#serialized fictions

Photo Credit:  numberstumper (Creative Commons)

There is much talk about whether ebooks will replace printed books, if they will coexist, if ebooks have reached their maximum growth in sales… Numbers show that ebooks are climbing, but firm conclusions could be drawn only in some years. Nowadays the only truth is that ebooks haven’t reached their ceiling simply because they have infinite possibilities which have only been exploited   in a 10%.  In most cases they are only a transfer of the printed book on a screen, with the same typography, layout or design which sometimes is wrongly displayed.

As ebooks are gaining sales, one thing is sure: ebook readers (especially young adult ones) are looking for new books; let’s say a different kind of books, new formats. It’s not just transferring the printed page into a simple black-and-white screen. They know, for instance, that audio and video can coexist in perfect harmony with the text within the screen.

Pages fasted along one side and encased between covers is not the complete definition for the word book today; and the most interesting thing is that with all the technology and tools that are easy to reach and use, every author can define his own book! They are free to create content just in the way they like.

Books are changing, evolving. Readers are asking for something different; something that -luckily!- ebooks can meet.

  New ebooks

As devices are technologically growing and competing with each other, letters and drawings should only be a part of the blank page. Are writers ready to use all these ‘benefits’ ebooks have with respect to printed book?

Here are some ‘revolutionary’ ebooks compiled by the Wall Street Journal in which readers can, for example, enlarge images, watch videos or 3-D images or hear the voices of it characters.

The serialized fictions are another good example: episodes delivered to readers in scheduled installments.

If they operate as ebooks (we mean, no app required), could we call them interactive books?  Enhanced books? Some argue that they are something else but definitely not books; that they should be named differently. Or they just need to accept the evolution of the book and get on it?

New writers?

What does being a writer mean today? Writers are also… (yes, the ‘e’ word again!) evolving.

Authors writing on line, asking for reviews, adding videos, links, interacting, enhancing ebooks… Elle Lothlorien, for example, offers her readers the possibility of changing the end. If some don’t like the ending of her book Sleeping Beauty, they can choose another one. 'Real communication — dialogue — takes place when the author is not only able to listen to the reader, but has the ability to respond in a meaningful way.‘Now, “making something public” is different. It’s easier, cheaper and possible for anyone. So writers must look ahead, evolve.’ 

Change the end or try with alternative storyline. Remember how revolutionary seemed the Choose Your Own Adventure printed collection? How much easier it would have been to publish them as ebooks!

A concept repeated at the Books in Browsers 2012: the power of this evolution is infinite. Besides leaving the ‘power’ in hands of the author, and the possibility of direct writer-reader connection, ebooks can be linked to other ebooks and your website so you can update information about new ebooks, add tags, categorize ideas and characters… and so on. 

How many times have you heard “The future is here”? Nice slogan, but we must tell you… that is impossible! If it is here, it is called present. Books, writers and also readers are evolving; they are looking for new books, new formats. Are writers prepared?

How do you think a book will look like in some years?