e-Book Echo — Merging Video and Good Books, But Why?
Our platform focus continues this fine Sunday with the e-Book Echo, our take on the week in the digital publishing world. A new form of e-book is picking up steam in the digital publishing world, and I for one am not sure about this new style. The vook is a digital book that combines video to weave a story that immerses the “reader”. Vooks are designed to be consumed using one of two methods — through a web browser on any computer and through the iPhone app on a phone.
Early testers of vook “reading” are having mixed reactions; while the combination of the written word with slick videos might be a good way to get information from “how-to” books, the videos create a distraction while applied to literature. I haven’t tried to consume a vook myself, but I know that one of the joys I get from reading e-books is how my imagination builds the characters as I read a good story. By the end of a good story in e-book form I have created the major characters and locations in my mind, and that is one of the biggest joys of reading. That would be spoiled for me if I had someone else’s imagination intrude on reading a good book. This is one of the reasons I’ve never gotten into audiobooks; I prefer imagining how the characters sound. I don’t see a vook in my future.
The New York Times is shouting dire warnings about e-book piracy. They are claiming that as e-books increase in popularity, and everyone admits that is the case, that piracy will become a huge problem for the industry. The author correlates what will happen with e-books to what has occurred in the music industry, and blames piracy for the downfall of that business. I have only one thing to say about this: when e-books are outlawed, only outlaws will have e-books.
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Ah yes, figures on music from that bastion of integrity, the RIAA.
Again, here we have a crossroads. Publishers can choose to embrace the brave new world, remove ridiculous and outdated border restrictions, make ebooks so easy to buy, such good value, and easy to use on multiple devices that only absolute diehard freetards will pirate.
I fear however, they will go down the DRM’d, incompatible and proprietary road, realising only when it is too late the impact they have had trying to keep hold of an outdated business model.
I can buy quite a few “old fasioned” books for the
cost of an eReader.
The batteries don’t run down, if I drop the book,
it will still be readable, and there’s something about
turning the pages. Main thing, is they do not have colour yet.
As far as piracy, there’s been a device called a
copy machine around for years…
While human and seemly natural, why has it become “greed” wins? When I work on the 1st workday of the year, I get paid for that workday only. The company, as long as it is in business, reaps the rewards for as long as that effort is used, yet I only get paid for that work ‘ONCE’ so why (other than the accepted normal practice) is that not so with artist too. Paid once for a writing-preforming a book, song, etc then it becomes “free-public domain” or better put, give back to the world that supports your efforts without run-a-way inflation. One model I also know of is, stick a amount in the ground, say up to one million (or whatever) dollars tax free, after that 90% tax over that amount, again, reward moving the Human Race forward, up to a point than give back to the world that “ALLOWED” one to be so richly rewarded. Much like tithing, only in reverse, after a point “greed” will always become the normal. Much like run-away entitlement, while up to a point betters society after that robs one of self-respect and pulls down society in general.
Hi James,
Vook is a harbinger of the future.
I love reading, but I’m convinced the future of books is ebooks, and the future of ebooks is multimedia.
The “book” will become text + user-configurable formatting + audio + video + Internet links + social networking.
It will create new opportunities for writers and publishers who have the skills (or can contract out) to develop multimedia content — everything from content that enhances the story to interviews. Updates via wireless will become a normal part of many books.
Just as journalists today increasingly need to be multimedia producers (text, photos, audio podcasts, video podcasts, etc.), so will writers of tomorrow need similar skills.
Readers will be able to determine which multimedia/Internet extras they want turned on (or not) when they’re reading.
The “book” of tomorrow (2030?) will be a “smart book” (no, not Qualcomm’s “smartbook”!), and readers will look at paper-only publications as information-poor relics.
I suspect many people today who love reading will consider the prospect of a “smart book” to be horrific — just as many people previously dismissed landline phones, movies, television, cellular phones and computers.
Whether “smart books” are dedicated devices or integrated into portable devices (phones, tablets, etc.) doesn’t matter. What matters is most text-only publications will go the way of all flesh.
