Enhanced Editions

[STML]

Hi All - James here from http://booktwo.org - longtime Mobileread lurker.

I've been heavily involved with Enhanced Editions - a new ereader for the iPhone.

The first title - Nick Cave's new novel, The Death of Bunny Munro - has just appeared in the App Store and we'd love your feedback.

The site's at http://www.enhanced-editions.com/ and we've also written up much of the development and the design decisions taken on the blog: http://www.enhanced-editions.com/blog/ if you want to know more.

We also made this trailer: http://vimeo.com/6366840 - enjoy!

[zelda_pinwheel]

Hello James, and welcome ! i saw an article about Nick Cave's new novel being released as an enhanced ebook and i'm rather frustrated actually, since i LOVE nick cave but... i don't have an iphone. i hope someday it will be available for other devices as well !

we're very glad to have you here, please join in the discussion, it will be great to hear more about your projects and ideas.

[JSWolf]

STMl, you do know that releasing eBooks for just one platform is rather bad for business. People without this one device will then either boycott that author and/or that publisher. So releasing for other platforms is good for business. Give it a think and then do it.

[FlorenceArt]

Hi,

I have an iPod Touch, but I prefer to read on my Cybook. I had a look at the description of the "features", the tilt-scrolling sounds neat, but not enough to trade my large comfortable e-ink screen for a tiny backlit iPod. The other extras (audio and video) I'm not interested in at all, but I suppose others might be. I might buy this e-book if it's not available elsewhere, but I had never heard of this author before, so this would not be a priority buy for me.

That's my feedback, for what it's worth. I don't think I belong to your target audience

Florence

[STML]

@zelda_pinwheel - Thanks. I have chipped in before, and will some more, but always nice to be welcomed! Bunny Munro is available in lots of ways - not just on the iPhone.

@JSWolf - we're very aware that ebooks should be cross-platform, and vocal in our support for epub and against DRM.

In the long run, we'd definitely like these titles to be cross-platform, but at the moment the iPhone is the only device that offers the technology to make our particular vision possible (we also think convergence devices have a better future than single-use devices like the Kindle and Sony Reader).

I'd be really surprised if anyone boycotted this book - or any other - because one particular edition is available on only one platform. In any case - this book is available as an epub on all platforms and as a separate audiobook - we've just combined the two, lowered the price, and added some iPhone-specific enhancements... so we're looking for feedback from iPhone users on this edition.

@Florence - no worries. But I highly recommend it, in any format!

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by STML

@zelda_pinwheel - Thanks. I have chipped in before, and will some more, but always nice to be welcomed!

great, i'm looking forward to discussing with you.

@JSWolf - we're very aware that ebooks should be cross-platform, and vocal in our support for epub and against DRM.

In the long run, we'd definitely like these titles to be cross-platform, but at the moment the iPhone is the only device that offers the technology to make our particular vision possible (we also think convergence devices have a better future than single-use devices like the Kindle and Sony Reader).

yeah !!! thanks for that link !! it's so great to see publishers with their priorities straight !! brilliant news, really !!! i'm for epub all the way and i get a bit overexcited when i hear publishers defending open formats, inter-operability, and no drm, so please excuse the enthusiasm.

personally, i actually do strongly favour "single use" or at least "few uses" devices ; i can't see combining my cellphone with a liseuse (reading device) because i don't want a huge telephone or a tiny screen for reading, i don't want to combine it with a netbook-type device because i don't want a backlit screen for reading but e-ink is too slow and limited for other web-type activities for the moment, and more importantly i want to read on the lightest and most compact device i can get (even my sony 700 is slightly on the heavy side, i find, for carrying around, so forget cuddling up in bed with a netbook or even worse a notebook !) but i know that for some people it's much more practical or desirable to have a multi-use device, and in fact i'm sure there are plenty of people who wouldn't think a single-purpose device just for reading would be a justifiable purchase (it is for me). i hope that both forms will survive, although i do think we'll start to see more and more somewhat hybrid devices soon.

