Guest Host for 1/22/12 #storyappchat: Melissa Northway!

We are so excited to share our special guest host for this Sunday’s (January 22) #storyappchat: Melissa Northway, author of Penelope the Purple Pirate!

Penelope the Purple Pirate is a delightful story about a little girl who turns her room into a swashbucklin’ pirate adventure. Northway came up with the story while creating bedtime stories for her daughter Kate:

My husband and I have to be pretty creative in coming up with new adventures each night. That is how Penelope the Purple Pirate came about. My husband was talking about “Red Beard” and his adventures with Kate. That night I wrote Penelope the Purple Pirate.

The Penelope story is now available both in print and in Kindle format, but it started as a storybook app from PicPocket Books.

In addition to answering your questions, Northway will be giving away promo codes for Penelope and more! Of course, you are welcome to check out the app ahead of time too. Bring your questions for Melissa, and we will see you this Sunday (January 22) at 9:00 p.m. EST!

Transcript for the 12/11/11 #storyappchat: App Trailers

View this document on Scribd

My sincere apologies for the horrible formatting, backwards sorting and bloated file size of last night’s transcript–the service I normally use for transcripts was DOWN last night and today, and I had to make do with copying and pasting from the standard Twitter window. YUCK. If anyone knows about any elegant and free Twitter chat transcript services (besides the broken Tweet Reports, grrrr!) please let me know.

Inferior transcript aside, the chat last night was fantastic! There are so many exciting things going on in the world of storybook apps, and lots of wonderful app trailers being created.

Next Sunday (December 18) we will be talking about creating special holiday-themed books, and debating if these are worth the development cost. Don’t miss it–we will kick things off at 9:00 p.m. Eastern (6:00 p.m. PST)!

NOTE: Due to the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, we will be taking the dates of 12/25 and 1/1/12 off. The first chat of 2012 will be the 1/8 chat, when we’ll have Lynley Stace [@lynleystace] with us as guest host to talk about her brand-new storybook app ‘The Artifacts‘!

Topic for 12/11/11 #storyappchat: App Trailers

App trailers (short videos about your app, designed to generate interest and excitement) are becoming a very important part of the marketing phase of app development. In fact, many app review sites are now making an app trailer a required part of the review.

But how easy are they to create? Is it necessary to contract with a big-budget media group to produce one, or can you spend a few hours with iMovie (like I did) and put one together at almost no cost?

Let’s talk about app trailers at the next installment of #storyappchat THIS Sunday (December 11), at 9:00 p.m. EST. Bring links of your favorite app video trailers, including your own (if you have one). Let’s share the elements that go into a good app trailer, and how they can be used to promote a storybook app. Be prepared to ask and answer questions, and in the meantime, check out these book and app trailers below!

A Present for Milo by Ruckus Media Group

Tracks in the Sand by Loreen Leedy

Touchybooks

Peterkin Meets a Star by PicPocket Books

JibJab Jr.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Bartleby’s Book of Buttons by Monster Costume

Cinderella by Nosy Crow Apps