Meet Ridge – Behind the scenes of Maybe Someday

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Is that the Crave app in your pocket or are you just excited to see me?

If you’ve been living under a rock (or maybe you took a tech vacation), Crave is one of the hottest new apps, delivering some of romance’s bestselling novels alongside additional media like short cinematic videos, text exchanges, gifs, and voicemails from the story’s leading man. Though some of these elements are adapted straight from the book, the creative team behind Crave also works closely with the author to create entirely new plotlines, giving you exclusive narratives you can’t find anywhere but in the app. The team gave us an inside look at what it takes to produce a book for Crave on the set of their newest book, Colleen Hoover’s Maybe Someday. What follows is a hybrid of traditional movie magic and digital publishing alchemy.

 

One thing about Colleen: she is not shy. When Crave and Simon and Schuster (her publisher) asked Colleen to be a part of the app, she said yes almost instantly. Excited to explore this wholly new form of narrative, Colleen debuted on the app and received effusive praise for taking on this bold initiative. As a treat to readers, users of the app can message directly with the author, giving Colleen and her fans almost instantaneous access to each other.

 

This exciting, engaged community is one of the reasons Crave chose to try something different with their fourth book. Unlike the first three titles, Maybe Someday was chosen by the fans. Some of the earliest feedback the Crave team received was from initial downloaders craving — pun intended — previously released books produced in this new format. Using the heaven-sent wonder social media, Crave then asked Colleen’s fans which book they would like to read (and see and hear) next. The result? Maybe Someday.

 

Creating an entire universe for a story is not a task for the faint of heart.

We begin in editorial. First, Crave’s head writer analyzes the story at hand and creates a dramatic framework. This document serves as a pared outline, dissecting the characters and their motivations for the entire team. From this document the team begins to identify story anchors and develops concepts for alternative plot lines. Crave’s creative director works on assembling a mood board based on some of these ideas to find a cohesive aesthetic for all the elements.

Ridge — example of in-app content

The writers then create an ‘enhanced script’ based off the book. This document contains every single media element Crave will produce — this also allows the team to compare the actual book side-by-side with what will be created, eliminating the chance for inconsistencies with the original story.

 

Then the cameras begin to roll. The writers send a brief to a casting director, who then sends back a shortlist of potential actors. While an actor is being selected, the rest of the team is already working on acquiring locations and creating call sheets, one-liners, and shooting schedules.

Set days are long, but it’s where the Crave team says most of the bonding happens. All the stress of shooting becomes worthwhile in post-production, where cinematic clips are color-corrected and further enhanced by sound and graphic design.

Special elements, like text messages and audio plays, are also created during post-production. You know when you’re texting with someone and you see the ‘now typing’ bubbles (and experience all the anxiety that goes along with that sight)? Team Crave knows exactly how that goes and is sure to incorporate the fine details (like those wonderful, horrible dots) in these bonus elements.

Finally, after everything has been reviewed, all the content gets packaged into the app and sent over to the development team who pushes it to your pockets (or wherever your phone is).

Get ready to say hello to your next Book Boyfriend!