ESRC IAA The Future of Reading: Digital Books and Digital Narratives, from Publisher to Reader

Description of impact

3 inter-connected projects.
1.Writing and Publishing Prose in the 21st century (WPP21): informing and training professional writers of prose and media opportunities, styles and tools offered by contemporary online, participatory and multimodal media; to innovate, professionalise and streamline prose publishing, e.g. through e-book publishing; exploring and implementing alternative, independent publishing and brand development, contemporary methods of disseminating creative prose and the implications for reading prose.
2.Reading Digital Fiction (RDF): two core aims: introducing more readers to digital fiction (previously: mostly scholarly audiences, and writers/artists), and to shape people’s understanding of what reading and literacy mean in 21st century. To achieve that aim, we are organising various public events including workshops, exhibitions, and a writing competition to introduce people to this exciting new form of literature.
3.Transforming body images through reading/writing digital fiction (TBM): digital fictions used as bibliotherapeutic tools with groups of female participants with problematic body images – reading and writing digital fiction workshops, summer schools

Description of the underpinning research

AHRC “Reading Digital Fiction” project (3 years; approx. £230k) (Ensslin and externals); Welsh Crucible small grant for “Transformative Thinking…” project (1 year; approx. £9k) (Ensslin and externals); ESRC IAA grant for ‘The Future of Reading’ impact case study / workshops (£2,000, 2015); 3 SIP grants for digital publishing research (Muse); various monographs, volumes and articles on digital fiction, literary gaming, writerly games contemporary publishing and digital creative writing (Ensslin; Skains; Muse); keynote at Proofreaders’ Union conference on the Future of the Book (Muse) and academic keynotes at large international conferences (Ensslin); impact report(s) following RDF PE events; public websites (blog style) with Twitter feeds and online exhibition; ‘Living Handbook’ (web-based textbook) on self-publishing for creative writers
3.2016-04-06. The Academic Book of the Future: The Future Space of Bookselling. Academic Conference.
4.2014. Muse, E. Book Selling and Social Media in Wales. Report to Welsh Books Council.
5.Bell, Alice and Astrid Ensslin (forthcoming 2015) ‘Digital Fiction: The Future of the Book?’, in John Clark (ed.) Opening Up the Book – Catalogue of 5th Sheffield International Artist’s Book Prize and Related Events.
6.Ensslin, Astrid (forthcoming 2016) ‘Electronic Fictions: Television, the Internet, and the Future of Digital Fiction’, in Paula E. Geyh (ed) The Cambridge Companion to Postmodern American Fiction. Cambridge: CUP.
7.Bell, Alice and Astrid Ensslin (forthcoming 2016) ‘Digital Fiction and Unnatural Narrative’, in Edinburgh Companion to Theories of Narrative.
8.Bell, Alice, Astrid Ensslin and Jen Smith (forthcoming 2015) ‘Readers, Digital Fiction and ‘You’: An Empirical Approach to Second Person Narration in Born-Digital Fiction’, Language and Literature.

General Notes

Sources to corroborate the impact (indicative maximum of 10 references)
user/visitor feedback (e.g. via feedback forms; Tweets and re-Tweets); clicks on blog; statements from independent writers and publishers; statements from BECTU, WBC, and other professional organisations within the booktrade.

Impact evidence capture is embedded intrinsically in the AHRC Reading Dgitial Fiction project – contact person: Dr Jen Smith, Sheffield Hallam University
Website: http://readingdigitalfiction.com/
Twitter: @ReadDigFic

Impact status	Closed
Impact date	14 Aug 2015 → 15 Aug 2015