I’m thrilled to announce the release of the preview edition of “Breaking the Page: Transforming Books and the Reading Experience” (available through the iBookstore, Amazon and O’Reilly). In this free download, I tackle one big-ticket question: how do we make digital books as satisfying as their print predecessors?
I’ve studied hundreds of recent publishing experiments, comparing them all to what I’ve learned during a 20-plus year career as writer, editor, and publisher. My goal: distill best-practice principles and spotlight model examples. I want to help authors understand how to use the digital canvas to convey their best ideas, and how to do so in a reader-friendly way. As app book tinkering flourishes, and as EPUB 3 emerges as an equally rich alternative, the time felt right for a look at the difference between what can and what should be done in digital book-land. That’s my mission in “Breaking the Page.”
The preview edition’s three chapters focus on some basics: browsing, searching, and navigating. This ain’t the sexiest crew, I know, but it’s amazing how hard it is to get this stuff right. I focus on examples good and bad, toss in a few design ideas of my own, and suggest how to include these services in a way that makes digital books pleasing on eyes, hands, and minds.
Ahead, I’ve got a head-to-toe tour of model digital book features planned for the full edition (coming mid-2012). I’ll be focusing on questions like:
- What’s the best way to integrate — and not just add — different media types? And, on a related note: is it possible to make the viewing experience as seamless and immersive as reading is in print?
- How do you design content and reading paths on what is, essentially, an infinite canvas?
- How do you pick the best balance between personalized design (reader-controllable font sizing, for example) and author-driven fixed layout? Are there any acceptable compromises?
While I’m pushing ahead to the finish line, I’d love to hear what you think. Suggestions, examples, critiques … send ’em all my way.
TOC NY 2012 — O’Reilly’s TOC Conference, being held Feb. 13-15, 2012, in New York City, is where the publishing and tech industries converge. Practitioners and executives from both camps will share what they’ve learned and join together to navigate publishing’s ongoing transformation.
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