Most of the time I write eMarketing tips for GottaQuirk but occasionally, something unusual and awesome catches my eye and I feel like I have to share it. This is one of those times.

Basically, Smories.com (smories = small stories) is a crowdsourcing platform that sources stories for children from both amateur and professional writers around the world. The best of these are read aloud by children, filmed and posted online for parents and their literature-starved offspring to enjoy. Fifty new smories are posted every month.

Admittedly, Smories.com did not just catch my eye by accident. And here’s where I have a disclaimer to make: my dear dad – incidentally one of the world’s best storytellers – has entered one of his children’s stories. With very few entries from South Africa making it through to finals (and his being one that did), I am holding thumbs that it does well. Of course, it’s also a great kids’ story - one that I will definitely be sharing with any sprogs that I happen to produce in the future.

The children's story, "Doll" was submitted to the Smories site by Glenn Lawson. Image Credit: Smories

The creators of this great concept had this to say:

“We thought a website that had a continuous flow of new stories, read aloud by kids, would make a healthier destination than so much of the stuff out there. Imagine you're stuck in traffic and need to keep a miniature person entertained in the back. Access a playlist of smories stories from your iPhone and voila.”

The success of the smories that make it through to the top 50 depend on votes, where a view of the video is considered to be a vote. Of course, this is a far from perfect system of gauging popularity - because you have to watch the video (an automatic endorsement) before you can form an opinion and there’s no real way to take it back if you thought that it was less interesting than the nutritional information on the back of your ProNutro box. Nonetheless, it’s an awesome concept and may help some of our literature–starved children to drag themselves away from the Wii for a minute to consume something worthwhile.

To my mind, it’s the beginning of the solution to a growing problem - there just don’t seem to be as many good authors out there anymore (barring J.K. Rowling of course). Where I was revelling in the delights of Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl and Beatrix Potter, all I see in the bookshops these days is mediocre fantasy literature rife with spelling errors, and worse, that saga about vampires that I prefer not to talk about for fear of offending it’s 1000s of fans out there. But really? The emotional rollercoaster of being a vampire? Give me talking dolls, thieving rabbits or cunning foxes any day!

 Also check out:

• Crowdsourcing Creative Ideas
• Telling Stories with Twitter