Immersive Narratives: Navigating the Transformative Landscape of Interactive E-Books

In the ever-evolving landscape of contemporary reading experiences, interactive e-books have emerged as a transformative force. By seamlessly incorporating multimedia elements into storytelling, these e-books represent a significant shift in the digital publishing sphere. The emergence of new media formats has led to increased demand for immersive storytelling beyond traditional text. This growing demand for interactive content is reshaping the digital literature landscape, prompting publishers to adapt and innovate. The infusion of multimedia not only enhances the visual appeal of narratives but also fundamentally changes the narrative structure, leaving an enduring impact on reader engagement. This exploration delves into key aspects of this dynamic literary landscape, covering the evolution of reading experiences, the diverse benefits of interactive e-books, the digital tools empowering creators, the impact on authors and publishers, and a glimpse into the future with advancements like virtual and augmented reality. Through this journey, we unveil the profound influence of multimedia integration on storytelling and the ever-evolving nature of reading experiences.

The Evolution of Reading Experiences

The landscape of reading experiences is currently undergoing a profound transformation, witnessing the decline of traditional print books in favor of the dynamic realm of digital interactive e-books. This shift represents a broader change in the interaction between readers and literature, driven by historical events and technological advancements. Pivotal moments in the history of publishing have marked the transition from print to digital formats.

The invention of the printing press, for example, revolutionized the accessibility of books, making literature more widely available. Fast forward to the digital age, and innovations like e-readers, tablets, and smartphones have opened entirely new avenues for interactive storytelling. This blend of historical context and technological progress has not only reshaped the medium through which stories are conveyed but has also led to a noticeable shift in reader expectations and preferences. Readers today, accustomed to the convenience and interactivity offered by digital platforms, seek a more engaging and participatory form of literary consumption.

Moreover, as interactive reading technologies continue to evolve, the evidence is in the growing attraction of readers to these platforms. The increasing popularity of interactive e-books, immersive storytelling apps, and augmented reality reading experiences indicates a demand for more dynamic and participatory engagement with literature. This trend highlights the interplay between history and technology, shaping interactive reading experiences.

Benefits of Interactive E-Books

Interactive e-books provide a wide range of advantages by catering to diverse learning styles and offering a versatile platform for visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners. This adaptability positions them as valuable tools, addressing individual preferences and reader needs effectively. The integration of multimedia elements plays a crucial role in enhancing storytelling, elevating the reading experience to a multi-sensory journey. Through the seamless combination of visuals, audio, and interactive components, these e-books go beyond traditional narratives, captivating readers in a more immersive and engaging manner.

The cognitive benefits of interactive storytelling extend beyond mere entertainment, contributing to heightened reader engagement and comprehension. This dynamic approach triggers psychological processes that foster deeper cognitive involvement, making the reading experience not only enjoyable but also cognitively enriching.

In education, digital tools empower textbooks to leverage the potential of interactivity. Features such as quizzes, interactive diagrams, and multimedia content significantly enhance the learning experience, offering students dynamic and engaging educational materials. This intersection of technology and education highlights the potential of interactive e-books to revolutionize not only recreational reading but also the presentation and absorption of educational content. The seamless integration of interactive elements into educational materials reflects a shift towards a more engaging and effective learning environment, where technology plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of education.

Digital Tools for Crafting Interactive E-Books

Authors and publishers entering the realm of interactive e-book creation are equipped with a diverse array of digital tools, software, and platforms to bring their narratives to life. Notable options include Canva, known for its user-friendly interface and straightforward design capabilities; Scrivener, offering comprehensive tools for organizing and composing content; and Amazon’s Kindle Create, tailored for crafting e-books compatible with the Kindle platform. Kotobee Author stands out for its quiz features, while Pandasuite offers versatile solutions with options for both free and premium features.

The user-friendly nature of these software and applications is a pivotal aspect, enabling creators to seamlessly integrate multimedia elements into their e-books without a steep learning curve. This accessibility empowers authors and publishers, regardless of their technical expertise, to enhance their storytelling with visuals, audio, and interactive features, fostering a more engaging reading experience.

