7 Days of iPad: Days 4+5 (the eBook Ultimatum)

April 11, 2010 in Journal with 12 Comments

First of all, if this post is a tad short please forgive me. I’ve got a nasty 2nd degree burn on my index finger and thumb, so typing is a bit of a challenge. Apparently, roasted marshmallow Peeps are as hot as lava right off the stick. Lesson learned at a friend’s house tonight as we were standing around the camp fire. So, note to self. Audio note, preferably. Wow, never realized how often I type the letters “T” and “R”. Ouch.

Now onto the business of eBooks and such. I’ll dive right in. Publishers big and small are jumping on this idea of “enhanced eBooks” as a way to endear readers to the digital medium. The line of thought goes something like this: People think ebooks are overpriced so if we embed “value added content” into an ebook such as video, live links to a website, or audio clips then people will be more apt to buy the ebook for, say,  $14.99 instead of $9.99. Give them more and they’ll pay more. Right?

Not necessarily.

There are a few problems with this line of thought, but we won’t get into that right now. For me the key issue is whether or not readers even want “enhanced ebooks” at all. If I had to venture a guess, and I will, I’d have to say probably not. Why? It’s still early in the game, first of all. Even with the iPad the mechanics of embedding content within an ebook is still a version 2.0 proposition. So, it’s still clunky. But beyond that, there’s a second consideration that is a deal killer for me: enhanced ebooks as they are currently being discussed threaten to break the fictive bubble that makes reading novels so wonderful.

Here’s what I mean: Suppose you’re reading the latest and greatest thriller and find a live link in the text. You tap/click it and the ebook closes (or minimizes). You’re taken to a website or application that runs a video of the author talking about that portion of the book like a “director’s cut” commentary. Or maybe it takes you to a video of actors playing out the scene or a photo montage of the art museum where the murder in the book has just happened. Either way, the enhanced content has accomplished only one thing well: It transported you away from the story, not deeper into it. It broke your fictive bubble. And we’re assuming that’s what readers want?

True, how content integrates cross-platform will evolve and become more seamless with time, but I think the industry is missing it by presuming they know what readers want without first asking them. And, believe me, there isn’t a lot of market research going into this right now because everyone’s just trying to get something to market ahead of the next guy. Enhanced, at least right now, doesn’t necessarily mean better.

So what’s the solution? I’ll lay my opinion on you, for what it’s worth. That and $4 will get you a decent latte in most places. Here it is: I think we should allow stories to stand on their own two legs (or three if you read Stephen King-type stories), let the story be the story and let that be enough as far as the ebook is concerned. That’s it.

But what about enhanced content? you might ask. Well, who says it has to be embedded in the ebook? That’s an argument from a weak imagination. We’re storytellers for goodness sake. Let’s figure out how to leverage technology in interesting ways. What about creating a prologue to the novel that is a social game? Or what about creating interactive apps that do the job of unfolding backstory or going deeper with a character? Oh, and you can charge for those, too. Or what about a novella released only in audio that sets up the novel? The possibilities are infinite, really.

My point is that everybody is focusing on the same things right now, which means there’s an opportunity to go the other direction. And usually that’s the right choice. Different. Interesting. And that’s what people like. It’s what I like. Give me different and innovative any day and I’ll come along for the ride. Wouldn’t you?

So, let me ask you. What kind of “enhanced ebook” would get you excited to check it out?

