Ebooks - Did you read the article about ebooks in The Guardian?

by Nicola Robinsonova
10th March 2013

There was an interesting article this morning:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/10/novelists-ebooks-challenge-fiction-rules

Did anyone else read those terrible books for children in the seventies where you had to make choices at the end of each page, meaning that you only read a thoroughly unsatisfying 10 percent of the book? Then later, linking hypertext to achieve the same low standard.

If they are not talking about creating games - which I think means choices and consequences, or embedding video content or linking to background material, what do you think they mean?

Previously my day job has been developing apps such as Learn10 - for language learners, so it's not that I don't understand the technology...

Is ebook just shorthand for putting a story with web functionality behind a paywall? What do you think?

Replies

Hi Nicola.

I was not impressed with the Guardian article. A few people expressing opinions but little detail.

There are many with ideas about the evolution of publishing, especially, self publishing, which is in its infancy. It is all guesswork.

It will be interesting to see if any of these new ideas will work. No-one can forecast whether any of the suggested new formats, will prove to be a commercial success.

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Adrian Sroka
10/03/2013