The Impact on Authors and Publishers

The advent of digital distribution and online platforms has ushered in a new era for authors and publishers, expanding the reach and accessibility of literary works. Digital formats have dismantled geographical barriers, enabling authors to connect with a global audience, reaching readers far beyond traditional distribution constraints. This democratization of access has not only broadened the exposure for established authors but has also provided a platform for emerging voices to be heard.

Authors today have evolved into multimedia storytellers, playing a pivotal role in shaping the landscape of content creation and marketing strategies. With interactive e-books, the traditional boundaries of storytelling have expanded, prompting authors to incorporate multimedia elements seamlessly into their narratives. This shift not only enhances the storytelling experience but also requires authors to engage with diverse media formats, influencing the way they craft and present their literary works.

The impact of interactive e-books extends beyond the creative process, sparking a wave of creativity, innovation, and new opportunities for author-reader interactions. Through features such as interactive discussions, feedback mechanisms, and collaborative elements, authors can actively engage with their readership. This dynamic exchange fosters a sense of community and collaboration, transforming the reading experience into a shared journey. As authors embrace the possibilities of interactive storytelling, they not only unlock new dimensions of creativity but also cultivate a more engaged and participatory relationship with their audience, shaping the future of literary expression.

The Future of Interactive E-Books

The future of interactive e-books is poised for groundbreaking advancements, with the integration of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies at the forefront of these transformative developments. These immersive technologies hold the potential to transport readers into dynamic, three-dimensional worlds, elevating the reading experience to unprecedented levels. VR can create fully immersive environments, while AR overlays digital elements onto the real world, offering a spectrum of possibilities for interactive storytelling.

Anticipated developments in sensory engagement further underscore the evolving nature of interactive e-books. Innovations such as haptic feedback, which involves the sense of touch, and interactive simulations are on the horizon, promising to redefine reader immersion. Haptic feedback can simulate the tactile experience, allowing readers to feel the textures and sensations described in the narrative, enhancing the overall sensory engagement. Interactive simulations, on the other hand, provide readers with hands-on experiences within the digital realm, fostering a deeper connection with the content.

As these advancements unfold, the future of interactive e-books appears to be a realm where readers not only consume stories but actively participate in them through multi-sensory experiences. The integration of VR, AR, haptic feedback, and interactive simulations is set to propel interactive e-books into uncharted territories, offering a glimpse into the limitless possibilities that lie ahead for the evolution of digital storytelling.

Conclusion

In conclusion, interactive e-books have revolutionized modern reading experiences, redefining storytelling through seamless multimedia integration. Beyond entertainment, this transformation holds the potential to reshape societal norms, influencing knowledge dissemination. The embrace of multimedia not only caters to evolving reader preferences but also enhances inclusivity, making literature and education more engaging. Continued investment in interactive e-book technologies is essential for literature’s future, offering innovative storytelling and learning experiences as technology advances. This ongoing development ensures literature adapts to the evolving needs of a digital world, marking a narrative evolution that unlocks new dimensions of knowledge, creativity, and engagement.

Navigating the Storm: Digital Piracy and the Publishing Industry

In an era dominated by technology, the publishing industry has undergone a significant transformation with the advent of digital content. However, this transition has not been without its challenges, chief among them being the proliferating issue of digital piracy. From e-book sharing platforms to unauthorized downloads, the publishing industry faces a myriad of threats that jeopardize its economic sustainability and the livelihoods of authors. The multifaceted landscape of digital piracy requires an examination of its various forms and the impact it has on the publishing industry. Moreover, the exploration of the strategies employed by publishers and authors to combat piracy and safeguard their digital content.

