Enhanced Editions

[charleski]

Teleread has a write-up of sessions from the current O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing conference in New York.

The spotlight on the Enhanced Edition of Bunny Munroe is certainly interesting, though it looks like the guy giving the talk was a bit long on buzzwords ('disruption', 'blurred boundaries', 'cyclical and iterative value chain') rather than content.

In a nutshell, the Enhanced Edition of Nick Cave's latest is the text with a synchronised version of the audio book plus some video of interviews with Cave. I don't have an iPhone so have no plans on buying this, but it seems interesting. It's certainly good to see publishers concentrating on adding value to their ebook offerings, but I don't know if this is really the way to go.

You can read the text and listen to Cave reading it at the same time - hmm, does this have any value beyond a few minutes of novelty? Maybe it will be useful for people with learning difficulties, or whose English is poor. I couldn't really see myself leaving such a feature turned on. Extras are nice, but video? - meh. So I get to watch Cave reading the book I just read on a 3.5" screen - does he put on a good act?. This just gets me thinking of all those DVD Extras I've never bothered to watch.

The great value of print is that you can page through it to get to something interesting. Doesn't Cave have pages from his notebooks, or early drafts of chapters? Authors tend to build up a lot of ancillary material, notes and influences, how about some of that? That would have real value.

You have to give these guys marks for trying, but right now it looks like multimedia for its own sake. For instance they have an edition of David Simon's Homicide coming out - and the extras are, wow, video interviews. One and a half hours of talking heads (two of whom are just actors on Simon's later project) on a tiny screen that would have been far less tedious as a text transcription. If they must have video, how about going out and shooting some location footage? How has Baltimore changed since Simon's book first came out?

Of course the sorry fact is that most publishers are still having troubles getting the basics right and producing ebooks which are properly formatted without spelling mistakes. So maybe they need to learn to walk before they start to run. But they certainly need to be looking at ways of adding value to their offerings for product differentiation and premium editions. The secret is to remember that you need value, not buzzwords. Video, especially, has to justify itself, because done wrong it's just tedious and boring. (Remember all those DVD extras? No, I don't either.)

[poohbear_nc]

I agree - multimedia features for their own sakes. Or - publishers feel that "plain text" books aren't good enough to go onto the iPad. Or, iPad owners won't buy plain text books with no bells & whistles? Why pop for a color screen if you're reading black & white?

[thename]

Originally Posted by charleski

In a nutshell, the Enhanced Edition of Nick Cave's latest is the text with a synchronised version of the audio book plus some video of interviews with Cave. I don't have an iPhone so have no plans on buying this, but it seems interesting. It's certainly good to see publishers concentrating on adding value to their ebook offerings, but I don't know if this is really the way to go.

You can read the text and listen to Cave reading it at the same time - hmm, does this have any value beyond a few minutes of novelty? Maybe it will be useful for people with learning difficulties, or whose English is poor. I couldn't really see myself leaving such a feature turned on. Extras are nice, but video? - meh. So I get to watch Cave reading the book I just read on a 3.5" screen - does he put on a good act?. This just gets me thinking of all those DVD Extras I've never bothered to watch.

The great value of print is that you can page through it to get to something interesting. Doesn't Cave have pages from his notebooks, or early drafts of chapters? Authors tend to build up a lot of ancillary material, notes and influences, how about some of that? That would have real value.

You have to give these guys marks for trying, but right now it looks like multimedia for its own sake. For instance they have an edition of David Simon's Homicide coming out - and the extras are, wow, video interviews. One and a half hours of talking heads (two of whom are just actors on Simon's later project) on a tiny screen that would have been far less tedious as a text transcription. If they must have video, how about going out and shooting some location footage? How has Baltimore changed since Simon's book first came out?

Of course the sorry fact is that most publishers are still having troubles getting the basics right and producing ebooks which are properly formatted without spelling mistakes. So maybe they need to learn to walk before they start to run. But they certainly need to be looking at ways of adding value to their offerings for product differentiation and premium editions. The secret is to remember that you need value, not buzzwords. Video, especially, has to justify itself, because done wrong it's just tedious and boring. (Remember all those DVD extras? No, I don't either.)

