E-books of the latest generation are so brand new that publishers can’t agree on what to call them.
In the spring Hachette Book Group called its version, by David Baldacci, an “enriched” book. Penguin Group released an “amplified” version of a novel by Ken Follett last week. And on Thursday Simon & Schuster will come out with one of its own, an “enhanced” e-book version of “Nixonland” by Rick Perlstein.
All of them go beyond the simple black-and-white e-book that digitally mirrors its ink-and-paper predecessor. The new multimedia books use video that is integrated with text, and they are best read — and watched — on an iPad, the tablet device that has created vast possibilities for book publishers.
The start-up company Vook pioneered the concept as a mobile application and for the Web in 2009, but with the iPad, traditional publishers are taking the multimedia book much more seriously.
umm, pictures make a book “multimedia”
I want to see someone get sued because they insert video into their enhanced ebooks… the defense should be that any addition to a book of text makes turns it into a multimedia experience… illuminated books are multimedia and those are 500 (?) years old.
if you want to call it something new, then just stop using the term “book.” Vook, enhanced book, augmented book, and all derivations on “book” are only illuminated manuscripts with moving pictures and sound. big deal. call them whatever you want, but don’t feel like you need to use the word book. because “books” haven’t been just books for a very long time.
I like “enriched” ebooks
And I don’t like the word “vook.”
You say “illuminated books” — do you mean “illustrated? I don’t think there were illuminated books 500 years ago, eh? I see nothing wrong with simply appending something to the word “book” (e.g. comic book, electronic book).
Enriching an ebook makes it a point to illuminate the fact that it’s not just text. I think it’s a cool idea, but not if enriched ebooks have a much higher download price. What are the formats of these enriched ebooks? Do they have DRM constraints or are they open; are they proprietary formats?
Edit: from the graphic above of the iPad, I think I’d find it annoying to come across embedded videos while reading fiction. For non-fiction, a video elucidating something would be perfect, but what kinds of video (save perhaps placid landscapes) would enhance a work of fiction? It seems that video would halt the flow of the work.
Illuminated
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminated_manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders (marginalia) and miniature illustrations. In the strictest definition of the term, an illuminated manuscript only refers to manuscripts decorated with gold or silver, but in both common usage and modern scholarship, the term is now used to refer to any decorated or illustrated manuscript from the Western traditions. Comparable Far Eastern works are always described as painted, as are Mesoamerican works. Islamic manuscripts are usually referred to as illuminated but can also be classified as painted.