AUTHORS

Disruptomatic
Angela Natividad
Angela Natividad is a freelance copywriter, journalist and strategist based in Paris. She co-founded AdVerveBlog.com, a blog and podcast about ads and design, and writes MarketingProfs' “Get to the Point!: Social Media” newsletters. She likes people and animals, but not as much as books.
Tweet her @luckthelady.
James Martin
James Martin is the community manager of music & TV tradeshows midem & MIPTV/MIPCOM. He edits their respective industry news & trends blogs (blog.midem.com & mipblog.com) and also covers video games and technology for French cultural weekly A Nous Paris
Tweet him at @jamesmart_in
Stuart Dredge
Stuart Dredge is a freelance journalist based in the UK. He writes about digital music for Music Ally, and about apps and mobile for The Guardian, The Sunday Times and The Appside, as well as his own Apps Playground site.
Tweet him @stuartdredge

The Future(s) of the Book

Nelson, Coupland and Alice may be the reincarnations of beloved books you’ll own tomorrow. At least, that’s IDEO’s hope — and we love it when IDEO is right.

These three concepts somehow seem to maintain fidelity to the spirits of books we love while adding layers of community and practical application. In a way, you can enjoy the literary universe you’re in more fully and in more vivid colour — particularly with Alice, which has huge implications for children’s literature.

We can also imagine a near future where “lit-gamers” become a thing.

(Source: innovationexcellence.com)

J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore site sold £3m of Harry Potter e-books in its first month after launching, with 5m fans signing up for access in the first two weeks alone. That’s according to The Bookseller, which interviewed Pottermore boss Charlie Redmayne. He dished some more stats too: 22m visits from 7m unique users in the first two weeks after launch, generating more than 1bn page impressions. “Given how we launched it, at 8.15 in the morning when most people were asleep, almost anti-marketing it, we were very pleased. It has been amazingly successful and shows the power of the Harry Potter brand.” We won’t argue with that.

J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore site sold £3m of Harry Potter e-books in its first month after launching, with 5m fans signing up for access in the first two weeks alone.

That’s according to The Bookseller, which interviewed Pottermore boss Charlie Redmayne. He dished some more stats too: 22m visits from 7m unique users in the first two weeks after launch, generating more than 1bn page impressions.

“Given how we launched it, at 8.15 in the morning when most people were asleep, almost anti-marketing it, we were very pleased. It has been amazingly successful and shows the power of the Harry Potter brand.”

We won’t argue with that.

Who knows what Mary Shelley would have made of iPads? Her classic story Frankenstein has just come out as a book-app for iPhone and iPad, published by Profile Books and developed by Inkle, with author Dave Morris reworking the text. The idea: “The original text has been fully adapted into interactive form, allowing you the reader to visit Frankenstein’s workshop, help him make his monster, and guide him through the disastrous events that follow”. With 16th-century anatomical engravings thrown in for good measure.

Who knows what Mary Shelley would have made of iPads? Her classic story Frankenstein has just come out as a book-app for iPhone and iPad, published by Profile Books and developed by Inkle, with author Dave Morris reworking the text.

The idea: “The original text has been fully adapted into interactive form, allowing you the reader to visit Frankenstein’s workshop, help him make his monster, and guide him through the disastrous events that follow”. With 16th-century anatomical engravings thrown in for good measure.

The Encyclopaedia-Britannica made waves recently when it decided to stop publishing a print edition of its famous reference tome. Inevitably, one of the factors in its decision was that there’s now an app for that. It’s available for iPhone and iPad, and the business model is to charge users £1.99 a month for unlimited access to the complete Encyclopaedia. It promises more than 80,000 articles: “everything from A-Rod to Zebras”. That’s bad news for ZZ Top…

The Encyclopaedia-Britannica made waves recently when it decided to stop publishing a print edition of its famous reference tome. Inevitably, one of the factors in its decision was that there’s now an app for that.

It’s available for iPhone and iPad, and the business model is to charge users £1.99 a month for unlimited access to the complete Encyclopaedia. It promises more than 80,000 articles: “everything from A-Rod to Zebras”. That’s bad news for ZZ Top…

Cartoonist Bill Amend has released three iBooks for iPad based on his FoxTrot comics, having made them himself using Apple’s iBooks Author software. Each book costs $1.99 on the iBooks store. “The idea is to create mini books that take maybe 20-30 minutes to read and which aren’t bogged down with a ton of outdated references, as happens with my older, chronologically arranged print books,” he explains. “My hope is to release new ones every couple of months or so. Assuming people like these first ones. This is all a big experiment for me.” We wish him the best, as this is admirable initiative.

Cartoonist Bill Amend has released three iBooks for iPad based on his FoxTrot comics, having made them himself using Apple’s iBooks Author software. Each book costs $1.99 on the iBooks store.

“The idea is to create mini books that take maybe 20-30 minutes to read and which aren’t bogged down with a ton of outdated references, as happens with my older, chronologically arranged print books,” he explains.

“My hope is to release new ones every couple of months or so. Assuming people like these first ones. This is all a big experiment for me.” We wish him the best, as this is admirable initiative.

This is one of the most innovative uses for metadata in the books world I’ve seen. It’s a website called Small Demons. “Suppose someone took every meaningful detail from all the books you love. Every song mentioned, every person, every food or place or movie title. And what if they did that for all the books everyone else loves, too. The ones you’ve never heard of. Suddenly you’ve got a whole world of seemingly random people, places and things, all gathered in one place.” The aim: to create a “Storyverse” to help readers discover other books and related media. The site has just signed up publisher Random House to experiment with it, starting with author Jo Nesbo. I can imagine diving into this for authors that I love, especially those whose books are crammed with pop-cultural references.

This is one of the most innovative uses for metadata in the books world I’ve seen. It’s a website called Small Demons.

“Suppose someone took every meaningful detail from all the books you love. Every song mentioned, every person, every food or place or movie title. And what if they did that for all the books everyone else loves, too. The ones you’ve never heard of. Suddenly you’ve got a whole world of seemingly random people, places and things, all gathered in one place.”

The aim: to create a “Storyverse” to help readers discover other books and related media. The site has just signed up publisher Random House to experiment with it, starting with author Jo Nesbo.

I can imagine diving into this for authors that I love, especially those whose books are crammed with pop-cultural references.

There are loads of children’s book-apps available on iPad, but FarFaria is bringing a more Spotify/Netflix vibe to the idea. How? By charging parents $3.99 a month for unlimited access to its catalogue of illustrated stories. The idea is that parents pay, then their children navigate the virtual FarFaria world looking for new tales to read. “No advertising. No hidden fees,” promises its App Store listing, which also notes that new stories will be added every week. The app is aimed at 2-9 year-olds. Fun, although I’m not sure it’ll tear mine away from Peppa Pig and other familiar book-app brands.

There are loads of children’s book-apps available on iPad, but FarFaria is bringing a more Spotify/Netflix vibe to the idea. How? By charging parents $3.99 a month for unlimited access to its catalogue of illustrated stories.

The idea is that parents pay, then their children navigate the virtual FarFaria world looking for new tales to read. “No advertising. No hidden fees,” promises its App Store listing, which also notes that new stories will be added every week.

The app is aimed at 2-9 year-olds. Fun, although I’m not sure it’ll tear mine away from Peppa Pig and other familiar book-app brands.