Interestingly enough I know many a person who skips the various eMusic stores in favor of physical CDs for things like liner-notes, disc art, special deluxe editions (e.g., this recent album springs to mind), and other factors. That you would never pay for these things doesn't mean nobody will. I am confident these forums are disproportionately full of early adopting, relatively tech-savvy folks who haven't touched a CD (or even DVDs with all their extras) in years. We, however, do not represent the average. Extras for what seem to be the sake of extras are usually embraced by some market segment willing to pay a premium for them.

So I agree it's a good thing they're pushing new and different ideas in the venue of getting something worth what you pay. I disagree in that we shouldn't encourage them to hit niche, higher-revenue markets: let the audiophiles pay extra for their lossless, uncompressed music if it means the rest of us can pay less for our acceptable 128kbps tracks. Let people buy enhanced PDFs linked to audio interviews and a special members-only book club to read on their monitors and for a premium if it means our acceptable, un-linked EPUBs can be reasonably priced.

[charleski]

Originally Posted by thename

Interestingly enough I know many a person who skips the various eMusic stores in favor of physical CDs for things like liner-notes, disc art, special deluxe editions (e.g., this recent album springs to mind), and other factors. That you would never pay for these things doesn't mean nobody will.

But that's a totally different thing. You're talking about physical entities and enhancement of the physical experience of ownership (not to mention collectibility). Books have been playing that game for a long time with deluxe bindings, first editions and signed copies. The question is, how do you add value when you don't have a physical product.

DVDs are still a physical product and so can add value with fancy cases and geegaws, but there are some examples of added digital content in that domain that's worth having (rather than recycled promo puff-pieces). A publisher could certainly add to that in various ways without having to resort to spurious 'multimedia'.

Of course, one question is - what about books where the author doesn't want to add anything? I can certainly think of cases where the author would feel that extras merely distract from the integrity of the work.

Let people buy enhanced PDFs linked to audio interviews and a special members-only book club to read on their monitors and for a premium if it means our acceptable, un-linked EPUBs can be reasonably priced.

That's exactly the point, and something that lots of people have failed to realise. Market segmentation is good for everyone - more stuff for those who are willing to pay more, cheaper prices for those who want to pay less and a healthier industry in general.

[thename]

Originally Posted by charleski

But that's a totally different thing. You're talking about physical entities and enhancement of the physical experience of ownership (not to mention collectibility).
...
The question is, how do you add value when you don't have a physical product.

DVDs are still a physical product and so can add value with fancy cases and geegaws

I'm glad we agree re: future of extra content as a means to a viable market. But I think your distinction between the physical and electronic is iffy at best, wholly fallacious at worst. Consider the iTunes move a few years back to offer "iTunes Plus" i.e., higher bit rates, no-DRM, etc. for a higher price vs. the higher priced physical media i.e., even higher bit rates, no-DRM, etc. Are these electronic goods value added or are the physical products feeble knockoffs of a Platonic ideal with fancy cases and geegaws to bump prices?

... but there are some examples of added digital content in that domain that's worth having (rather than recycled promo puff-pieces). A publisher could certainly add to that in various ways without having to resort to spurious 'multimedia'.

I think of Norton Critical Editions (public domain works for which I happily pay) filled to the brim with essays, historical background, and copious annotation. To me that's all worth having and would be so in digital form as well. To many others? "Why do I want essays when I could just get the book for $10 less?!"

Or consider the Danielewski sibling's collaborative works House of Leaves and Haunted (part of the "spurious 'multimedia'" you mention) which are--to my knowledge--rarely sold together. Things along these lines might very well add value to digital content (give me an EPUB and MP3s for the latter?) and sell for a premium. This also goes toward the converse of:

Of course, one question is - what about books where the author doesn't want to add anything? I can certainly think of cases where the author would feel that extras merely distract from the integrity of the work.

