What in the World is an Enhanced e-Book?

If we’ve learned anything over the past twenty years, it’s that the world is changing—specifically when it comes to technology.  Individuals first learned to use the computer.  Next, we all became extremely aware of three little letters and what they meant—www—the World Wide Web.

But as soon as we understand one aspect or familiarize ourselves with a particular software, we’re inundated with the latest upgrade or update.  Everyone starts to feel overwhelmed or exhausted with these constant changes, but we also realize that these improvements really work to our advantage.

Look at cell phones.  In the ‘80s and ‘90s, mobile phones were the size of a brick and/or were literally attached to the interior of our cars.  In the mid-to-late ‘90s, cell phones decreased in size and actually became more mobile (in that they easily fit into our purses and pockets, instead of having to carry around a brief case just to take a call).  Fast-forward to 2012, and most individuals now use a “smart” phone—a phone that not only fits in our handbags and pockets, but also enables users to connect to the internet, email, social media, and pretty much any other application the user wants to access.

We’re not complaining about these cell phone updates, are we?

Now, take the publishing industry as an example.  In the past, when a writer finished a novel, he or she had to wait on representation to sell the work.  Similarly, readers had to wait at the local bookstore to pick up the most recent releases the moment they hit the shelves.

But, not anymore—not with self-publishing as it is today.

Self-publishing gives authors the control they’ve wanted all along—control with book titles, book covers, book content (story and words), publishing, copyrights, and promotion.  Self-publishing also gives readers the freedom to now choose between printed books and electronic books.  And for the first time, vendors are seeing higher sales numbers with e-books than the traditional paperback and hardbacks.

And just as everyone becomes more comfortable with e-books, we hear about the latest craze—enhanced e-books.

What in the world is an enhanced e-book?

Instead of just black and white numbers and letters printed on the page, or embedded since we’re talking electronically, enhanced e-books also include multimedia files (.PDFs, images, videos, and audio files) within the e-book itself.

Okay, some may still be asking what in the world an enhanced e-book is… that’s okay; they’re not alone.

Say that Abby the Author hand-drew art that she wants to include in her story, giving the book another form of visual appeal.  She can do this now.

Say that Rocky the Rocker wants to include some of his popular hits within the text of his autobiography for the reader, allowing his fans to actually hear the music instead of only reading the lyrics.  He can do this now.

And say that Cathy the Cook wants to include actual video footage of herself preparing meals in the kitchen inside her e-cookbook, instead of only listing the recipes for her chefs-in-training.  She can do this now.

Sounds cool, right?

We think so.

We actually think a better question we should all be asking is why are we so surprised that even the e-book is upgrading?

Because that’s the world we live in… nothing sits still for long; we’ve got to learn to change, or upgrade, with the times.

Come back next week when we continue our series about multimedia as a part of publishing.