SilkWords offers a unique, interactive, “choose your
own” experience for romance readers
As of February
14, 2014 SilkWords LLC celebrates the launch of a web site that offers
a first-of-its-kind reading experience for women’s fiction (www.silkwords.com).
The site blurs the line between fiction and casual gaming by
offering high quality, interactive romance that allows individual readers to
choose how the story proceeds. Readers can also experience the story in
different ways by returning to choice points and following different paths.
SilkWords was founded by wife-and-husband team Keri and Boyd
Multerer. Boyd, who works as development director for Microsoft Xbox, is no
stranger to the gaming industry.
“As a working mom of three young children,” Keri said, “I believe
there’s a potentially huge market for a site that offers high quality women’s
fiction that can be consumed quickly. And the marriage of two very popular forms
of entertainment—romance and gaming—was a no-brainer for us.”
The site offers an upscale experience—original artwork, plus
paid subscriptions instead of advertisements—and a continually expanding
collection of multichoice stories varying in length, romance subgenre, heat
level, and sexual orientation of protagonist.
Featured at launch are new stories from award-winning indie romance
author Lisa Scott (also with HarperCollins and Bell Bridge Books), paranormal
and fantasy author Skyler White (Berkley, Tor/Macmillan), award-winning
historical author Kim Taylor Blakemore (Penguin, HarperCollins), and
sex-journalist-turned-erotica author Leigh Cowart.
SilkWords’ acquiring editor is science fiction romance
author and SFR Brigader Sharon Lynn Fisher (Tor/Macmillan), a Romance Writers of America (RWA)
2013 RITA finalist and three-time RWA Golden Heart finalist.
“Our goal is to offer something for everyone, from erotic to
sweet, historical to sci-fi,” Fisher said. “It’s such a fun format for authors
to play around with. Have you ever read a romance and wondered what would
happen if the heroine made a different choice? Picked a different guy? Waited
longer to kiss him? Our readers get to find out.”
Today’s launch is phase 1 of a larger SilkWords vision.
“The beautiful thing about SilkWords is there’s a ton of
room for experimentation,” Boyd said. “Different forms of storytelling,
interaction with the authors, and moving the medium forward. It’s stories
first, gaming second, with a lot the two sides can learn from each other.”
Romance Industry
According to a study commissioned by Romance Writers of
America, the nonprofit trade association for the romance industry, romance
novels generate $1.4 billion every year, with 44 percent of sales in e-book
format and the majority of buyers falling between the ages of 30 and 54 (http://www.rwa.org/p/cm/ld/fid=582).
The digital book market has made romance even more popular by offering an
anonymous experience (Good E-Reader, http://goodereader.com/blog/e-book-news/e-readers-stimulating-the-sales-of-erotica-ebooks).
Video Game Industry
It is estimated that 183 million people in the United States
play video games (TED, http://www.ted.com/conversations/44/we_spend_3_billion_hours_a_wee.html), and 31
percent of those are women over the
age of 18 (Entertainment Software Association, http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2013.pdf).
A recent CNN article cites an increase in female protagonists as well as “complex
themes and more scenarios that call for decision-making, not brute force” as
possible reasons for the increase in the popularity of gaming with women and
girls (http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/08/tech/gaming-gadgets/female-gamers/).
About SilkWords
SilkWords LLC offers interactive women’s fiction to readers
worldwide through our web site www.silkwords.com.
Blurring the line between fiction and gaming, SilkWords offers high quality romance
that allows individual readers to choose how stories proceed—all for the price
of a latte, and from the comfort of their own living rooms.
Learn More
Visit us at www.silkwords.com.
We provide unlimited access to
journalists who would like to learn more. Please contact keri@silkwords.com or boyd@silkwords.com for more information.
This is a very exciting concept! (Hmm, selling just one story might pay my way to RWA this year.)
ReplyDeleteYeah, I keep thinking how much cover art and editing it could pay for...
ReplyDelete