I'd be really surprised if anyone boycotted this book - or any other - because one particular edition is available on only one platform. In any case - this book is available as an epub on all platforms and as a separate audiobook - we've just combined the two, lowered the price, and added some iPhone-specific enhancements...

i won't boycott you, i just can't buy any of your enhanced editions for logistical reasons. i do understand though why for the moment it's technically not possible to make them compatible with dedicated devices. however, since (as i'm sure you know) the epub *format* can already handle multi-media content (if you're willing to read the file on your pc, where all those multi-media files are supported), do you have any plans to sell "enhanced epubs" outside of the iphone app store ? that way, i suppose for the really rabid fan (have i mentioned i love nick cave ?) we could read the text on the device of our choice (e-ink liseuse ftw, baby ! ...for me, anyway ), play the multi-media files on the pc, and when the technology catches up (which i have confidence it will) put the whole thing on our full-colour, non-backlit, hyper high-definition, multi-media capable reading device of our choice (or keep it on an iphone / mac tablette for those who prefer). just a thought.

[ahi]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

STMl, you do know that releasing eBooks for just one platform is rather bad for business. People without this one device will then either boycott that author and/or that publisher. So releasing for other platforms is good for business. Give it a think and then do it.

People, or you?

[John F]

Originally Posted by ahi

People, or you?

People.

[ahi]

Originally Posted by John F

People.

Ah, both you and JSWolf. Got it!

Still, unlikely as it may seem, the book might survive even such a terrible blow and thrive despite it.

- Ahi

[Hellmark]

Ahi, quit stirring the pot.

I lost interest in the book when I heard the ipod app way of delivering it. I have iPods, but I don't have an iPhone or iPod Touch, thus unable to be a customer. But now that I know it is available as an epub, different story.

[carlobee]

i could use this one on my iPhone. very nice.

[Neil]

Wow. I just went to the App Store to buy this and fahgeddaboutit.

$24.99 ???????????

Ah, no.

[Kosst Amojan]

Looks like a cool idea, also looks like your next two books are about Obama. Way to get a lot of people to ignore this.

[STML]

@carlobee - Great! Hope you enjoy.

@Neil - we're aware price is an issue. But we're also very aware that price is an issue across all ebooks, and it's interesting to see who's actually getting paid in this equation. We want to support authors - some of whom are finding they're getting stiffed by the new models of ebook pricing - and we also want to support the publishers whose books we're putting on this new platform.

Do consider that for that price, you're getting the full book, plus the full audiobook, plus lots of extras (like the for a lot less than you'd get the two separately. But, as I say, we're aware this is a debate with a long way to run...

@Kosst Amojan - the books are by, not about, Obama. They're his earlier memoir, Dreams From My Father, as well as The Audacity of Hope, and they're pretty good books, whatever your political opinions.

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

personally, i actually do strongly favour "single use" or at least "few uses" devices ; i can't see combining my cellphone with a liseuse (reading device) because i don't want a huge telephone or a tiny screen for reading, i don't want to combine it with a netbook-type device because i don't want a backlit screen for reading but e-ink is too slow and limited for other web-type activities for the moment, and more importantly i want to read on the lightest and most compact device i can get (even my sony 700 is slightly on the heavy side, i find, for carrying around, so forget cuddling up in bed with a netbook or even worse a notebook !) but i know that for some people it's much more practical or desirable to have a multi-use device, and in fact i'm sure there are plenty of people who wouldn't think a single-purpose device just for reading would be a justifiable purchase (it is for me). i hope that both forms will survive, although i do think we'll start to see more and more somewhat hybrid devices soon.

Besides their screen size, there is the issue of carrier exclusivity. For instance in the United States AT&T is the only carrier that can offer the iPhone. What makes this particularly annoying is that no carrier offers service nationwide (eg. Neither AT&T no Sprint have coverage in North-Eastern Nevada). Also if the carrier pulls out of your area you lose your current service and have to buy a new phone (as has happened to me TWICE).

Now I do think integration is inevitable in the long run. The current lines being mainly drawn from limitations in the display technologies... The Pixel Qi technology solves one or two major issues with LCDs, plus color and eventually even video rate response times will make eInk a much more viable multimedia display. Despite their limitation, cell phones should be good enough for many people. In the 5-10" display range I believe it very likely that we will see the concepts of book reader ("liseuse" ) and internet tablet merge. And 9" and larger (yes I overlapped them on purpose) you would have the tabletPC/Convertibles.