(2010-09-02) Mongoliad Launch

Neal Stephenson's Mongoliad is launching. The company, based in Seattle and San Francisco, has developed what it calls the PULP platform for creating digital novels (EBook). The core of the experience is still a text novel, but authors can add additional material like background articles, images, music, and video. There are also Social Networking features that allow readers to create their own profiles, earn Badge-s for activity on the site or in the application, and interact with other readers... The company promises to release a new chapter a week. Readers can pay $5.99 for a six-month subscription fee or $9.99 for a year... Stephenson isn’t writing the book alone. There’s a team led by a writer Mark Teppo; it also includes Greg Bear, author of Blood Music and other science fiction novels. Stephenson compared the experience to writing a TV show, and not just because it’s a team of writers. The Mongoliad will have an ending, but there’s room for sequels and other stories set in the world, so it’s kind of like season one of a show.

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Fore World is the name of the shared universe created by the rest of the Foreworld Cabal. Foreworld is almost like the world we live in. It could even be the world we live in, perhaps. The Mongoliad is the name of the first novel set in this world.

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