What Do Stories Look Like?

Book design guru Chip Kidd discusses how designing books is all about using visual design to convey the story contained within. He also makes some great observations about eBooks.


"Much is to be gained by eBooks: ease, convenience, portability. But something is definitely lost: tradition, a sensual experience, the comfort of thingy-ness — a little bit of humanity.” (Chip Kidd)

The evolution of the book.

Excellent video produced by UK publishers, Hatchette, that reinforces the point that while the technology of the "book" has been, and will continue to be, one of constant evolution, the knowledge and wonder it delivers (i.e. the content) is a constant.

There's More to eBooks Than Words

“It’s all about the content.”

This simple, yet insightful, comment by leading publishing consultant, Ann Rockley, during a recent webinar on “Exactly What Not to do When Making the Move from Print Publishing to New Media,” (made me think about the many discussions I’ve had, and the many articles I’ve read, about the so-called digital publishing revolution.

I came to the realization that most of us are missing one vital component of this new opportunity. It seems that no matter how much we talk about the changes in process from print to eBooks, we still aren’t giving enough consideration to ways to add value to the content itself. Even when we create and repurpose content, using either traditional serial, or modern modular approaches, we are still, for the most part, delivering content that is not really taking advantage of the fact that the delivery platform (be it Kindle, iPad, or who knows what in the future) is digital.

For all the talk, we are still mainly focused on delivering text.

- Read the rest in my latest article for THE CONTENT WRANGLER web site - "There's More to eBooks Than Words."

Marking Up The Fab Four: Just Imagine What XML Could Do For Your Books

Just posted over at THE CONTENT WRANGLER is my first article in what is planned to be a series examining how the traditional book industry could benefit from adopting XML.

Here's an extract from the first post ...

When I look at my book (Before They Were Beatles) on the Kindle, or on my iPhone, I am frankly disappointed in it. The reason? eBooks and eBook readers today are little more than simple electronic page turners.

But it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to think what they could be like. My book references lots of early recordings of various incarnations of the group that would become The Beatles – wouldn’t it be great to click on a link and actually hear those recordings, or even compare early versions with later versions recorded at the height of their fame. How about when I mention their encounters with other musicians? It would be cool to be able to click on a name and get a snapshot biography, links to books about them and access their music catalog. How about accessing photographs of 1950s Liverpool street scenes, or being able to tour the Fab Four’s childhood homes?

And it’s not only non-fiction where I see these sort of enhancements, imagine reading your favorite novelist, and when a character mentions a location being able to click through to the Google street view, or when they eat at a nice restaurant being able to access the recipe. Ever wanted to know exactly how to make the type of vodka martini that is best served shaken, not stirred? It could be just a click away.

There is no technical reason why this sort of interactive book couldn’t be done today.

You can read the full article here.

iPad - Racing Towards Publishing's Future?

This afternoon I’m sat watching the first major motor race of the 2010 season, the Rolex 24 Hour sports car race at Daytona in Florida. When the race started it was raining, but over the last hour or so the drizzle has stopped and the track started to dry out a bit.

As in any race where the conditions change several drivers choose to come in early and switch their treaded wet weather tires for slick dry weather tires while the track was a little damp. Racing drivers being racing drivers several set off at full throttle back on to a damp track with cold slick tires and promptly spun off, some of them several times. While others balanced the risk with a degree of caution and soon found them selves making rapid progress.

Watching the race unfold over the last hour in changing conditions made me think about this week’s launch of the Apple iPad and the various reactions to it among the digital and technical publishing markets.

There is no doubt that the iPad is a clear sign of changing conditions in the industry. The trick will be how you approach those conditions.

Some will go full out to get to the first corner, by making hasty judgments, rush into new markets without testing, or just repackage existing material without adding any value. I believe that many of these chargers will ‘spin off.’ Some of them will crash and be out of the race, others will work their way back.

Others will take a more cautious approach, feeling out the new conditions, making small adjustments, see how the chargers are doing, watch others make mistakes and learn from them.

Over the last few days I’ve been asked several times what I think about the iPad. I think it’s too early to make a call about doing a ‘pit stop’ to start ‘changing tires.’

At this point I’m not sure what additional value the iPad brings – sure I’ve seen the videos, but I need to see one in action, maybe take a look at what some of the hard chargers are doing, and then maybe I’ll get a better idea of what race strategy we need to peruse to get to the finish line.