Enhanced Books

While digging a bit deeper around the NYT article post I made the other day, I came across an even better thread on the Publishing 2.0 blog. Be sure to read all the comments. The one that hits closest to home for me is from Nate DiNiro (more on him in a moment) who said:

The publishing industry does not understand, for the most part, that the knowledge contained within the pages has additional value in a networked context.

Excellent observation. What really caught my eye though was his earlier point about being part of a company called EnhancedBooks.com. Be sure to check out his Uncle Nate blog, which includes a good deal of coverage of content/publishing topics.

Back to EnahcedBooks.com… Their tagline is “Books without boundaries” and their mission can be summed up in this single sentence (from their website):

We connect paper-and-ink books to your digital lifestyle and offer publishers and authors the opportunity to "enhance" their titles with DVD-like extras and social networking apps.

Interesting. I got registered on their site and started poking around. Although the library isn’t very deep, it gives you a feel for what they have in mind. As you read through a book you’ll notice an “Extras” tab at the bottom of the screen. This is your access point to the various add-on’s they’ve provided. For example, Dining in Arizona offers links to a recipe of the month, new restaurant previews and restaurant closures/changes; all of these can be dynamically added as links long after the book is printed and on bookstore shelves. There’s also a link to “Culinary Confessions”, a podcast related to the book. Similar links are provided inside another book entitled More Retro Diner. In this case, however, they’ve used video content rather than text or audio.

Yes, it’s fairly simplistic, but it’s a good example of the possibilities that exist. I can see a lot of ways of utilizing a model like this in the computer book space, for example. I also have to wonder if Amazon is going to build this sort of functionality into their site at some point…

Comments

[UncleNate]

Joe, hopefully you didn't read my comments as saying "all" publishers are short-sighted... ;)

We are certainly working on all kinds of ways to enhance the readers experience. I'm curious about your thoughs on adding value for your technical readers. Since I hail from the days of 5.25" floppies, the short life of the Cauzin Strip, through the days of "Slap a CD in the back cover...", I'm interested to know if technical publishers are thinking of new ways to add value for their readers. Are technical readers buying less because the resources thay seek are so readily available online?

Since you mentioned Amazon, I've discussed some of Amazon's recent moves here. Actually, based on timing of press releases, some seem to be answers to our moves.

We can only hope...