Types of Digital Piracy

Interpol defines digital piracy as, “the illegal copying or distribution of copyrighted material via the Internet.” This action harmfully disturbs the creative productions, to include film, television, publishing, music, and some gaming. Explicitly, digital piracy within the publishing industry manifests in different forms, each posing unique challenges to content creators and distributors. One prevalent form is e-book sharing, where users upload and share digital copies of books on various online platforms. These platforms, often disguised as legitimate book-sharing communities, enable users to access copyrighted material without the legal and proper authorizations. Another form of piracy is the unauthorized distribution of digital copies through illegal download websites, where users can obtain books without compensating the authors or publishers. These illegal download sites often operate in the shadows of the internet, making it challenging for authorities to track and shut them down.

Impact on Digital Publishing

The impact of digital piracy on the publishing industry is widespread, affecting both reputable publishing houses and emerging authors. One of the primary consequences is the loss of revenue. As pirated copies circulate freely on the internet, potential buyers opt for the free versions, leading to a decline in legitimate sales. This loss of revenue not only affects the publishers but also has a direct impact on the livelihoods of authors who rely on book sales for their income. Additionally, digital piracy undermines the incentive for authors to produce high-quality content, as the lack of financial reward and stolen recognition diminishes the motivation to invest time and effort into producing compelling works.

Strategies to Combat Digital Piracy

Publishers and authors have recognized the urgent need to address digital piracy and have implemented various strategies to protect their intellectual property. One of the most common approaches is the use of digital rights management (DRM) technologies. The concept of DRM has historical roots in efforts to protect software, but its application expanded as digital media, such as music, movies, and e-books, became prevalent. In the context of digital media, the development of DRM systems gained momentum in the late 1990s and early 2000s. DRM involves embedding encryption into digital files, preventing unauthorized access and distribution. While DRM has been effective in some cases, it is not foolproof, and determined pirates often find ways to circumvent these protections. Moreover, DRM has faced criticism for potentially limiting the rights of legitimate users, as it can restrict their ability to share or transfer digital content across devices.

Another strategy is the enforcement of legal actions against piracy offenders. Publishers and authors have been increasingly proactive in pursuing legal recourse against those who engage in unauthorized distribution of their digital content. For instance, major publishing houses such as Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, and others have, at times, joined forces to file lawsuits against websites or individuals distributing copyrighted eBooks without permission. These legal actions typically aim to shut down the infringing websites and seek damages for the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material. High-profile cases have resulted in the shutdown of major piracy websites, sending a strong message about the consequences of engaging in such activities. However, legal action comes with its challenges, including jurisdictional issues and the anonymity afforded by the vastness of the internet.

Collaboration and education are also integral components of the fight against digital piracy. Publishers and authors are actively engaging with technology companies, internet service providers, and law enforcement agencies to establish collaborative efforts to curb piracy. One notable example of collaboration and education initiatives aimed at preventing piracy is the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE). ACE is a global coalition of leading content creators and distributors that includes major film studios, television networks, and streaming services. The primary goal of ACE is to combat online piracy and protect the rights of its members’ intellectual property. Additionally, educating the public about the impact of piracy on the publishing industry and the livelihoods of authors can contribute to changing consumer behavior. Initiatives such as anti-piracy campaigns and public awareness programs aim to foster a sense of responsibility among users and encourage them to choose legal alternatives.

The Sum Total

Digital piracy poses a formidable challenge to the publishing industry, threatening the economic sustainability of publishers and the livelihoods of authors. The various forms of piracy, from e-book sharing to illegal downloads, require a multi-faceted approach to combat this pervasive issue. Publishers and authors are employing strategies such as DRM technologies, legal action, collaboration, and education to protect their digital content and mitigate the impact of piracy. As the publishing industry continues to evolve in the digital age, finding effective and ethical solutions to address digital piracy remains imperative for the continued growth and innovation of the industry. Through a combination of technological advancements, legal measures, and public awareness, the publishing industry can navigate the storm of digital piracy and secure a sustainable future for content creators and distributors alike.

