Exclusive: Fahrenheit Press go ‘Transmedia’ – another first

Another first from Fahrenheit Press. This time they’ve gone ‘Transmedia’ What does this mean? Read on to find out…

Fahrenheit Press have certainly hit the publishing scene with a bang. They are shaking up how things are usually done. They are open about sales numbers and author deals, provide funny and granted sometimes rude interaction on social media and have a proclivity for random photo-shopping. Not content with being the first publisher ever to be allowed to sell a book on Amazon with no details as to the author or title Fahrenheit Press have brought us another first. Chris McVeigh, the brains behind the new crime and thriller publishers has worked his magic again. Having worked in the music industry Chris wanted a way to pull the two creative sides of his life together. And so he has, with a bang.

Collaborating with the band Blind Pilgrim he asked them to write a song for Fahrenheit Press. The result: Burn Again, which Chris describes as a ‘sleazy off-kilter bluesy number’, which fits the publishing company to a T’.  When Charles Kriel heard the song it inspired him so much that he wanted to integrate it into the story so he went back and rewrote one of the chapters to include the lyrics from the song, as he explains here;

“I’ve worked with transmedia concepts for years, building games that tell stories through every format possible. My biggest project was The White Island which featured 14 superstar DJs and was launched by Pete Tong. At the same time I’ve been pretty disappointed that publishing has been so slow to exploit technology, so when Chris told me about this opportunity I jumped at it.

I was listening to Burn Again when I reread chapter 4 and knew it would be perfect for the story. Fire is a theme throughout the book, as is Mel being a badass. 

And it fits Fahrenheit perfectly. They’re the only publishing house who would go along with an idea like this – releasing an entirely new edition of a book to include a song that didn’t exist when the book was first published. They’re doing things other publishers wouldn’t dream of. Some folks go on about thinking out of the box – Chris McVeigh doesn’t even know where the box is.”

The result of all this is that the Burn Again edition of Charles Kriel’s best-selling book The Lobster Boy And The Fat Lady’s Daughter is now on sale at Amazon. I have to say I love the idea of this. I may be the only person to do this but I often think of songs that would fit scenes in books, creating a sound track for the movie I’m playing in my head, if you will. That’s why this seems like the perfect plan. I believe it will make the story more rounded, more ‘real’, being able to listen to the song as Mel does.

The band are also clearly excited about this unique experiment as Stef Theodorou, bass player with Blind Pilgrim explains;

“When Chris asked us to write a song for Fahrenheit Press, we couldn’t wait to be a part of something so innovative. When we heard that Charles loved the song so much that he wanted to write it into his book we were blown away. Music has always been the perfect accompaniment to literature and to be the first band ever to write and record a song especially for a publisher to include in a book is just incredible!” 

In fact I’ve been lucky enough to be able to give it a go. I read the revamped Chapter 4 of The Lobster Boy and the Fat Lady’s Daughter whilst listening to Burn Again. And it seemed to me a perfect fit. It did seem to make the scene more real.  The sound of the song encompassed how I imagined the scene, gives you a sense of Mel, other than that described and gave me a hint as to how the rest of the novel will feel. A great amalgam of story and song and a great idea.

And what does the shy, retiring Mr McVeigh have to say about all this?

“Awesome ain’t it? 

It’s all so ‘meta’ it’s making my head spin. 

I’ve always had a Berlin Wall running between my work in the music industry and publishing but as I reread the new version of the book with the song playing in the background I suddenly had a vivid image of a bare-chested Charles Kriel, standing Thor-like, swinging a massive Blind Pilgrim shaped sledgehammer and busting that wall wide open. I knew right then that we had to make this happen.

Every author I know has an intimate relationship with music and every musician I know takes a lot of their inspiration from the books they read (yes, even the drummers – shut it you – comics are a kind of book). The convergence of Charles Kriel and Blind Pilgrim was almost entirely random but this all just seems like it was meant to be. For sure the universe is a minx, but in my experience she knows what she’s doing and it turns out she’s a minx with awesome taste in books & music.”

There you have it;

* A publisher commissions a band to write a song to publicise a book.

* The band record the song and release it as a single.

* The author loves it so much he writes the song into the book.

* The publisher releases a new version of the book with the song included.

* Life imitating art, imitating life, imitating art.

So you can now not only read the story but listen to its soundtrack too.

You can buy Burn Again here and watch the video here.

And The Lobster Boy and the Fat Lady’s Daughter is available here.