Selling pop culture one chapter at a time

Gonzo pop culture writer Chuck Klosterman has stumbled into a new way to redistribute his books: One chapter at a time using an iTunes-like model of charging 99 cents a pop.

I say stumbled because on this Soundcheck interview (stream above), Klosterman doesn't even know where people can download his work using this new model.

I had to find out by searching Google, finally landing at a "Chuck Klosterman eCollection" page on the Simon and Schuster website.

Once there, the site is easy to use, with bright colors and clear titles enticing one to buy. If you're familiar with Klosterman's books, you know he has the attention span of, well, me. Which means he hops from subject to subject, with book topics running the gamut from Britney Spears to Lakers basketball. Thankfully, in addition to being able to buy e-book chapters ala carte, he sells $7.99 bundles of columns package by topics like sports, rock, pop, media and culture.

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We've entered a revolution in web design

The Twitter redesign is just one bit of news this past week about new website or app designs that focus on how to better present dynamically generated content in fresh and indigent ways.

I heard on This Week In Media that MySpace's redesign, set for launch in October, draws inspiration from Flipboard. If you're not an iPad user, check out the video below on how Flipboard works. It has revolutionized the concept of serendipity in packing packaging personalized content in new ways. Facebook, Twitter and some of my favorite RSS feeds were already sticky but Flipboard makes them moreso by pulling in images that you or others linked to, but did not directly publish.   

iPad apps like FLUD and Pulse draw similar inspiration in allowing one to add their own mix of RSS feeds, and have the apps surface the content in attractive ways, and often more intuitively than their original source. So what once were heavy text feeds now come to life with rich images and integrated social-media connections.

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Logan Molen is a silly name

Stumbled across this fun text-to-video animation tool from XtraNormal the other day, and decided to have some fun with it while exploring ideas for inexpensive, off-the-cuff marketing. 

What you see here was created in a few minutes using XtraNormal's free tools. You can add a variety of gestures and body movements (I added a few oversize movements for laughs). You can pay money to remove the XtraNormal branding, customize characters and scenes, or open other controls. 

Cheesy, yes, but cool possibilities with a little practice.