Virtually Publishing

I've been harrassing my colleagues about Second Life for months, and now that our first project here has launched I thought it high time readers of this blog were also exposed to my harrassment.

For those who don't know, Second Life is a virtual world (a 3D MMOG in geekspeak), where the residents themselves create and build the world which includes homes, vehicles, nightclubs, stores, landscapes, clothing, and games. People also design their representation in Second Life, which can be pretty realistic, or totally outlandish (I met a Penguin author in Second Life whose avatar is a hippo!). In some ways, it's a cross between myspace and collaborative virtual lego, though some see it as a possible future of the internet.

I've never really played computer games and have always been a bookish type, but Second Life has really interested me and I'm really excited to be bringing Penguin into such a fast-changing and creative environment. We're starting small, with the release of a virtual sampler of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, the book that has inspired much of Second Life. Later this year we'll be releasing the Penguin Virtual Bookshelf which will allow residents of Second Life to decorate their virtual homes with working samples of real books. (Perhaps you might have some suggestions for appropriate books?) And down the line perhaps we'll bring appropriate authors into Second Life to meet with and talk to their virtual fans. All this is part of our efforts to connect with online communities and if you are confused by all this, imagine the fun I've had explaining this to people at Penguin!

If anyone reading this is already playing Second Life feel free to contact me inworld (jeremy Neumann is my avatar name) or join the Penguin Readers group.

Update: read all about Penguin in Second Life and other literary initiatives in this virtual world here.

Jeremy Ettinghausen is Penguin's Digital Publisher

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Comments

[Eoin Purcell]

Now that is kinda cool!
Eoin

[Faiha]

Great to see Penguin taking things to Second Life.. I enjoyed hearing you talk about in person.
Best wishes,
Faiha

[Personanondata]

Well done on getting this adopted by Penguin, I can only imagine the conversations. Not a gamer, I recently signed up because I had heard about bookstores and a library that had been established in Second Life. Penguin are right on to seek this and presumably other non-traditional outlets to publicize their books and authors.

[peter]

are you doing this under Creative Commons?

[Penguin Blog]

Thanks for all your comments about this - Peter, since the author holds the copyright to this book, we are not publishing it under creative commons, though the sampler is copyable inside Second Life. We are looking at Creative Commons licensing for other projects though...

jeremy ettinghausen

[Annerose]

These comments have been invaluable to me as is this whole site. I thank you for your comment.