(No, I have no financial ties to the ebook business.)
I work at a group of medium-size publishers, looking after, among other things, our ebooks. Piracy isn’t a huge concern for now–rather it is the declining sales of books in general. Even before file-sharing, books were on the decline and the Vook is a (feeeble, in my opinion) attempt to re-invigorate the printed word and capture a new generation of readers.
exactly. Illiteracy will protect publishers from piracy. …well, sort of. =P
books and music are 2 different beasts, music being much much more popular. lots of people care about the latest pop star; not so many care about the latest novelist.
In the great repeating cycle that is the history of man the lot of authors began simply. Some person witnessed some act they found interesting and in that determination “Hey, that was interesting” an art form was born: telling others about something interesting.
Piracy? Copy protection? These concepts were not around in those days, stories were transferred freely from one person to another. Maybe you could use a story to get a tuber to eat whilst telling the tale or perhaps you could trade one tale in exchange for being told another. But it wasn’t until writing came along that things got complicated.
For all of human’s written history writing has been expensive. Rock, clay tablets, papyrus et al they all required some expensive medium to be prepared to accept the recording of the stories upon them.
Authors engaged or were engaged by craftsmen to provide the content to fill the craftsmen’s wares. The craftsmen took the majority of the profits from selling those wares and gave some crumbs to the authors to encourage those that made them profits to perhaps create more profitable content.
Now though we have a new medium for writing that reduces the cost for the medium tremendously. The concept of View On Demand through the use of netbooks or ebook readers has brought us to a cusp in human communication.
Authors now no longer require craftsmen to create physical medium for the transport of their stories. And in that new found freedom they also find they don’t need to settle for taking just the begrudged crumbs from the craftsmen either.
But are the craftsmen to bow to this new future and quietly let their previously profitable occupation dissipate into the purses of artists?
While I could simply say Vooks are a desperate grab by the craftsmen to remain relevant it is also the case that in that translation from oral story to written story something was lost.
A talented story teller telling one of their works is usually far more interesting than reading that same story. Just as we don’t generally enjoy eating plain oat meal we generally enjoy some spice to go with a story. The author adding a “Swish!” sound as they describe a sword being swung or the meaty smack of a hand striking home to a person’s face helps boost one’s imagination as the story is told.
Hey, after a hard day toiling to make our place in human society continue to be relevant we’re sometimes too mentally tired to do all the heavy lifting in the imagination department right?
So desperate scrabble to remain relevant before authors take over again or attempt to make the written word more accessible for the exhausted masses?
Me, I vote for desperate scrabble to remain relevant. :-)
authors, and musicians too, still need an “industry” of sorts–not for the replication and distribution of their work so much as for the “push” of PR needed to bring a work to the public eye. someone needs to push the work to be mentioned in TV shows (like Oprah), or play the music on the radio or in advertisements. the average person won’t actively go out to find what they like among the heaps of stuff on the internet. it’s too much work. word of mouth is too slow, generally.
also, i think there needs to be (presently) a middle-man between author and seller. the publisher produces an aggregation of works for the seller to choose from. sellers are likely too busy to seek out authors. also, even though self-publishing is possible with the big-name stores, like amazon, B&N, etc., what about the corner book store? they’ll need a place to get books from, though of course, without paper books, i think the corner book store is doomed.
third, publishers provide some important services to authors, like proofreading, editing, and i’d imagine, being able to bounce ideas off an experienced editor. for example, Asimov’s 3 Laws of Robotics were helped become a reality because of his conversations with his publisher.
@Sam
Fair points indeed. What I like about ereaders is the weight and slimness, the ability to load many books for a trip, and battery life which is measured in weeks. For novels colo(u)r isn’t an issue, and the e-ink screens are fantastic, incredibly easy on the eyes and wonderful in even direct sunlight.
A good cover is essential as the screens are quite fragile, so your point about dropping one is sound.
