freak
153. “GDPR for Influencers with Danielle Liss” on Food Blogger Pro
154. “Six academic writing habits that will boost productivity” on LSE Impact Blog
155. “The long, incredibly tortuous, and fascinating process of creating a Chinese font” on Quartz
156. “Digital Publishing: After Years of Tinkering with Paywalls, Publishers are Creating the Right Funnel to Find Digital Subscribers” on Editor & Publisher
157. “Have we ever had enough time to read?” on Literary Hub
158. “AI spots 40,000 prominent scientists overlooked by Wikipedia” on The Verge
159. “Be a More Effective Reader: Learn to read like a novelist” on Lisa Poisso
160. “The Power of a Writing Group for Publishing Success” on Writer Unboxed
161. Writer Productivity Framework
162. “On the literature of cyborgs, robots, and other automata” on Literary Hub
163. “The Science Behind Successful Content is Pretty Eye-Opening” on Media Shower
164. “How Topic Modeling Can Strengthen Your SEO and Content Marketing Strategy” on Content Marketing Institute
165. “Education as a Marketing Strategy: 8 Brands Doing Online Classes and More” on Content Marketing Institute
166. “Indie Author Collaboration Case Study: Working with a Major Local Employer” on ALLi

Publishing Stories

167. “Fifty Years of Disquietude” on The Baffler
168. “The Best Children’s Books Appeal to All Ages” by Literary Hub
169. “The Rise of Roxane Gay” on BK Mag
170. “For November, A Romance Trio For ‘Hamilton’ Fans (And The Rest Of You, Too)” on NPR
171. “Chinese Web Novels Launch Gold Rush for Adaptation Rights” on Magpie Kingdom
172. “Insights into the Chinese Libraries Market for Self-published Books via CNPeReading” on ALLi
173. “How Tor.com went from website to publisher of sci-fi’s most innovative stories” on The Verge
174. “Raymond Carver, Gordon Lish, and the Editor as Enabler” on Ploughshares
175. “Indie Author Finds Success Hitting the Festival Circuit” on BookLife
176. “My Creative Writing Process” on J.F. Penn
177. “Using Patreon and YouTube to Grow a Writing Career: Q&A with Jay Swanson” on Jane Friedman
178. “From Podcast to Self-Published Bestseller” on Publisher’s Weekly
179. Book Promotion Success Stories on Your First 10,000 Readers

Marketing

180. “5 Ways American Express is Winning at Content Marketing” on Media Shower
181. “Marketing Doesn’t Have to Be Sleazy: 5 Real-World Examples” on Copy Blogger
182. “5 ways to use audio for book marketing and reader engagement” on Louise Harnby
183. “Time for a reboot” on The Writing Life
184. “Catalogs: A Marketing Tool for Indie Publishers” on Fiction Notes
185. “Submit Your Book to Holiday Gift Guides” on The Book Designer
186. “Use quirky holidays in March for book marketing” on Build Book Buzz
187. “Is There a Writing Mulligan in Your Midst?” on The Book Designer
188. “The One Thing That Can Make a Big Difference in Your Infographics” on Content Marketing Institute
189. “It’s Time For Your Fall Platform Inventory” on Smart Marketing for Writers
190. “New Data Reveals it’s Time to Change Your Headline Strategy” on Social Media Today
191. “Want to Prove Content’s Success? Stop Measuring It” on Content Marketing Institute
192. “The Psychology Behind Good Book Cover Design” on Writer Unboxed
193. “Audience Strategist: The New, Critical Role on Your Content Team” on Content Marketing Institute
194. “Know Your Genre, Know Your Reader, Be a Fan” on BookWorks

Cool Projects / Sites

195. Hip Hop Words
196. Investigative Studios
197. Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down
198. “Collectors’ corner: book and music libraries – in pictures” on The Guardian
199. “In Berkeley, a book group celebrates its 100th birthday” on Berkleyside
200. I’d Rather Be Writing
201. “Charting the Geography of Classic Literature” on Atlas Obscura
202. #ColorOurCollections on The New York Academy of Medicine
203. “A Day in the Life of Americans” on Flowing Data
204. “In 100 Years, This Forest Will Be Turned Into Secret Books By Your Favorite Writers” on Electric Lit
205. Error Wall of Shame
206. “KIND Dumps 45,000 Pounds in Times Square to Make a (Marketing) Point” on Media Shower
207. AIJS
208. “What the District?”
209. Museum Hack