The Following interview was conducted by: John Walsh

Bob Gunner is an author and publisher. As one of the founding figures of e-publishing, he now manages the Cyberpulp website (http://come.to/cyberpulp) that remains at the forefront of the interface between fiction and technology. I asked Bob about his views about e-publishing and its implications for the future of reading. Fittingly, we communicated by email.

Bob, a lot of fiction on the Internet seems to be becoming shorter and shorter. Do you think this is related to the shortening of attention spans in modern society or just a fad?

[Bob] I think that attention span varies from one individual to another. As an Editor, one is taught to trim words and make prose as brief and concise as humanly possible, while keeping the story intact. In our world today, reading has taken a back seat to brevity and real time interaction. Publishers of news and features on the Internet have found that brevity is needed to present information to those with limited time. Surfers scan information on the Internet, reading what is of interest to them and clicking through that which they are not interested in. Presentation of information is changing on a daily basis, so traditional storytelling might have to adapt to these new rules sometime in the near future.

What new forms of fiction might emerge from this?

Micro-fiction (short stories, novellas, and collections) are already popular for those who wish to read short works, and I see that this is one way that story presentation to the mainstream consumer might go in the near future. I think there should be different versions available for different people, I like to read and will continue to do so, but my child may have the need for shorter presentations, this is something worthy of further study.

Some authors are now integrating emails, text messages and instant messages as part of a multimedia approach to story-telling. Do you have any plans to try this?

[Bob] Of course, I have done so in many of my past projects, and have several that would be perfect for these kinds of multimedia and interactive approaches. In order to capture the audience that watches television, plays video games, and spends most of their days chatting through instant messaging, it is going to become a real challenge to interest these consumers in traditional books. Books must evolve into media that captures their attention and interest. The possibilities are endless. We have only just begun to examine where this will go.

Many businesses seem to follow good business models on the web but few make any money. Do you think e-publishing is here to stay?

[Bob] I hope so. I think that one must do what they feel satisfies them in their life. I will be one of the first to admit that I have made very little money over the years publishing or being published over the Internet. I have been a pioneer and built an audience during this time for what I write and produce. It is a niche market, but growing each year. I was around and involved professionally in the dot.com era, and I saw smart people who were so stupid, they lost millions because they lost track of reality. Reality is that in order to have a successful business, you must make a profit. Too many Indian chiefs and not enough Indians is what made all those dot.com marvels topple to the ground. The young were so tied up in spending the start-up funding and living the good life; they did not listen to the suggestions of the silver-haired employees who tried to warn them of the downfalls.

So how can the industry overcome these problems?

[Bob] In order for ePublishing to thrive and grow, there needs to be standardization and fair practice. Investment costs for a project must be low, and new avenues created to market and promote the product. I think when these roadblocks are overcome, there might even come a day when individual author-published books will have the opportunity to be marketed and compete with the products of the big publishers. We have a lot of work to do. And I admit, I cannot do this myself. I need help from those who want to make the dream come true. I am a positive thinking person, I have thought about giving up and quitting many times, but I never did. It will take networking, and fighting for the cause, and delivering the goods for real success to become a reality. The ability of readers to create new online communities and networks can be an important part of the attempt to bring people together. Epublishing needs leaders and visionaries to help shape the future of publishing. Bob Gunner is one such leader.