Storytown Publishing Company

Is it a TV series, an online participative game, or an actual place?

A fantasy place that brings to life the many self-published books that were written from the heart, and could have been hits, if they'd just had a good editor, some rework, and caring promotion.
Some progressive POD (Publishing on Demand) houses, such as Infinity, might already have a wealth of such stories, and authors who'd cooperate.

It's a town where each week, a repertory company brings the story to life, and the author, or an actor surrogate, is in it. That's Storytown.

The setting is fanciful, like the towns in big fish and edward scizzorhands. My preference would be a cross between East Haddam, CT and Prescott, AZ. A big town square, dominated by a large central building--courthouse or town hall, maybe-- with big steps, a broad green, and a nearby geographic anchor, such as a bay, a mountain, or both.
Off the town square is a rambling, old hotel. One wing is a bar-restaurant where a lot of interactions take place. It also houses a small publishing company. The business works like a late 50s song factory, but instead of song writers, there are story editors reviewing, rewriting and elaborating, bringing the stories to life.

This is where the magic begins to happen. One calls over a cubical wall to another, "Hey, you gotta hear this.' Others drift by, stop to listen, and chime in. Almost imperceptibly, they begin to morph into the characters, drift out into the street, and the story takes life.

Sometimes something will go wrong, like in Princess Bride where the Fred (something) character says to his grandpa, "No, that can't be what happened." Something inconsistent will happen, or a character will say, "I wouldn't say that" or "Are you kidding?" If the discrepancy can't be resolved, the story can be killed in mid-scene. The other characters may just drift away, grumbling, or back to what they were doing in their offices, as they take off a wig, remove a fat suit, and so on.

Conversely, in a story that's evolving especially well-- say, a poigniant moment-- a writer may smile, step out of character, and reflect, or comment to another, "you did that beautifully. I was really touched." All else will go still, then resume when the moment passes.

What about this as a conceptual framework for an online, participatory game, and the participants are (online agents; I forget the real word)?

It could launch as a vodcast series, with sponsors. I could probably get intern editor/actors, series writers, and production people just from Kelly Writers House at Penn, and Temple's Media school. As it picks up sponsors, the talent would start to get paid.
Maybe Scribe Media Center-- they've helped produce lots of street stories and audio memoirs.

It could be a theatre piece, but that tends to become a dead-end quagmire.