“Dracula: The Official Stoker Family Edition” Crowned ‘App of the Week’…and Why You Should Care

As you may have realized I’ve been a tad absent from updating here.  That’s largely due to my launching of my new multimedia company, PadWorx Digital Media Inc.

So, we released our first title, “Dracula: The Official Stoker Family Edition” on Wednesday, October 20 (by coincidence, Bela Lugosi’s birthday).  On Thursday we got knocked out of our seats when we found out that our app was named “App of the Week” by Apple.

Firstly, it’s an honor and immensely satisfying to get that kind of recognition so quickly.  But YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS MEANS TO YOU.

I’m assuming that most people coming to this site are writers.  You have your eye set on the big fish — writing for features or television — and that’s fine.  Someone has to write those, so why not you?  I’ve done both, and it’s also very satisfying, however, you are in a perpetual state of waiting for the phone to ring.   Unless you’re independently wealthy, you need someone to change your life by hiring you.   Maybe they’ll call and maybe they won’t.  And even if they do, and you get that job, as soon as it’s over you’re back to waiting for the phone to ring again.

But there is something you can do while waiting.  You can create something from nothing and get it out to the world.  The digital universe moves in real time, and it is the ultimate democracy.   You don’t have to live in Los Angeles to be taken seriously, you don’t have to be a youngwhitemale who went to USC, you don’t have to suck-up to anyone’s D-Person, you don’t have to beg an agent to rep you, you just have to be creative and willing to reach out across digispace to like-minded strangers, get them to share your creative vision and then will it into being.   Of course, it helps if there’s the bit of the entrepreneur in you, but I believe “entrepreneur” is a behavior and behaviors can be learned.

My friends, I’m telling you that we are living in magical times, at the dawn of a digital media revolution.  The revolution needs you; your ideas, the force of your conviction on those ideas, your creative spark.  According to a recent article, by the end of this year there will be 20 million tablet PC’s sold.  And then another 55 million in 2011.  And then over 208 million in 2014.  Add up those numbers, and you basically have an entire US population’s worth of tablet PC’s out in the world.  And you know what?  They’re all going to need content.

So, what are you going to do?  Sit around and wait for someone to call you and give you permission to be creative?   Dear Lord, I hope not.

— Jeffrey Alan Schechter