By Edward Nawotka
In today’s lead story, digital first publisher Eoin Purcell argues that e-books are, essentially, a cul-de-sac — a dead end. He writes:
…the industry, despite notable and impressive exceptions, is still avoiding the inevitable accommodation and embrace of the internet AS THE PLATFORM. As a body, we are ignoring the implications of digital change and seeking short and medium-term patches at the expense of long-term success. We need to prepare for a smaller print industry (in terms of titles, publishers and staff) and a bigger digital industry — one that will exist in a multiplicity of forms beyond the e-book.
If this is true, then it suggests and an alternative — Vooks (video/books) maybe? Elaborately linked Web sites (those already exist)? “Live Books” (more on that in a forthcoming edition of Publishing Perspectives)? Individual chapters sold piecemeal? Certainly that is already being experimented with now.
So, the question remains, when is a book no longer, well, a book?
Let us know what you think in the comments below or via Twitter using #ppdiscuss.
3 Comments
All add-ons aside, for me the book is still a book if it can be read as such. DVD’s generally come with all variety of enhanced content for you to browse, but the movie is still there as the movie to be watched as it was intended. So, as long as the book is presented in its entirety to be read as it was intended, it’s still a book. If you start making me watch video or read side material as a matter of course in order to read the story, then it becomes something else, an amalgamation of different media. This isn’t necessary bad either. There is certainly potential here for some interesting and entertaining things, but I do hope the book is left alone amongst all of this enhanced content. I’ll read author notes, listen to author interviews, play with interactive maps, and watch video, but only as an aside to the story presented as the author intended. Mess with this and you will lose me as a reader.
I think you’re going about the question the wrong way. It’s not when does it stop being a book, but rather when does it start? Think back to childhood and the concept of a “picture book” – these were pictures in book format, and they were very different than the “chapter” or “grown up” books that our elders were reading. Even at that age, we were able to differentiate what a book was and wasn’t. So when people tart adding in video or hypertext, what you get are multimedia presentations and websites.
I’m constantly reminded of Jurassic Park’s Dr. Ian Malcolm (ironically, as Jeff Goldblum from the film) and his point about the entire park: “your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
The solution, at least to me, seems to be – how do we include this multimedia content in a way that satisfies a list of criteria: keeps the narrative at the focus (as pointed out by Mr. Duncan) contains multimedia content that adds value, and is still unmistakably a book.
Otherwise, you can use the word we’ve been using for the past 15 years – a website.
A book is a book, is a book. It has a beginning a middle and an end, no matter what format it is presented in hardcopy, audio, digital, serialised,etc.
All the add-ons and special features and comments are complimentary to the book and need to stay that way. I enjoy them on occasions and they may round out my enjoyment of the story but if I don’t have a choice to engage with them or not then my book is no longer a book, but something else, not better or worse, just something else
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