  • http://deleted John

    newline cinema has this thing called Infinifilm and i HATE IT. It’s where they take all the special features on the dvd and put them into an alternate cut of the film, so as you watch it, obnoxious little bubbles come up asking if you want to know how they made a certain scene or what the director thought about this actor’s performance or why this (stupid) scene was deleted (because it was stupid)… etc….
    yes, that is film, but i would not want a book doing the same thing.
    That being said, I have bought entire CDs cause i wanted that bonus track that was “album only.” SO hey, if there was something REALLY MUST HAVE then yeah i would plunk down the money.
    Things i would like to see? A lot of writers listen to music to get them in the mood for certain characters. There’s something about the poetry and nature of music that inspires writers. How about a playlist…. come to think of it… that’s kind of gimmicky.
    in the end, i don’t think ebooks will be marketed to people who already read as much as they will be targeted at those who don’t have the attention span to read a novel without constant distractions. To those people, being taken out of the story to see some flashy visual or hear some over-produced audio clip will be a nice welcome break that will hold them over for the rest of the book, much like action scenes or special effects shots in movies. There are sooooooooo many movies that put in mindless action/effects that distract from the story either because the story isn’t that great, or the director (or, more likely, the studio head who has never made a film in his life) thinks the audience needs something exciting besides all that “boring” character and story.
    SO i don’t think enhanced ebooks will have my interest for a while, but i also realize i am not the demographic. Not a whole lot of people read novels. Well yeah, a lot of people do… but more people watch tv, movies, and play wii (am i the only one repulsed and disgusted by that wii hiking game? You hike in a forest…. that is fake… A FAKE FOREST! YOU COULDN’T PAY ME TO WASTE MY TIME HIKING IN A FAKE FOREST! go hike in a freaking real forest! It’s just.. perverse! but i digress) ANyway, they know we (the readers) will buy an ebook to put on our flashy new pad. BUt would we? Maybe if it’s cheaper. Otherwise we are happy with books as they are. I think they are expecting our (comparatively) small numbers to already be on their wagon and so now they are going to be marketing to non-readers…. like your favorite indie band all of a sudden pandering to the masses ;) Or converting EVERY NEW MOVIE to 3D. Yeah, i’m a college student, but i’d choose John Updike and a sunny day by the river over any enhanced flashy media any day of the WORLD.
    that being said, i also own ebooks…. cause they’re cheap and i am poor.

  • http://deleted John

    wow… i’m sorry… that was a super long rant…. i didn’t notice till it was posted.
    i better go sleep.

  • http://jsearls.webs.com J.S. Earls

    Yeah — my overall thinking is that we’ll see “games” that integrate several different elements together…rather than interactive ebooks as a fad all their own.

    I mean, I could see an “Armageddon”-like tale done w/ a bit of “24″ style storytelling — so there are several different elements and a ‘ticking clock’ to really engage the reader/player. Or a Tom Clancy one. Either way, you’re probably in charge, giving orders, etc. — making decisions based on all the material before you (shoot nukes or send a team) and watch the results unfold before you – then read the data – then make your next move.

    Of course, murder mysteries (w/ all the clues before you) and archeological or fantasy quests could be cool too.

    I think the best way to do those is to make YOU (not just Kevin, everyone) the primary protagonist, but — like a novel — have very well-developed other characters we learn a lot about. Might work great for cop tales (YOU and your partner). Of course, futuristic cop tales w/ styles like Blade Runner or Minority Report might work best — to tie-in to the material you’re using and looking at.

    Anyway, that’s where I could see some of that stuff going. Probably more of a boost for interactive stories like The Realm Unseen (shameless plug) than tricking readers into forking up extra money for something they don’t want…or need.

    However, I could also see an increase in non-fiction books that integrate real-time connections based of the subject matter. Maybe a tale like “The Forgotten” *TV show which also links people together to help find lost/missing people.

    Whatever it is, it’ll definitely be more of a hybrid than simply enhanced ebooks. Well, at least the SUCCESSFUL ones will be more of a hybrid.

  • Adam Weisenburger

    I like the idea of having an audio prologue, but I feel like it would mean fairly little to the reader if they weren’t connected to the characters yet. An audio epilogue might be something to consider or maybe having both as book ends to the story. I guess it depends on the story you’re writing also. For some stories this just wouldn’t work.

    Maybe a game at the end that unlocks a glossary of items, vehicles, characters or other things talked about in the story. I’m mostly thinking of Sci-Fi/Fantasy here, but unlocking Character Bios could be interesting.

  • http://www.strangewindx.blogspot.com Dan

    I might budge on a interactive text adventure as prologue – you know, “old” style interactive fiction like Zork or Douglas Adams’ innovative Hitchhiker’s Guide adaptation.

    But Kevin raises a brilliant point: written stories are naturally immersive and spiritually interactive – adding anything (even quality content) in the form of flashing lights or, ahem, _hyper_ links breaks the spell.

    The market for the aforementioned interactive fiction crashed and disintegrated with the advent of “pointy clicky” adventures like Myst. This is because the medium for “interactive” fiction had to evolve. Unsurprisingly, books did not follow suit.

    Books didn’t die with radio, even though vaudeville did (and received the death blow at the hands of another analog technology: film). Books didn’t die with the cell phone, even though the retail landline did. Books didn’t die even as the newspaper has been supplanted by new media, and all that’s left is the crying. Books didn’t die with napster even though it is far cheaper to digitize the data of a book than it is to digitize sound (you don’t even need access to the master to digitize a book!), and the music industry as it was known, sank to the bottom of an ocean of cheap downloads.