From Fanfiction to Film: How Wattpad is Ushering in A New Age of Writing

Wattpad is an online community of authors and readers that hosts stories from typically unpublished authors. The site is unique in combining social media and a reading platform, which allows readers to interact with the books and the author. Wattpad was founded in 2006 by Allen Lau and Ivan Yuen as an e-reading platform where “readers could download an app to read and chat about fiction shared by professional and aspiring writers from around the world.” According to Lau, being mobile was the top priority. This mobility allowed for interaction on the site to skyrocket. Wattpad appeals to up-and-coming writers who wanted to distribute their work without going through a publishing process.

Writers typically release the book a chapter at a time and readers can make in-line comments on stories, allowing the writer to adjust the book to the reader’s preferences. Wattpad readers are primarily young people who were drawn to the appeal of free books written by their peers instead of older, more established authors. Many of these young authors became success stories through the constructive criticism and praise they received from their fans.

Anna Todd and Happily Ever After

Wattpad has been a powerhouse for undiscovered authors in the past few years. Anna Todd’s After began as a Harry Styles fanfiction in 2013. Written under the name @imaginator1D, After became an almost overnight success, with the fanbase reaching the hundreds of thousands. Todd wrote the majority of After on her phone, with no outlining or proofreading before she uploaded the chapter to Wattpad. While some may dislike the lack of outline, Todd and her fans equally enjoyed the “social writing” model. Todd would listen to her fans’ feedback and adjust the story to their preferences in real time. Not only did Todd’s fanbase grow, but the relationship between the fan and the author grew as well. Readers felt like they had a say in the story, which increased their loyalty to the author, as well as their willingness to offer financial support.

With the help of Wattpad, Anna Todd received a book deal with Simon and Schuster in 2014, just one year after she published her first chapter on Wattpad. After was also granted a movie in 2019, with three sequels to follow. Todd’s story is a testament to the power that her fans and Wattpad hold. The first movie currently holds an 18% on Rotten Tomatoes, though fans give it a significantly better rating of 66%.

Wattpad to Movie Pipeline

Though Todd’s story is one of the most notable, it is far from the only success story that has come from Wattpad. At seventeen, Beth Reekles became the youngest Wattpad writer to score a book deal for her story, The Kissing Booth. Reekle later went on to earn a movie deal with Netflix, though that movie also did poorly on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite the abysmal critic reviews, The Kissing Booth garnered immense fan support. According to Sara Perez, this disconnect is due to the “built in audience” of Wattpad users.

Readers don’t just read and watch these stories, they create them. Wattpad utilizes the fan base when adapting stories for film. In an article for Quartz, Adam Epstein discusses Wattpad’s story-to-film process. The fans are integral to the adaptation process, with some “superfans” gaining access to the script to provide feedback before the film hits the box office. This process seems to work well. Epstein writes,

Most books come with a built-in audience, but this one comes with a built-in audience that’s also invested in the development process itself. It not only makes them more inclined to watch the show when it comes out, but leads them to become evangelists for the project on social media, which helps build buzz.
Adam Epstein, Quartz

Wattpad is unique in that its user base not only reads and shapes the stories on its platform, but also the way the stories transition off the platform.

Story DNA

According to Aron Levitz, the fans’ engagement is part of the “microtrend,” which allows Wattpad to know what will sell based on the size of the fanbase and reader engagement. Macrotrends are made possible by Story DNA. Story DNA is Wattpad’s deep-learning AI technology, which, according to Ashleigh Gardener, “deconstructs stories into their elemental features, such as sentence structure, word use, and grammar,” This gives Wattpad further insight into what makes a story popular outside of comments, likes, and shares. As a result, up-and-coming stories are given a greater chance at being discovered and transitioning off of Wattpad. The development of this technology is leading to a future of reading that is not just consumed by the reader but also formed by them.

Wattpad is unique in the fact that it is constantly reinventing itself to the benefit of its writers and readers. Wattpad has adapted from merely presenting stories to publishing them and promoting them outside of the digital platform. Wattpad not only publishes for fans but with the fans. The future of reading is driven by the reader, not the author or publisher.

