I’ve been a big fan of Scott Sigler ever since I heard the podcast of his first book Earthcore. Sigler’s style is simple, pure entertainment through ultra violent sci-fi. That alone is enough to interest me, but what makes Sigler unique is his approach in the industry. Sigler releases each of his books as a free podcast audio book. Earthcore, the worlds first podcast-only novel, quickly gained popularity driving over 10,000 subscriptions by the end. Sigler continued to grow his fan base as he released new novels, Ancestor, Infection, The Rookie, and Nocturnal which is still in progress.

The podcast model of releasing a few chapters a week as episodes, leaving the listener on constant cliffhangers. Sigler’s tag line summed it up best: “You can’t peek at the end”. As the Earthcore podcast was well underway fans, began calling it Earthcrack citing their need for more. Sigler responded by referring to his fans as “Junkies”, a term of endearment he uses to this day.

This hard core fan base has been the driving force of Sigler’s popularity. It’s rare today for people to become infatuated with authors. Many people compare Sigler to Stephen King for that reason. But there’s something different amongst Sigler junkies, there’s a community. That’s something you don’t see out of the mass publishing industry.

The best example of this community at work happened just last year, on April first. Sigler requested that all of his fans buy his new book, Ancestor, from Amazon.com on the same day. The idea was to drive Ancestor to the top of the Amazon charts, if only for that day. Not only did it work amazingly well (he was number 1 in sci-fi and horror for days and number 7 overall), but it lead to his first deal with a major publisher.

The power of instant fan feedback has shaped Siglers style, and is shaping the industry as well. Infection, the podcast, was released in 2006 as a complete story. When Sigler signed with Crown Publishing to print Infection he rewrote large portions of the book, working directly from fan feedback. The final work, now named Infected, is in many ways a different story. This kind of living novel I believe is the future of written storytelling.

So I was a good Junkie and I went to the Borders on April first to buy Infected. I’m looking forward to seeing what changes were made. I might even read this time, even though Sigler is releasing the revised story as a podcast as well. I must warn you, this book is not for the squeamish. I won’t ruin it for you, but let’s just say the phrase “Save Perry’s Balls” will haunt me forever. You’ll have to read/listen to see what I’m talking about.

I live by the To Do list, and I love Remember The Milk. I never really cared for its mobile implementation though. Mobile phone data is expensive, and the browser in my Razr leaves much to be desired. In short, there was never a way to quickly add to, and receive, my To Do list on the go.

I always thought of text messages as the ultimate I/O for mobile applications, and Twitter has that model down solid. What I just discovered is that RTM has a Twitter service. This means you can direct message RTM, from your phone, through Twitter. For example, “d rtm !today” will return all of my tasks due today. “d rtm wash the car saturday” will add “wash the car” on my list for Saturday.

This is a great example of the power of open APIs. Leveraging the strengths of one system in order to augment the strengths of another. In this case: you text Twitter, Twitter contacts RTM, RTM responds back to Twitter, and finally Twitter texts you back. It seems a bit over complicated, but it works. In the end, both parties have a stronger product. And now, I finally have a use for my Twitter account.

Back in the 80s and 90s Apple produced quite a few commercials attacking their windows using brethren. I guess not much has changed. Though the past commercials didn’t have iconic personifications of the parties involved, they were equally memorable. One commercial always stuck out in my mind. It involved a dad who brought home, for his son, a CD-Rom about dinosaurs. CD-Roms were hot shit back then because no one knew what to do with 600 megabytes of storage, but I digress. Dad tries futilely to get the CD-Rom to run. Eventually the son walks out on him, proclaiming his friends are better people for having a Mac. The moral? Only bad parents run windows.

This commercial is fresh on my mind because I found myself, last weekend, living it. Substitute “Windows 3.1″ for “XP” and “CD-Rom” for “Netflix”. Regardless of the specifics, I am a bad parent because my Mac is 10 years old and in the basement. Just like the commercial, my son is huge into dinosaurs right now. We’re slowly working our way through the first 700 volumes of the Land Before Time series. I thought it was time he saw some realistic looking dinosaurs. He’s still a little young for Jurassic Park, but there is an excellent BBC series with CG dinosaurs. I went to add it to his Netflix queue when I saw it was available for download.

I used Netflix’s movie download service when it first came out. So I thought nothing of telling my son that he could watch it right now. Big Mistake… I can hear a few parents chuckling right now because you know what’s coming. The thing I don’t understand is why Netflix can’t just jump on the Flash bandwagon when it comes to streaming video. For reasons I can only assume are related to DRM BS, I had to install the latest Windows Media player. Fifteen minutes I waited for this beast to download and install. Then I had to reboot. Why the hell do I have to reboot just for installing a media player? Anyway, this is the point where my son walked out on me like the dad in the commercial. I began to hate commercial software vendors for requiring me to use Windows, and Apple for pointing out that I am a bad parent.

Of course, after the reboot I still wasn’t done. Now the Netflix player had to be updated as well; another five minutes. Being the tech god that I am, the thing did eventually work. The point is, that old apple commercial still holds true. This post is already getting too long so I’ll spare you my rant on why this would not happen in any other operating system. I just wanted to share this little anecdote with the world. It’s the little things that impress me, which is why Microsoft never fails at letting me down.

I’m not a fan of creepy goth music, but I’ve been a big fan of the band Johnny Hollow’s web site for years. Band member Vincent Marcone heads up the production crew for My Pet Skeleton Productions, the label under which they produce their flash content. The original Johnny Hollow site debuted in 2003 and is just as visually stunning today as it was then. Recently they have revamped their new site along with the release of their second album, Dirty Hands.

What’s most interesting about this site is a tightly integrated flash game titled “Scuttle Buggary“. The interface is intuitive, and allows you to discover rather than direct. You easily notice the familiar arrow keys meshed into the design. If you click on them you are told to use your keys to control a beetle on the screen. As you navigate to the game entrance, you receive tips on how to play the game. Game play is simple, use your bug to push globs of goo into a drain. But is enough to keep you from getting bored too quick.

What’s so impressive isn’t so much the game as the game’s commitment to the theme of the site. Most adver-games tend to be a rehash of some existing game, themed with the product, and slapped on to the product site with a link; Scuttle Buggary is part of the whole experience. The game uses tracks from the album both as the soundtrack and the timer for the game. Each level is a new song, and you must complete the level before the song is over. Winning a level unlocks the song on the home page, where you can listen to it in full. Throughout all of this you are never for a moment taken away from that grunge goth mood of the Johnny Hollow music.

I love to use Johnny Hollow as an example of solid web marketing. Their original site was one of the first to offer a complete play list when most offered a 30 second sample. Their new site makes my argument even stronger. Creating a full experience on the web is key to success as radio and television and print become less and less relevant; especially if your target audience is under the age of 20. I suspect that this philosophy of “the complete experience” will become mandatory. Those that are successful will have embraced this philosophy whole hearted.