ICYMI: The Future of Reading
Originally Posted 2/9/12
t’s been said that ebooks are the future of reading, but when you think about it there’s a lot to suggest that ebooks haven’t changed much in the last decade since they were first introduced. Ebooks, by their nature have an amazing potential, especially on tablet devices like the iPad, nook tablet and the Kindle Fire. These devices were built largely around the ebook market, and could change the market… if only publishers would get on board. 
That said, I think Apple has (naturally) taken a step in the right direction with iBooksAuthor. It is to Apple’s credit that they’ve made it that much easier for publishers to make their books more interesting, more interactive. The problem I have with it however is that it’s aimed towards the educational market. I think Apple missed the ball on this one.
Maybe it’s just me, maybe it’s because I, as a novelist want to make novels more exciting and interactive for the next generation of readers, but I do think Apple would have been smart to make iBooksAuthor something all writers could use. Rather than aiming it specifically for educators, they should have aimed it for self publishers who want to bring something a little extra to the table. Ebooks in the large part are kind of boring. They’re only slightly more customizable in terms of reading, you can change the font, the size and the background colors but there’s little else to the imagination here.
Look at magazines on devices like the iPad and you can see exactly what I’m talking about. The exciting exclusive content if you press this button or turn your screen sideways. Videos, audio, magazines have done something incredible with the digital format that it’s almost incomprehensible that books haven’t managed to do the same. Some might argue that what could you possibly add to the book to make it interesting? There’s a lot of things. If like me you’ve been writing the book for a long time (chances are you have) you’ll no doubt have many versions of many different scenes. Different scenarios of where things could have gone. Characters that didn’t make the final cut, or just ideas you had that for whatever reason you couldn’t incorporate. It’s that kind of exclusive content that could make a book that much more interesting, especially if you look at this, while reading the book for the second time. Mystery novels could have a sort of I Spy game to it, where you help the main character solve the clues as you read it. Maybe you could solve it first. If the book has a movie tie-in (which most do) you could cross promote by having little clips of key scenes from the book that are in the movie. Thoughts from the author or even from the editor. There’s no end in sight to the amount of things that one could add to the ereading experience that if done right could make the entire thing more interactive, more exciting and just simply a better read.