Google AMP for Digital Publishers

Slow mobile pages are incredibly unappealing for users. The desire to produce a better mobile experience prompted digital publishers to use Google AMP. The use of this also encouraged user traffic to their sites. According to “What Publishers Need to Know about Google AMP” by Ellen Harvey, Google Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is “an open source initiative with the goal of speeding up the mobile web”. Google AMP allows users to rapidly get the content they want. For digital publishers, keeping track of how Google AMP affects “their SEO, ad earnings, and user experiences” can determine their future success.

Since its launch in February of 2016, Google AMP has transformed how search engines and other publishing websites function on the mobile web. In recent years, smartphones and tablets are the go-to devices for viewing content. Rather than have a separate app for users to download, Google opted to create a more “quick user-friendly way“.

Functions of Google AMP

The sole purpose of Google AMP is to make accessing mobile web pages faster. A web page that has implemented AMP will have all the basic information a user would need. Carlos Alonso, writer of “Google AMP for Publishers: What You Need to Know”, explains the AMP process:

AMP HTML is a subset of HTML. It reduces the number of elements you can use while adding some new ones.
AMP JS is a Javascript framework focused on handling and loading resources. No other Javascript libraries are allowed in AMP.
AMP Content Delivery Network is an optional element that you can use to deliver your content even faster thanks to its cache.
CSS is also limited to certain elements.

Essentially, there is a trade-off “between flexibility and speed” when it comes to elaborate design on the mobile web page. Google AMP provides the bare-bone functions for users to view their content.

Revenue Gain

Digital publishers aim to increase revenue by using Google AMP. In “Google AMP and the Publishing Industry: What Happens Next?”, Lydia Gilbertson explains:

“Digital Publishing has been struggling to find a way to better monetize its industry since it became more common for its users to be found online than reading a magazine….Facebook and Google digital advertising account for 77 percent of the total growth in ad spend in 2015 and the gap is only growing. In response, many digital publishers have begun placing a heavy emphasis on their native advertising efforts.”

Digital publishers need platforms such as Google for their content to be seen, and in turn the platforms need users to continue regular interaction with them. Consequently, Google AMP has attempted to create a mutual partnership “to make it even more appealing for publishing sites to focus their energy on making content available on their platforms.”

Obtaining revenue is both a pro and con of Google AMP, due to several factors enabling or hindering it. The flexibility of Google AMP allows ads to be placed on mobile web pages to encourage users to click on them. Alonso states:

“AMP supports a wide range of ad formats and technologies, and more than 150 ad networks support integration with AMP pages. AMP also supports paywalls and provides an accessible framework to regulate access to content for subscribers, metered users and anonymous users.”

However, technical limitations on the number of ads on a page can cause a deficit. A few ways to combat this drawback is to place ads on both AMP and non-AMP pages, ads themselves can be AMP pages, and completely avoiding heavy ads can lead to a better experience.

Pros of Google AMP

First and foremost, the speed of a mobile web page encourages users to continue interacting with a publisher’s website. Faster loading pages show the necessary content that will keep users interested. Due to the key content loading first, users are less likely to “bounce.”

According to Alonso, “There is a direct correlation between implementing AMP and an increase in organic traffic.” By users clicking onto publishers’ sites, the overall user experience and search engine optimization (SEO) is enhanced. The increase in online traffic can be attributed to the fact that Google supports publishers who also support them.

Similarly, Google rankings push publishers to implement AMP to gain more visibility. Of course, Google will encourage its own designs; therefore, publishers who support Google AMP will be placed at the top of “rich results in Google and mobile search.”

Cons of Google AMP

Despite the innovative technicalities of Google AMP, drawbacks were likely to arise. The basic formatting of the AMP page removes the original version of the page. AMP is essentially a plugin that does not fall under the publisher’s website. The AMP plugin will affect the SEO based on the “different cache and different notation on the website“.

