The Active E-book
While some of you are still new to the whole idea of an E-book, there are others who are taking it to a whole new level already. No rest in the technology movement forward!
Introducing the Active E-book, brought to you by Coliloquy Digital Publishing!
So now you're probably asking, what the hell is an Active E-book and why do I care about it. Remember those Choose Your Own Adventure books old ole? Well an Active E-book is quite similar to those, although with less choices for you to make. It's an app for your Kindle and the choices you and other readers make will help drive the story later on if it's part of a series (as in the author will write the future books in the series with the choices of the readers in mind!). Because the choices are "recorded" you do have to have your wifi enabled while you read, but it's not that big a deal.
At the moment, there seems to be six available titles, with three of them aimed at the young adult market. I think that is a good direction to go in since thanks to social networking and other apps where they can easily voice their opinion and interact with others, they will enjoy being able to have a hand in the making of the story.
Now the the major difference between these Action E-Books and the Choose Your Own Adventure books is that the reader doesn't get to make as many choices in the story. I've only come across one or two decisions to make in what I've read. You may be thinking "That's it? What's the point?" whereas I'm thinking "Yay the story keeps moving!" I found the old books were lacking in-depth stories and while the choosing was fun, it felt kind of jarring. I prefer the lesser amount of choices for a more coherent story line.
You do have the option to go back an change your choice, which I love. I haven't done it yet myself so I'm not sure if when you make a different decision how much of the remaining story line changes. I'm excited to find out though!
While it isn't an exact replica of the old books, I think it's something new and fun and definitely worth looking into. I love these new ideas and that it allows readers to become more invested in a story. Hopefully that will prompt non-readers to get more excited and look forward to reading more. What could be better than that?
