There’s an App for that Book
Thanks to smart phones, one of the most common phrases in today’s English language is “there’s an app for that.” If Little, Brown Book Group’s latest book technology experiment is successful, authors will soon have to think about what supplemental materials will serve their readers’ small phone screens.
In the UK, the number of books available as iPhone apps passed the number of games for the first time this March. As Alison Flood of The Guardian reports, writers Ian Banks and Martina Cole are some of the early adapters and are working with their publisher and a software company to enrich their readers’ experience.
Readers who have bought the paperback of Banks’s latest novel, Transition, will be able to scan a unique barcode on their edition with their iPhone, and companion features for the novel will be transmitted to their screen.
Little, Brown noticed that smart phone supplemental material works well for writers with a “passionate following” and already has apps in progress for authors Stephenie Meyer, Patrick Holford and Ian Rankin.
Other publishers are following Little, Brown’s lead. Canongate released an app for David Eagleman’s short story collection Sum: Tales from the Afterlives. Eagleman comments:
An electronic version of a book merely grants portability. But a thoughtful app can open new inroads to explore the material, as well as ways to keep the material updated and fresh. By having the option to explore a book beyond the original text — by dint of videos, living links, and so on — it becomes a living, breathing, updating organism, just like the rest of our technology.
I’m not sure I want a “living, breathing, updating organism” technology involved in my book project. It sounds kind of scary. I prefer my machines non-breathing and without a pulse.
Am I the only one that’s feeling a little overwhelmed by how much extra stuff books will be marketed with and through? We’ve already been told that publishers expect authors to heavily participate in the marketing effort of their products, sometimes do most of it themselves. I love technology and gadgets and I love working with Shakira and James Franco on my book trailer, but when will there be time to write?
As soon as we get settled in Portland (and start getting paychecks) I’m going to upgrade to a smart phone, but I don’t think I’d be interested in turning my books into living, breathing organisms. I kind of like them as passive transmitters of information and experience. Maybe that makes me old fashioned, I don’t know, but it’s kind of like the special features on a DVD, I think. I like to watch them sometimes if there’s a gag reel or if I’m really interested in how the film was made, but generally the special features don’t add much to my movie watching experience. I have a feeling book apps would feel the same way.
I’m with you on all of that Jaime!
My books already breathe and pump blood. Into me! I suppose they provide as much life as a girl really needs. Asa, you get funnier and funnier. I’m so happy to see that your book trailer collaboration is progressing!
You’ll have to come over and hang with Shakira and James and I. :-)
Shakira and Shira–I like it!