There was a time when paper books and eBooks were put against each other to compete for the same audience. If that were still the case, it wouldn’t be too far off to say that print publishing is losing sufficient share to eBooks as according to Publishing Association - last year eBook sales increased by 134% and reached £216 million sales in the UK.
Then book apps were introduced to add different dimensions to both print books and eBooks. In 2012, UK based publisher Touch Press announced that the brand sold more than half a million book apps worldwide.
So what differentiates book apps from eBooks?
Supercharge the reading experience with interactive book apps
EBook is defined as “an electronic version of a printed book” in the Oxford Dictionary. Although some eBooks are only in digital form, the idea is same – the text and images are static as print books. When the eBooks were launched, readers were seduced by its light weight for carrying around, cheaper cost and instant access to a huge library.
However the interactive book apps changed the whole experience of reading – before, a cosy sofa and good imagination could bring the words to life for the reader but now the apps do everything. Much less imagination is required from the reader to get a grip of the story as the interactive books present the audiences with relevant images and videos of even the smallest details and play relevant sounds for each scene. For example:
Pop out! The tale of Peter Rabbit is a brilliant adaptation of the classic children’s book. Innovatively animated pages accompanied by a piano tune are enchanting for the little ones and children can choose whether the story is read for them by the narrator or by their parents.
Look & Cook contains images, videos and text to guide the readers to master intricate dishes at home. It could be described as the combination of a traditional cook book and cooking show that you can play back again and again. The app took account of the fact that sticky fingers can ruin the reader’s iPad/iPhone screen and included voice activation system for hands free navigation.
Bridging book is a great example of how print books and book apps can be combined to a create single experience. When the reader turns the book pages, the app displays the content relevant to that page in order to complement the story. It provides the children the feeling of reading a physical book as well as using an interactive app.
The book apps make even less exciting or niche subjects intriguing for general audiences, for instance: Biography – A journey with history’s most influential people educates the readers interactively with the life, work and famous quotations of more than 70 of the most talented people of all times.
Self-publication
On top of its appeal to the readers, eBooks introduced a number of advantages to authors as it is easier, faster and cheaper to publish, promote and sale the books online.
However the apps are more expensive to produce than eBooks for self-publishers and require certain amount of technical knowledge.
Nevertheless both eBooks and book apps enable the writers to advertise and sell their work instantly with no need for contracts with traditional publishing houses.
Future
Overall, book apps provide unparalleled convenience and entertainment to its readers and it is anticipated that even more cutting edge ones will appear on the market soon in the future. The large publishing house such as Harper Collins Publishers has started creating their own book apps (for example, Kings and Queens by David Starkey) along with smaller but digital focused publishers.
Although it is still early days for most publishers to take part in the market of interactive book apps, the shift towards coming up with inventive ways to attract future readers is continuous.
