There’s More to eBooks Than Words

By Alan J. Porter

“It’s all about the content.”

Alan J. Porter

This simple, yet insightful, comment by leading publishing consultant, Ann Rockley, during a recent webinar on “Exactly What Not to do When Making the Move from Print Publishing to New Media,” (

We are still delivering content that is not taking advantage of the fact that the delivery platform is digital

Even when we do add in a few graphical elements, like photos, illustrations etc. we still treat them as separate design elements. – Why?


Because we are still thinking in terms of pages and layout, when we should be thinking in terms of bandwidth and a true multimedia experience.


A few days ago I introduced my youngest daughter to the second Star Trek movie “The Wrath of Khan”. There’s a scene in that movie that I think applies to this discussion. In the climatic battle, Kirk and his crew beat the bad-guy, because, as Spock points out, he is still thinking in two-dimensional terms. In other words the villainous Khan, for all his power and intellect, isn’t used to working in space. He forgets that in space you can move up and down as well as left and right; and forwards and backwards. He isn’t as comfortable in, or aware of the possibilities of, the medium in which he finds himself.





And so it appears to be in publishing today, as many of us suddenly find ourselves in a medium in which we aren’t comfortable, nor know how to fully exploit.


These new digital platforms give us the opportunity to once gain fully embrace, images, animation, video and intelligent content to produce a unique immersive experience that can’t be replicated elsewhere.


But, just like the so-called digital publishing revolution, providing rich multi-media information products is nothing new. Sitting in the CD rack in my office storage closet is a copy of the 1995 edition of Microsoft’s Encarta encyclopedia. A product that started as a print bound book (Collier’s Encyclopedia) and was transformed into a fully-enhanced digital product through the addition of 25,000 pictures and illustrations, over 300 videos and animations, sound, and more than 1.8 million zoomable maps. Encarta also featured hyperlinks to associated articles, often displaying essays with alternative view points alongside articles.

Encarta included approximately 50,000 articles and other multimedia content, such as 25,000 pictures and illustrations, over 300 videos and animations, and an interactive atlas with 1.8 million locations.

When I think back to Encarta and many other similar CD products, it seems that when we started to embrace the web as our primary information source, in many ways we took a step backward. Many of the technologies introced in these early CD-ROM offerings did eventually migrate to the web (Encarta itself went online and even incorporated early wiki and social network like features). Today, we expect web browsing to be a fully multi-media experience.


So shouldn’t eBooks be the same? There are about delivering information on a digital platform after all.


Developing a multi-media approach to creating what are now being termed as “enhanced eBooks” can offer many opportunities to publishers:

• As a way to differentiate between eBooks and print books, and possibly justify a higher price point for enhanced eBooks with added value.
• As a potential revenue share model – imagine an eBook about a singer with links to his song catalog on iTunes where the publishers gets a percentage of the royalties for each song downloaded; or a book about a TV show or motion picture that links to DVD or on-demand viewing and rewards the publisher with a percentage of the sale price.
• Opening new markets, like education, where captivating, interactive eBook experiences are needed to engage digitally-savvy students and provide high value alternatives to traditional print media.

Over the last few months I have had numerous conversations with educational publishers, as well as developers of eLearning systems, and they all tell me the same thing; that the biggest challenge they face is engaging students and keeping their interest.


Students today have so many things competing for their attention, along with multiple ways to communicate and engage in active discussions, that the way they access, assemble, and process information is radically changing. [A subject I will be presenting on at The LavaCon Conference on Digital Media and Content Strategies September 29 - October 2, 2010 in San Diego,.] They now live in a multi-media, visually driven digital world, and with that comes a level of expectation that all types of information will deliver the same, or at least a similar, experience.


Electronic books that are nothing more than digital renditions of print media will be quickly forgotten. An early experiment with supplying college students with Kindle devices was a failure as the eReaders were unanimously rejected in favor of traditional hardcopy books. Most students today, take laptops into class, as my daughter heads off to college this fall she will be taking an iPad with her to use in class, and I’m sure she won’t be alone. The way that people consume content is changing, and we as content developers and publishers, need to adapt to meet those needs.


One interesting new area of study and experimentation has been in the area of augmented reality where some publishers are looking at ways to combine both print and digital to provide a unique experience. The BBC science magazine FOCUS recently published an issue with special encoding on the cover and several internal pages, they when held up to a web camera, produced 3D images and text that appeared to move around and float above the page. One reader was so impressed that he made a You Tube video of his experience, and compared it to a digital copy of WIRED on the iPad. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEiUPyY03S4&) It’s clear from his reaction that the multi-media augmented reality approach, even when linked to a print magazine, was much more engaging than the page-based model of the digital magazine.

Multi-media is the future for eBooks, a fact borne out that the upcoming revisions to the ePub standard, due in September, which will include additions for multi-media, as well as features that will bring the underlying structure for both eBooks and digital magazines closer together. Some publishers are starting to realize the potential and embrace the future, for instance Random House recently announced the creation of roles for both a Multimedia Editor, and a Group Digital Director.


Unfortunately there are still too many other publishers who think that multi-media means having an eBook that can be read on the Kindle and the iPad.


The bottom line is that we need to be delivering content and information that takes advantage of these new platforms, and not simply replicating what we already do.

About the Author

Alan J. Porter a 20 year veteran of the corporate communications industry is founder of 4Js Group LLC a consulting and services company that specializes in combining creative talent with business expertise to help companies tell their story. He is also the regular writer of the monthly Disney*Pixar “World of CARS” comic book series.

His latest book, “WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit” is available now from XML Press.

Blog: THE CONTENT POOL http://4jsgroup.blogspot.com
Email: ajp@4jsgroup.com
Phone: 512-968-7362
Twitter: @4jsgroup