Peter Meyers on Digital Books at BookNet Canada’s Tech Forum West

BookNet Canada held the first Tech Forum West in Vancouver on October 18th. Titled Reboot the Book, the conference was a chance to explore how to redesign books using enhancements, apps and the tools available through BookNet Canada.

Peter Meyers gave the keynote address. Meyers speaks and writes about digital books and also co-founded one of the first online multimedia textbook publishers, Digital Learning Interactive. His talk, “Breaking the Page Without Hurting the Reader” looked at how publishers have been approaching digital books in the past and ways in which they can better serve readers.

5 Key Takeaways From Peter Meyers’ Keynote:

1. Serve the reader, not the device.
Digital books need to create a better reading experience otherwise they just become a vehicle for the technology. Reading experiences that don’t make readers happy will get left behind.

2. Design for the reading experience.
When designing books, publishers need to keep the 3 types of reading experiences in mind:

• Immersive (storytelling)
• Instructive (teaching)
• Informative (reference material)

Publishers should be thinking about how design can improve the reading experience the book is serving.

3. Think of design from the ground up.
Rather than creating a digital book from a print book, publishers should be thinking of design at the very beginning. This way digital books aren’t limited by the text.

4. The author’s job is to lead the reader.
In an immersive reading experience, the author’s role is to lead the reader and construct a well-shaped story. A beginning, middle and end gives readers a sense of accomplishment that we don’t get from surfing the web or chatting on twitter. In a book, readers don’t want to worry about getting lost. Elements such as “choose your own adventure” or a lot of links to outside sources only confuse and frustrate readers.

5. Reading is not a social experience.
Reading happens alone and sharing happens after we’ve read, outside of the text. Publishers should be thinking of sharing elements after the immersive experience of reading, not during.

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Meyers also pointed out some interesting examples of what can be done with digital books, including this project: Welcome to Pine Point. Produced by The Goggles, a company in Vancouver that makes story-based media projects, the book combines text, audio, animation and archival video to tell the story of Pine Point, a Canadian mining town that was closed down. I recommend you check it out, it’s a really neat example of how digital books can use the technology to enhance a story.
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And if you want to learn more about creating digital books, Digital Book World is holding a free webcast October 27: Give the Readers What They Want: Producing Better eBooks