Digital Americana: A Magazine For iPad, And A Sign Of Things To Come

Digital Americana has just popped up out of nowhere, claiming to be “the first literary & culture magazine developed especially for the interactive tablet experience.”

Or to put it another way, it will be “a new interactive magazine made exclusively for the Apple iPad”. And anyone can contribute.

The editors are looking for fiction, artwork and photography in all genres. They’ve already got enough for the first issue, and now they’re looking to fill up May-August.

What I like about this is that it shows the iPad will be just as much an exciting new departure for low-budget independent publishing as it will be for the big name branded publishers.

Everyone’s been talking about how the iPad will change magazines, how it will compete with the Kindle and other ebook readers. But I’ve not seen any discussion about independent publishing, which tends to get overlooked pretty much everywhere.

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Of course, we know from the App Store that being independent doesn’t mean you have to remain obscure any more. If your stuff is good, it will get good ratings from users and bubble higher up the store. Good independent stuff can make a fortune for its creators. We’ve seen that happen with games.

Perhaps soon, on the iPad, we’re going to see the same thing happen with magazines.

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