    The book: regular, printed (whether electronically printed or old-fashioned laserjetted – it makes no difference), portable, page turning gateway to stories is no more likely to be “enhanced” than is the common fork.

    It is far too simple, far too effective. This isn’t about sentiment: this is a calculated assessment. As deeply as the iPad or Kindle 3.0 or whatever may (or may not) impact the publishing industry, it seems quite unlikely to touch the book itself.

    “Enhanced” features may complement a book in ways ranging from something as trivial as a matching bookmark (or ebookmark, if you must) to something as immersive as an interactive cinema project, but if I had to bet money, books in 2110 will very likely continue to consist of a white surface and black print – convenient page numbers and possibly chapters…and not much else.

    The ancillary “enhancements” may be revenue generating, but they will continue to be dependent on the headwaters of a plain old book. [Keep this in mind: video games - the current king of entertainment - first demand a script. So do movies, t.v., webisodes, even music. Name any visual or interactive entertainment, and I bet there's a source book for it.]

    The most popular “innovations” in digital voice technology of the past quarter century has been the advent and rise of…ahem…text messaging.

  • http://fourwaymindmeld.blogspot.com/ Arisia

    I would be interested in something like a “bonus feature” thingy they add on to DVD movies. Not meshed in the middle of the ebook, but an appendix or something.

    And it would really be fun to have it be like the game we played two years ago when the lost books were being released. That was so fascinating I could hardly tear myself away to do my day job.

  • http://www.deanbreaker.com/ Amy

    I like the idea of having an audio prologue, but I feel like it would mean fairly little to the reader if they weren’t connected to the characters yet. An audio epilogue might be something to consider or maybe having both as book ends to the story. I guess it depends on the story you’re writing also. For some stories this just wouldn’t work.

    Maybe a game at the end that unlocks a glossary of items, vehicles, characters or other things talked about in the story. I’m mostly thinking of Sci-Fi/Fantasy here, but unlocking Character Bios could be interesting.

  • http://www.dailyping.net/ Rick

    I would be interested in something like a “bonus feature” thingy they add on to DVD movies. Not meshed in the middle of the ebook, but an appendix or something.

    And it would really be fun to have it be like the game we played two years ago when the lost books were being released. That was so fascinating I could hardly tear myself away to do my day job.

  • http://robert.epictales.org Robert Treskillard

    Kevin,

    In my opinion, you are right, Kevin, that interruptive content will never fit into fiction (although it will breathe and live in non-fiction).

    Which is why I firmly believe that non-interruptive enhancements will become standard with e-books.

    By that, I mean background music, carefully timed sound effects, things like that. Nothing distracting—but rather things to enhance the mood.

    Try to imagine a movie without background music. It is amazing how much the music enhances the experience.

    I predict that e-books will one day be standard with this kind of content.

    And no, it will not increase the price of the book, because authors will add this to grab attention, promote their books, and one-up their competition, not because they want to charge more money.

    Do they charge more for movies with background music?

    -Robert

  • Adam Weisenburger

    “By that, I mean background music, carefully timed sound effects, things like that. Nothing distracting—but rather things to enhance the mood.”

    I’ve often thought about that, because when I listen to music whilst writing I hear music that I feel would go perfectly with the scene. Having sound effects would be harder because everyone reads a different speeds. How would the e-book know when to play the sound unless it was at the beginning of a page or as the page is turned?

  • http://robert.epictales.org Robert Treskillard

    Adam,

    Studies would have to be done to find an “average reading time” and base it off of that.

    The sounds would also have to be carefully selected so as not give anything serious away—just in case the person hadn’t quite gotten to that part yet.

    Or … if the e-book display has a touch screen they could touch the page at that spot (maybe a special icon) to activate the sound.

    If there isn’t a touch-screen, they could just click to activate the next sound whenever they get to that spot where an icon exists.

    Icons such as this would have to be graphically designed to be non-obtrusive but also fit in well with the theme and graphics of the novel. Maybe in the margin?

    I’m a software developer as well as an aspiring novelist, so I’ve done some thinking about this, and its definitely possible to do.

    I do like your audio prologue idea, Adam, so much so that I think it would *help* the reader/listener identify with the characters. My only fear is that they might get too accustomed to it and have trouble getting into the text. Keep it short, I guess.

    -Robert

  • Rick B.

    If anything I would say the way you guys had done it for the Ted Dekker site. Nothing special. Just make it look like a book with some pics in it. I don’t mind the embedded idea, just not the first time around.