Wiley Publishing's Interactive E-book

Wiley releases new interactive mobile app for the perennial bestseller “The Leadership Challenge.”   The new app called, “The Leadership Challenge Mobile Leader Tool,” allows for daily interactivity for those who use the book as a guide for building good leadership skills.  The interactivity involves things like feedback process to tract and measure performance, practice routines, and inspirational quotes of the day among other tools.  Wiley and apps such as this are setting the ground work for the future of e-books where readers can engage with the content of the book more intimately. 

Charming Video Promoting Traditional Books

Here’s a very adorable book trailer video for a short film based on Lane Smith’s “It’s a Book,” a very cute picture book for kids that promotes traditional books.  The video is an exchange between a book loving monkey and a techno donkey.

We came across this video in this article titled “Charmed by Books” published in the Chronicle.  This article is about an experience that a faculty member had when she introduced her class to a collection of old books in the University of Iowa’s Special Collections library.  As first, she was concerned that her smartphone and laptop wielding students would not be as thrilled by old books as she was but after this exercise this is what she had to say:

“Now, I dismiss predictions of the death of the book.  My new certainty that books and reading will endure wasn’t brought about poring over academic tomes or analyzing libraries’ circulation statistics.  It’s a conviction that comes from 15 students, expressions of glee on their faces as they watched one of their members discover the wonders of Reinhart’s Star Wars papercraft.

This winter I've got the sort of warm satisfaction that stems from others' real interest in what matters most to us. My students, they've got books: one on order from Amazon; one in a young woman's head, hoping to make its way into print; and others that many read and loved this term, which they plan to share with the children they'll have someday. I've seen the future of the book. It's in our students' hands.”

Decline in Print Sales in 2011

Association of American Publishers’ report shows sales of print books dropped 18.6% between Q1-Q3 of 2011 in major trade categories, Publishers Weekly reports.  According to this article, while e-book sales climbed almost to 140% for 15 of the reporting houses, the jump did not offset the slow sales in the print segment.   The combined print and e-book sales fell 5.7%, less than the 8.6% overall drop at the end of the first half of 2011.

The First "Smartbook"

There is news that Atria Books plans to insert RFID chip in 1000 copies of the book THE IMPULSE ECONOMY: Understanding Mobile Shoppers and What Makes Them Buy, making it the first “smart book.”   The consumer's can tap their NFC enabled phone to the RFID sticker and the phone will automatically open the phone's mobile web browser on specific book-related content.

"Proximity marketing solutions like NFC will allow for seamless and frictionless interactive experience whether this is for interactive content on your phone or mobile wallet commerce opportunities," says Gary Schwartz, the author of THE IMPULSE ECONOMY. "This new breed of consumer is using the mobile phone in the physical store to select products, research purchases, and act on content."

Atria Books is an imprint of Simon & Schuster, a part of CBS Corporation.

Video: Next generation book

There is a new 6-minute video from TED of interest. It is Mike Matas from Push Pop Press introduces their first full-length interactive book for the iPad. The talk is entitled, "A Next Generation Digital Book." There are some interesting features and capabilities, that could have great implications for textbooks in the future.

Publishers Try to Come to Grips with Digital Challenge

Publishing executives painted a rather gloomy picture of their world at the first World E-Reading Congress recently in London. According to this article in paidContent UK, the printed book is in trouble and publishers just aren’t yet sure what to do with its digital counterpart.

“The entire publishing industry is going down the drain,” an executive from Siemens told the publishers in a sponsored address about a tablet publishing software service. While most attendees probably don’t actually believe that, they are trying to tell their stories in new ways through technology such as iPhone apps.

They want to learn from the painful lessons of the music industry, but also fear competition that ranges from self-publishing authors to e-tail giants such as Amazon, which recently launched its own publishing imprint for romance novels.

“We need to anticipate and create new business models that give consumers access when they want it,” said Victoria Barnsley, international CEO at HarperCollins.

Young Readers Starting to Become E-Readers

There have been a number of studies showing that college students continue to prefer using printed books when taking a class, including one from OnCampus Research. However, the OnCampus Research study also added it was a trend that may not last long as younger readers begin to get more familiar with using electronic readers.

Now, the New York Times is reporting that publishers are seeing increases in sales of children’s and young adult e-titles. The article provides details from both HarperCollins and St. Martin’s Press that show jumps in digital sales of young-adults e-books in just the first month of 2011.

One possible explanation for the increase is that price drops in the electronic devices made them attractive for younger readers last Christmas. The Times also suggests K-12 teachers may be getting reports that some K-12 teachers are beginning to allow leisure reading on the devices during homeroom or in English classes.