Do readers really want video-book hybrids?
Meet the "vook," the latest "book of the future"
BY LAURA MILLER
The unfortunately named vooks consist of text and video clips produced in concert to form integrated works. You can read/watch them with a Web browser, but they're primarily intended for mobile devices like the iPhone and meant to win over those people you see on the subway or in airports frantically pounding their thumbs through endless rounds of Frogger instead of reading a David Baldacci novel. The spectacle of people not reading in public has become a motivating trauma for many publishing executives of late. Brian Tart, publisher of Dutton Books, told the Times' Motoko Rich, "You see people watching these three-minute YouTube videos and using social networks, and there is an opportunity here to bring in more people who might have thought they were into the new media world."
The comments thread fills up with semi-hysterical fogies moaning, "Don't take my good old-fashioned books away! I love the way they smell!" And, finally, the geek punditocracy steps in to sniffily announce that although printed books are indeed doomed, this particular alternative is hopelessly lame, created by clueless print-oriented geezers who can't see that the real future lies in some yet-to-be-imagined, fantastically entertaining fusion of emerging media that our poor, reeling, post-adolescent brains can't hope to conceptualize.
The most significant problem in the vook model: For $7.99 I can buy a paperback romance novel and in my mind's eye cast Clive Owen as the lead, while a vook is only able to deliver a struggling unknown from the dinner-theater circuit. It costs real money to shoot merely decent location and dramatic scenes; most of the video material in these vooks resembles establishing shots and B-roll from sub-Hollywood TV programs. By contrast, a writer can crank out dozens of formulaic romances describing all kinds of lavish hotness and folderol for a relative pittance.
There have been more creative recent efforts to soup up print books, such as the "The Amanda Project," a high school mystery about a missing girl in the form of an eight-book series and Web site, both of which will incorporate reader contributions. "The Amanda Project" is intended for "ages 13 & up," and, who knows, perhaps it will take off -- that is, if the intended readership can tear itself away from the Twilight Saga long enough to read the first installment.
https://www1.amschool.edu.sv/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2009/10/06/vooks/index.html
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The Dunlaps,
ReplyDeleteThis is Matt from Vook -- I see you're reposting Laura Miller's Salon article, which is fairly critical of Vook. We appreciate that Laura spent a lot of time working through the Vook and coming up with a cogent critique. But we really do encourage everyone to go try our new vooks. In particular, our new Sherlock Holmes Vook (http://vook.com/) really shows off what can be done with our platform.
Best,
Matt Cavnar
Vook
http://vook.com/
I would use this article to demonstrate that the way in which books are presented to the public is changing as a result of the change in the way of living that occurs due to the development of new technology, such as the iphone. Vooks are an attempt to meet the needs of "people you see on the subway or in airports" using technological devices instead of reading. However, it is not the way in which books are published what will encourage individuals to read, but rather it is the content of these books that captures a person’s attention and develops a passion for reading. The future of books does not depend on the form of publication as it does on what actually is being published.
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