What about those who do want extra content? What if David Byrne wants to sell Here Lies Love in strictly digital form (and I'd argue the collection of the music and book combination are probably not spurious and revenue pandering)? I think many an author might embrace that ability.

So while I agree that added content and market segmentation is well and good, I'm hard-pressed to attempt to limit what's considered "worth having" in the digital realm. Even as the current, difficult ebook market stands wouldn't it be slightly cheaper to skip cover images? Good layout? Sound copy-editing? I'm sure there are many who--given the choice--would snap up a cheaper version of such limitation.

But kudos and karma for excellent points e.g.,

That's exactly the point, and something that lots of people have failed to realise. Market segmentation is good for everyone - more stuff for those who are willing to pay more, cheaper prices for those who want to pay less and a healthier industry in general.

[sherman]

Actually, the biggest advantage to the Enhanced Editions is how easy it is to create your own ebook from it.

You see, the thing is, while the application itself will only run on an authorised iPhone/iPod touch, none of the actual content is encrypted. The .ipa file that iTunes downloads is simply a zip archive that can be extracted. Within the archive (when you reach it) is an OEBPS directory. ZIP the contents of this directory into an archive and import into Calibre...

And of course, you can access the other media as well.

[Sonist]

I wish they would focus on well-designed ebooks instead, which will be possible on the post-iPad devices.

[Direct Ebooks]

Originally Posted by Sonist

I wish they would focus on well-designed ebooks instead, which will be possible on the post-iPad devices.

Agree completely. I'm not convinced by the merits of "enhanced" ebooks. In my experience, most people just want to read the book!
Mike Shatzkin has an interesting blog post about this exact topic - http://www.idealog.com/blog/

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by charleski

In a nutshell, the Enhanced Edition of Nick Cave's latest is the text with a synchronised version of the audio book plus some video of interviews with Cave. I don't have an iPhone so have no plans on buying this, but it seems interesting. It's certainly good to see publishers concentrating on adding value to their ebook offerings, but I don't know if this is really the way to go.

You can read the text and listen to Cave reading it at the same time - hmm, does this have any value beyond a few minutes of novelty? Maybe it will be useful for people with learning difficulties, or whose English is poor. I couldn't really see myself leaving such a feature turned on.

If you liked to read the book most of the time, but were then able to switch to the audio version in the car or something that would seem the best use of that feature.

[charleski]

Originally Posted by thename

I'm glad we agree re: future of extra content as a means to a viable market. But I think your distinction between the physical and electronic is iffy at best, wholly fallacious at worst.

Not at all. A physical product offers many opportunities to provide a sense of physical luxury and makes it much easier to create artificial scarcity and the notion of exclusivity. Any attempt to sell a limited edition ebook would be dependent on the purchaser being foolish enough to think the DRM couldn't be broken, and the DRM itself would destroy any resale value.

Consider the iTunes move a few years back to offer "iTunes Plus" i.e., higher bit rates, no-DRM, etc. for a higher price vs. the higher priced physical media i.e., even higher bit rates, no-DRM, etc.

Well, I can think of a few ways in which value could be added to the basic presentational structure, though I'm interested in what others can think of. Any such measures have to be careful to maintain the fundamental integrity of the work: you're reading the same basic text whether it's in a deluxe calf-leather binding or a poorly-bound paperback and the quality of copy-editing (and, to a lesser extent, formatting) needs to be retained.

I think of Norton Critical Editions
...
Or consider the Danielewski sibling's collaborative works
...
What about those who do want extra content?

Yes, of course there are many examples where truly meaningful extra content can be added and that's great. Publishers should be jumping all over the opportunity to produce value-added versions of these works. But why on earth produce an edition of Homicide containing an interview with Dominic West when you can interview Kyle Secor? That's the sort of spurious multimedia that needs to be avoided.

Even as the current, difficult ebook market stands wouldn't it be slightly cheaper to skip cover images? Good layout? Sound copy-editing?

Well publishers are, unfortunately, already doing that. A cheaper version should not mean an inferior one. We need to encourage them to add value in order to create a premium product.