[LINK] and now -- the video book

[Jan Whitaker]

http://bookfutures.blogspot.com/2009/02/is-it-book-is-it-screen-no-its.html

News on the 
<http://bookseller-association.blogspot.com/2009/02/paper-view.html>Brave 
New World blog of the latest innovation in publishing:

Martyn Daniels writes: "We were intrigued by several reports of a new 
format the 'video book'. We didn't stop to ask whether it was BluRay 
or DVD, but just wanted to know what it was. Could it replace MTV 
with BookTV? Was there an 'Easter Egg' buried in it. or was it all 
hype, hot air and a marketers dream to publicise the book?

HarperCollins has announced the 'video book' and the first to go is 
Jeff Jarvis's. 'What would Google Do?' We thought it may be about the 
settlement but although some may say that would make a good mystery 
thriller, its not. Jarvis's book is already out in hardback and also 
audio and now its coming out as a video book. So what is a video book 
and how does it relate to the book? Is it in author reading and does 
it have animation, graphics, actual film shots or special effects?

The answer is that it's a 23 minute video of Jarvis speaking into a 
single camera with a white background. Jarvis talks apparently about 
the basic concepts in the book and that's it!

...We normally applaud innovation and experimentation, but question 
where this is going and also the potential impact if all author 
videos and podcasts went the same way?"

Call that innovation? At if:book london we are working on a 
groundbreaking range of 3d Aromabooks, starting with a translation of 
War & Peace into a fragrance mingling classic scents with gunpowder 
and horsedung.


Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
personal: http://www.janwhitaker.com/personal/
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

Writing Lesson #54:
Learn to love revision. Think of it as polishing the silver for 
guests. - JW, May, 2007
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