TG: So where did the idea for pageramming come from?

WF: I was on a train reading a draft of Rob’s story and I thought, “This is rubbish, it will be a waste of good trees if this ever gets printed, so we’d better look to put it on-line.”

TG: Really?

WF: No. I liked the story and I like the opportunities that the web offers. It was a long train journey and I was very bored. That’s how I came up with the idea. I also came up with an invention for a high-tech sports-trailer that day. I should go on boring journeys more often.

TG: So it wasn’t written as a pageram.

WF: No. Rob wrote it as an account of his summer in 2009. You’re better off asking him about it. He said he wanted to start with a capital letter and, 80,000 words later, finish with a full stop. He just about achieved that.

TG: Is it an ideal “pageram”?

WF: Yes and no. It is contemporary and touches on things that people are familiar with. Rob likes and understands technology so it was quite easy to ram it once he got started.

TG:  The term “pageramming” is pretty descriptive. Was it prompted by the title of Rob’s story?

WF: No. Completely the other way round. I came up with the idea and christened it “pageramming”, and I bought the URLs. Rob’s story was called “That’s all I need”. My friend, Daren, pointed out that it sounded like a self-help book. You don’t want your readership to have suicidal tendencies; it’s not sustainable.

TG: Is it not confusing to have the title of the story the same as the concept?

WF: Yes, I guess it is.......if you are an idiot. If there was a book called “Book”, you would say, “Have you read Book?” which - despite syntactic similarities - is very different from “Have you read a book?” or “Have you read books?” The English language is good for subtleties. That said, I am not suggesting that pageram is subtle, or that pagerams are subtle.

TG: Are you looking to add a new word to the English language?

WF: We already have - we’ve used it several times in this interview. If you are asking, do I want it to appear in the OED, I couldn’t care less. Rob and I have discussed pageramming every day for the last year, so it must exist.

TG: Coming back to Rob and the story. You have described it as “contemporary fiction”, yet it is written by Rob, about Rob. Is that not confusing?

WF: Once again, only if you an idiot. “Fact” and “the truth” happen to you in the first person and in real time. Thereafter, they are fiction.

TG: That sounds quite pretentious.

WF: It may well be, but have you met Rob?

TG:  No. Does he exist?

WF: You’ll have to ask him. He’s on Facebook so he must exist. Become his friend and ask him.

TG: The plugging of Facebook; some would say it is a blatant way of publicising what you are doing.

WF: Well spotted.

TG: So it is?

WF: Yes. Very much so. I think Facebook and the mentality - and I mean that positively - that goes with it is a good fit with what pageram is trying to do. I may be wrong but I believe that there are people on Facebook that like literature. And, the fact that they are on Facebook suggests that they like what the web can offer. Is it 400M or 500M users? I am interested to see whether it gathers momentum and whether people do suggest it to their friends.

TG: And the characters from pageram are on Facebook as well? And readers can become friends with them? This does start to blur the line between fact and fiction?

WF: I don’t think Rob is trying to blur the line, I think he would like to erase it. How many times have you finished a novel and still had unanswered questions? With pagerams, you can contact the main players and ask them directly.

TG: And they’ll answer?

WF: Yes - if it’s a sensible question and not asked by one of these easily-confused idiots.

TG: That means that pagerams could go on forever as each new generation discovers them.

WF: That’s more pretentious than what I said earlier. We’ve rammed four chapters and you are already predicting immortality for pageram characters. Firstly, people will lose interest, and secondly.........it’s just a stupid question.

TG: So, will there be more pagerams?

WF: I hope so. The first step is to get people talking about it and to gauge the reaction. If people like it then I shall ram the remaining chapters. Once that is done, I’ll lock Rob in a room and get him to write another, and I shall be looking for submissions from writers - or “wrammers as we like to call them.

TG: And is the plan to make them freely available?

WF: Probably. If this is going to take-off, then it will need funding. Advertising revenue is a start, as are tie-ups with brands for individual pagerams. But, these are avenues that we need to explore.

TG: Dragon’s Den?

WF: I don’t think so. Debra would be “out” pretty quickly once Rob started. You’ve got to remember that this isn’t a business, yet. We’re working on proof of concept. If it does work, I think it has a lot of potential. If it is “3G publishing or e-Book 2.0” then Peter Jones or Google might be interested. But, only when it becomes a business.

TG: And that’s where you want to do with it?

WF: What? Make money out of it?

TG: Yes.

WF: Well, I’m not Mother Theresa or Ghandi so, yes, I would like to make a living from it. That might be through growing it or selling it. We’ll have to see.

TG: When you say “grow it”, are you suggesting that there are new features that we haven’t seen yet?

WF: Yes. But we will only work on these if the first reactions are good. The first release is just the start. We will update Facebook and Twitter as new things are added. Then, there are possible new titles, and there is a whole area that is waiting to be exploited, but it’s an areas that neither Rob nor I have any experience of, but it could be as attractive as the music and video aspects of pageramming. It’s something that we need to explore. We have done everything ourselves so far. We have learnt new skills when it comes to websites, and had to get up to date on how web advertising works. There is still a lot more to learn. It’s labour intensive at the moment. We will need funding to pursue some ideas - either to pay for our own time, or somebody else’s. We’ve both got day-jobs that we need to do. But, to answer your question simply, yes, there is more to come - a lot more.


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