Tag Archives: scent

Enhanced Features for eBooks, help or hindrance?

02 Friday Sep 2011

Posted by in The Publishing Industry

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A recent Publishers Weekly article on enhanced eBooks for children has got me thinking about the whole concept of  eBooks which might feature “original music; the story is read by the author and, much like all of these apps, the illustrations—all based on the artwork in the print titles—on each screen can be manipulated to make sounds or animated with the touch of a finger.”

Now these particular eBooks are designed for children and will likely encourage very young readers to keep at it until they understand how to use their imagination to fill in the blanks.  As well as the added features: “All releases will feature dedicated Web sites, interactive games, read-along functionality, animation and many other in-app activities for the young reader.  Adam Royce, v-p, digital content development at Penguin Young Readers, said the apps offered an “enhanced reading experience and interactive features that are true to the reading experience.”

I take issue with that last phrase, and you’ll see why below, but I’m not so much worried about what’s happening for very young readers, I’m worried that these new developments will bleed into adult fiction where publishers are already looking at “enhanced reading experiences”.

I don’t know about you, but when I’m reading (print book or eBook device) at some point I stop being in this world and I get into “the zone” where I don’t even remember I’m lying on the lounge any more because I am the character and I’m living the story.  Inevitably something happens to plop me out of the story and then I remember it’s ‘just a book’ but prior to that I was somewhere else, in the land of the story, using my imagination to hear wind whispering through trees or see sunlight sparkling off water or smell the salt tang of the ocean.  And in fact, if I’d had to stop reading to experience someone else’s idea of what that sunlight looks like or what that ocean smells like, I’d immediately plop out of the story and remember that  it wasn’t real.

Now I don’t know about you, but I never wanted that to happen when I was a kid.  I was desperate to stay in the story (Alice in Wonderland, Magic Faraway Tree, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie), for the characters to be real, and for the magical settings to be somewhere I could inhabit for as long as possible.  I’m sure the same thing happened to kids reading Harry Potter, and I know for sure (because I interviewed a heap of them) that teenager girls reading Twilight lived so thoroughly inside that created world that they’d often get mildly depressed when they returned to ‘real life’ because it couldn’t compare with the sparkle of Edward’s attention.  For the period that they were reading, they were Bella, and he loved them.  I seriously doubt that would have happened if Twilight had come packaged with werewolf howls and assorted interactive buttons.  Maybe as an audiobook, but even then I doubt it would work as well as simply reading the text and letting your own vivid imagination create the sensory experience, with nothing to jerk you out of the story and back to reality.

To me, there’s nothing “true to the reading experience” about adding anything that distracts the reader from being inside the story, because I believe the reader’s imagination is the greatest factor in bringing a story to life – not clever graphics or sounds or even smells and tactile experiences when they work out how to deliver that.  And I’m not a Luddite.  I’m more than happy for eBooks to overtake print if people want to read on a device.  Whatever the reader wants, so long as it doesn’t get in the way of them dropping into the world I’ve created.  And I believe “added features” get in the way, so I’m hoping they stay at the very youngest end of the market where they may entice a bored toddler to keep with a story.  But once a reader grows up, I really just want them to have text on the first run through.

I do love the idea of the dedicated websites with extra features on them, but only to be used after the reader has finished creating the story inside their own mind.  Otherwise we might end up with a generation of children not being able to use their imaginations to fully create the world a writer has sketched out for them.  I’m worried about what that means to their enjoyment of story, and also what that means to the creative development of their brains.

As always, I’m really happy to kick start the discussion with my opinions and see what everyone else has to say!

Paperbacks vs eBooks – dawn of the Slow Book movement?

