Books morph across platforms
Publishers are looking forward to opportunities to “breathe new life” into the industry with new technology including eBooks and books for mobile phone.
Isabella Steel from HarperCollins Digital Books Division suggests that young people who might not read books could be interested in digital developments such as eBooks. She believes people need to know more about eInk and not get it confused with traditional backlit computer screens.
“It’s very easy on your eye and it’s very easy to turn the page. What most people are surprised by, I find, is how immersive it is. It compares quite favourably with reading a book”, she says.
“Devices like the iPhone have changed people’s perceptions of the screen, because the iPhone is a very interactive screen”, she explains.
She suggests people don’t see reading on an iPhone in the same way as looking at a spreadsheet on a computer screen. However, she says some readers will continue to want printed books.
“I guess you’d feel that you’d want to give consumers the choice”, Ms Steel explains, “I don’t think it’s an either or situation. Massive luxurious coffee table books are always going to be in the physical”.
Another publisher, Caffeine Nights, is currently developing books for mobile phones. CEO Darren Laws says the way people “consume” media is changing and with people listening to music on their phones and watching movies on their phones, “why shouldn’t they read books on their phones? Any publisher would be mad not to embrace that”.
The company is preparing to provide “pods” in shops and other retail outlets which will allow customers to buy a digital book and send it a mobile phone via Bluetooth.
“A lot of the technology has gone into making these things far more readable even on the smallest of mobile phones, even on a relatively small screen”, Mr Laws explains.
The software they use allows readers to set text to scroll automatically at a particular reading pace and the phone automatically remembers what page you were on when you switch it off.
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"Devices like the iPhone have changed people’s perceptions of the screen"
(Isabella Steel, HarperCollins)
