Instar Books Turns Publishing Into Video Game

By Dianna Dilworth 

Instar Books is using digital tools to build new form of renegade book publishing. So it is the perfect fit that the latest work in the imprint’s catalog is called, “Videogames for Humans: Twine Authors in Conversation.”

Edited by Merritt Kopas, the book explores the emerging scene of open source video game design community Twine. The eBook edition of the book has built in video games and new products associated with the book will be released based on book sales.

The publisher allows the public to follow its sales figures, 208 eBooks have sold so far. There are a number of sales goals and for each goal, a new kind of product is unlocked, not unlike in a video game. For instance, when 25 eBooks were sold, print books were unlocked. When 200 books were sold, jacket patches were made available for sale. If 1,000 copies sell, Kopas will record and release a full album of music, with a song for each game in the book.