Here we go again. I’ve worked in the music industry for over a decade. Besides the whole “RIAA sues everyone that even thinks about downloading” strategy, the music industry’s reaction to downloading services was to go nuts trying to stuff just about every type of value-add into the CD. There’s been all kinds of stuff from hybrid 5-channel sound disks to video and supplimental content on the disk. People don’t care. They buy the music for the music. That’s just not how people buy or consume music. People listen to music while doing something else. They choose the “something else”, not the record company. What it came down to was the record companies being on auto-pilot for so long that they didn’t need to understand why people liked their product. They just knew that people bought it.
This seems to me to be the same thing in a different industry. When reading a novel, I don’t want music and video to clutter up the experience. I read a book for the quiet, immersive experience. If I want video or sound, I go for the movie version or the audiobook. In those cases, I listen to the audiobook when doing something else and the movie when I want a show. Besides, I can name on one hand movies that were better than the book they adapted…
I could see this working in theory for non-fiction books, but then the production costs skyrocket. Instead of just writing a book, the author (or his collaborators) have to produce a mini documentary. I doubt most publishing houses are used to producing video as part of the book production cycle. The same was true with the supplimental content on CDs to some degree in the music industry. It was a huge pain for us because the supplimental content wasn’t part of our regular production pipeline. We were used to the video and supplimentary material to be due during the marketing campaign, not due according to (and affecting!) production deadlines.
I’d be surprised if this lasts past next year.
I’m sure what we consume as input will change as technology changes. Experimenting with integrating various types of media will continue. I’m sure vooks as they currently are won’t last long ‘cuz they are just the first experiment of many on the firstish wave of really multimedia capable hardware. Enjoy! We live in an interesting time.
It is interesting to listen to an author spew FUD next to an article about an experiment in multimedia. I can understand both. Both are reactions to change.
The comparison with music is poor in my opinion. People often pick and discard music quickly. While a lot of music is downloaded “illegally” it is insane to claim everyone of those downloads as a lost sell. A lot of those downloads would have never developed into an itunes sell much less a CD/DVD sell. Also the ability for new artists to penetrate the music community quickly is a lot larger then it was just a decade ago. In this way the music industry is crying because they no longer get to choose what we listen to but as consumers I am far happier. Great music is far easier to find. Ultimately the market is more efficient.
I think this is different from books. I do check out quite a few samples from amazon for my kindle (it would be interesting to see numbers of how common this is and how often they are converted to sells). But it is a far bigger commitment then checking out a new artist/collection/song. I want the process to be as light as possible and to be able to convert it to a buy easily. Amazon’s process is a lot more efficient then getting an illegal copy.
Another difference is that musicians have other avenues for revenue: live performances. I don’t see an analog for authors. Maybe additional content ala vooks, (good interpretation) audio books, public readings, etc. will grow in popularity. Personally I think if cheaper books/vooks/multimedia/whatever get more people reading that will be a positive value to our society. I suspect that the market becoming more electronic won’t hurt the authors as much as the people deeply invested (and stuck) in the current distribution mechanism.
Recently I talked with a local author who was still on the fence about ebooks. He had two issues 1) a lack of understanding of the technology and 2) lack of time to approach the book conversion ramp. I think 1 will take time and education. Hopefully the major authoring solutions make #2 a non-issue in the near future.
There’s a huge difference between music/mp3s and books/ebooks though with regards to the piracy comment.
People have been going to libraries and reading books for free and returning them all the time anyway. Most people I know who are big readers don’t buy anything, just go to the library every week or so.
The way to nip this in the bud is to get the equivalent of iTunes Music Store out now, as opposed to waiting too long like the music industry did. More importantly though, the first service to offer a subscription-based ebook setup is going to do very well. That fits more with the way a lot of people are used to consuming this type of media.
I would personally prefer a subscription model for ebooks – never thought about it that way till you mentioned it. My library gets the latest books on the market and charges 10% of the cost of each book I borrow, instead of monthly charges.
In this scenario, DRM would be fair game as long as there was flexibility to be able to use atleast 2 devices to read an ebook, one of which may be more mobile like an iPhone.