21 Sunday Aug 2011

Posted by in The Publishing Industry

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Yesterday was National Bookstore Day in Australia, and like a lot of authors around the country I turned up at my local bookstore to say “Thanks for selling our books.”  My Dymocks here in Bundaberg were particularly pleased because I came bearing chocolate mud cake, but the more important message was that authors care.  With the demise of bookstore chains and the pressure from eBook sales (which continue to soar) there’s a lot of gloom and doom surrounding the future of bookstores.  There’s also a lot of talk among writers about how that affects us, and to be honest, from what I’ve heard recently at the Romance Writers of Australia conference from #NYT best selling authors, print publishers and eBook publishers, they all say the same thing: authors who write a good story will be fine.  The format for delivery of our stories is changing, but the demand for good stories remains strong, and whether the format is print books or eBooks, we’ll still make money.

So that’s the writers side of the equation, but from a readers perspective things have a different slant, and as we writers need to understand our audience (and most writers are readers too), this bears looking at.  You’d have to be deep in first draft to have missed the wave of grief (and outrage in some quarters) at the idea that print books may soon become as challenging to buy as an LP record.  I doubt that will happen, but if it does, those readers who perceive the world in a tactile/kinaesthetic way – myself included – will be the hardest hit.

The loss of a container for story which I can hold and caress (a book) will upset many of the rituals I have around reading that give me such pleasure.  I do understand that eReaders are super efficient and freely admit I use one myself on occasion.  Their publicity was true in my experience – as soon as I drop into the story I completely forget that I’m holding a machine in my hands instead of a book.  I’m “in” the story and the format for delivery is no longer important.    I even have Kindle for mobile on my smartphone so if I get stuck waiting somewhere I’ve got something to read.  They do have their place and I’m not denying that.

But being “in” the story isn’t the only pleasure I get out of reading.  Anticipation of the reading experience is important to me too, the same way anticipating catching up with an old friend for coffee (or a new man for dinner) can create excitement and pleasure long before the actual meeting takes place.  I’m also not ashamed to admit I feel happy just standing in front of my bookcase looking at all the multicoloured spines, remembering the thrill each book has given me.  Plus, I adore covers!  There’s nothing nicer than revisiting a great cover and remembering the characters and the world that author created.  Even reading a back cover blurb can evoke a spurt of happy memories.

Then there’s the coffee table beside my lounge where I sit when I’m on a writing break.  I always have a couple of books on the go, and they sit there with their enticing covers, waiting for me to come back, feeding that delicious anticipation every time I glance their way.

And don’t get me started on the smell!  There is nothing more fabulous than the scent that drifts up as you open a new book for the first time.  And as the paper ages the scent changes, the same way a baby’s milky-sweet scent gives way to the school-lunchbox smells of ‘children’ and the musky hormones of a teenager.  Books grow.  For those of us who adore books, they can be even more potent a thrill-trigger than the smell of the first-picked strawberry of the season, or that first sniff of the ocean when your car reaches the esplanade.  The pleasure pathways in my brain that are triggered by the scent of books lie dormant when I use an eReader, and to say that’s disappointing would be an understatement.

Reading should be an experience that’s rich with the texture and tradition of pleasure.  And I ‘get’ that we’re living in a fast paced world, but when the pendulum swings too far towards rat-on-a-wheel, you end up with rebellions like the Slow Food Movement that send you back to savouring the process of what comes before you eat the meal.  I’m sure there will always be a market for printed books, but I’m less certain that I’ll be able to drive down the road and walk into a book store if Amazon and the Book Depository keep snagging all the trade.

So if you’re a reader like me who loves the sensual experience of a printed book “to have and to hold”, act now before it’s too late.  Go into your local bookstore, introduce yourself (particularly if you’re a writer) and buy your books there.  I’m sure they’d be happy to order in anything they don’t currently stock.  I’ve recently become hooked into the completely addictive YA series by Kelly Armstrong that starts with Bitten, and was delighted to find book two on their shelves when I went in with my mudcake.  So I bought it!  Easy, and now it’s sitting on the coffee table saying “Read me!  Read me!” every time I walk past.

And I love that too.  More than I can say.