Quote:
Originally Posted by starrigger
A friend of mine who's a writer/artist/software geek created an iThing app for one of his novels. I thought it was pretty cool: it could launch the book normally, but also had access to sketches and full-color art, side notes about the book and its world, and I forget what all. Maybe he'll weigh in here. (You there, Chris?)
|
Thanks, Jeff.
I agree with just about everything already said about the "app book" and reading, or it being the next gen ebook. It won't. Like most others here, I will always prefer to read in a reader app or on a device--Kindle, iPad, nook.
But I have been doing quite a bit of exploration in developing an iPad/iPhone/Android app as an author or artist platform for promotion--combining free content, games, and other activities, some more useful than others.
My evolving "Seaborn" app (for my first novel Seaborn (Juno Books), link below), which is up to version 2 in the iTunes app store, is basically a free bunch of art, notes, stories, audio, chapters, character list, graphic novel sampler, and links to buying books at Amazon, B&N, iBooks, etc. It has full usage stats built in, so I can see that most users select the Saltwater Witch menu item first, that app users spend the most time in the Seaborn book section, that the app's been installed on iPads in 56 countries by over 3000 users, and all kinds of other cool stuff.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/M...393798398&mt=8
I completely agree that one app per book doesn't make a bit of sense, or that most readers don't want to see video, audio. On the other hand, a free app that installs with one-click on several platforms and gets twenty readers who have never heard of me to my blog, with links to my books, or to follow my Twitter stream...can't be a bad thing.
I think the right app with some decent content can get readers into your world.
I write science fiction and fantasy, and as a reader of both, it seems to me that the hard part of getting new readers is getting them to invest any amount of time in your world--or making it easy for readers who already like your books to recommend them to others. Once there, and with a bit of time spent looking around, new readers ar emore than likely to continue reading--and buy more of your books.
I could just be crazy, and this could easily go nowhere, but I do think it's worth some effort to explore the book promotion opportunities these portable/mobile devices bring to the world.
I'm also looking at games and other ways to bring readers in--not necessarily to read, but to have a bit of fun, get more information on your characters, maps, content, and find out where to get more.
Here are a couple of my posts on what I think "enhanced books" are:
http://the0phrastus.typepad.com/the0...kgame-app.html
Book Promotionware:
http://the0phrastus.typepad.com/the0...-workflow.html
Cheers!
Chris Howard
web:
http://www.saltwaterwitch.com
blog:
http://theophrast.us