Sunday, March 17, 2013

Google Unit to Launch eBooks That Tie-In to Their Hot Game, Ingress

PublishersLunch

A division within Google--Niantic Labs--is readying the first in a potentially extensive line of ebooks and books, in conjunction with author and co-publisher Thomas Greanias and his @tlantis books. It's known as the ALIGNMENT series and the first first ebook novella, the 150-page THE ALIGNMENT: INGRESS, is set for publication on April 2 in the Google Play Store, but also on all other major ebook platforms, either simultaneously or shortly thereafter. (Pricing for the title has yet to be finalized.) The books tie-in to Niantic's hot alternate/augmented reality MMOG Ingress that Google has been rolling out in closed beta over the past few months. Greanias says that Ingress has over 500,000 active players and "another million or so on the invite list who want to play." Invitations are going out as Google is able to scale capacity to meet the demand. Google product manager for the Ingress game Brandon Badger confirms the ebook release, as well plans for a potentially extensive line of additional books covered in more detail below. "The goal is to reach as many Ingress players as possible," Badger told us. "The book augments the rich story in the Ingress mobile game that our team launched."
Publishers Lunch is the first to display the cover outside of a small circle at Google (even there, information about the book line has been tightly held), and Greanias saysTheAlignment this release will be followed shortly by a widely-disseminated trailer and short excerpt. The series features main characters Conrad Yeats (an archaeologist) and Serena Seghetti (a linguist), who are at the heart of Greanias's traditionally-published RAISING ATLANTIS series of books from Atria. Those two characters are also featured in the Ingress game, and the book features a new character from the game as well, Hank Johnson, in a "sci-tech adventure set in Africa and the hunt for the true secret behind the Queen of Sheba's gold and her relationship with King Solomon." The release of the first ebook will coordinate with the "launch of next module in game play" on Ingress, Greanias says, "fully introducing the character of Hank Johnson as well my own characters Conrad Yeats and Serena Serghetti."
For Ingress players, the books will have "embedded codes and clues and rewards that pay off what they have already done and lead them into dimensions of gameplay." And for general readers "who have no clue what 'exotic matter' or 'resonators' or 'transdimensional portals' might be," Greanias says this first title "is a wonderful introduction into this world."
Greanias indicates the books are co-published by Niantic and his own @tlantis Books, with Greanias as author. He reports to Niantic Labs head John Henke on the project. More broadly, Greanias says they are "open to publishing partners for possible print distribution" as well as "other collaboration opportunities that advance long-term vision."
Current plans call for "several ALIGNMENT ebooks that will ultimately be published in a single hardcover," THE ALIGNMENT: FEDERAL CITY, which Greanias is already teasing on his own web site. There are potentially 13 ALIGNMENT books to follow and a variety of other books and enhanced ebooks that draw on game assets, and more.
Greanias says he connected with Niantic via a high-level "creative genius at Google," where a number of people were fans of his books "and we share a compelling long-term vision for the future of publishing."
Teaser
Beyond that, Greanias has some history with self-published ebooks. Long before the current ebook boom, way back in 2000, he promoted his first novel RAISING ATLANTIS with a pdf "single" (Washingtonopple) and when Atria bought publishing rights in 2004 the PM deal report billed it as "originally a bestselling ebook on Amazon and a popular Web series."

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