Likewise, there will be considerable variation between the display on the desktop and on the mobile version. Users may see the content as completely different. Having content suited for Google AMP is necessary and having bad content can cost publishers the users of their sites. Basically, Google directly affects the mobile sites. Incorrectly implementing Google AMP or experimenting with the Google algorithm may cause problems because AMP is still relatively new.

Google AMP will favor publishers’ sites that directly correspond with their platform or are more established. New digital publishers will be overlooked and will not have their content seen. Similarly, designs on custom sites are not being placed on the site. Gilberston states:

“Many publishers are finding that parts of their brand are being lost within the platform. Some of the functionality, such as the inability to add a “read full story” buttons, which are often used to keep mobile users on a page, is another common complaint among publishers.”

Google AMP is an innovative platform that still has a few kinks to sort out. As the program continues to evolve, publishers will be able to have more liberty to do as they please.

Google AMP provides a unique experience for both users and digital publishers. Converting content, in the correct manner, will guarantee positive results in the digital publishing market. Although pros and cons exist, the publisher must decide whether Google AMP is worth delving into.

Interactive E-Books: Where Did They Come From, and Where Are They Going

Interactive e-books are taking the digital world by storm. However, while recent developments in electronic texts are exciting, the revolutionizing of book interaction is not new. Publish Drive explains,

Even if we don’t count coloring books, pop-ups and all kinds of hands-on books for kids, traditional printed books that allow the readers to interact or change the story some way or another have been around for a while now.

Interactive e-books are mimicking innovations made in interactive print publishing while also creating new features unique to the digital medium.

The new features of e-books increase audience engagement by including media that the reader can play with. Publish Drive continues, “Interactive ebooks come in two major forms: apps and enhanced ebooks.” Essentially the e-books are made for browsing through an app on the web, on a mobile device, or on a desktop, and the app supports the media.

The other option involves creating an ePub file that internally supports all the different media. “Books made this way are called enhanced ebooks, and offer a significant level of customizability. This includes easy to enlarge pictures, embedded video and audio, and excellent accessibility.”

Features of Enhanced E-books

Authors have a vast array of features they can choose to utilize in their interactive e-books. Videos, animations, and voice-overs are popular inclusions. For visual aids, companies like Pearson use interactive diagrams with pop-up labels and definitions, changing infographics, responsive maps, calculators, and other activities that promote visual learning and engagement.

The most salient features though, include supported activities that can usually be found in print books as well. Features such as quizzes, word searches, comprehension activities, and checklists that e-books can generate and check. No more looking up the answers in a guide or waiting for class reviews; the books can do it all on their own.

Two main factors limit the types and volume of additional media that the author can put in their e-books: copyright restrictions and file size restrictions. If copyright prevents the inclusion of videos and other media, then try embedding them. If they block embedding, then link.

Amazon charges a “delivery fee” for some sales based on the size of the e-book, so authors working with them should be aware of that. As Kotobee says, “Otherwise, the main concern with a large file size is happy readers.” Audiences will tolerate large file, i.e. time consuming, downloads for important texts like academic textbooks much more than pleasure texts like novels.

Examples of Enhanced E-books

The interactive e-books on the market typically fall into three categories: academic texts, adult texts, and children’s books.

According to Iltifat Husain, MD, the most interactive textbook on the market is Ganong’s Review of Medical Physiology. The book features pop-up definitions, interactive label diagrams, surgery videos, and extensive annotation capabilities. Pearson’s Biology and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Modern Chemistry also rank pretty high for number of downloads but lack elegance, says Alex Reinhart.

The adult-oriented interactive e-books fit several different genres; novels like The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins and Do or Die by Clark Kokich do well on the market. The most promising entertainment genre though appears to be cookbooks. For example, Look&Cook is an interactive cookbook that includes the usual step-by-step instructions along with voiceover instructions, built-in timers for recipe steps, video tutorials, and emailed shopping lists.

Children’s books typically feature animations and background music like the ones in Two Worlds, One Child’s Heart by Vered Kaminsky and Sparklify the Earth by Sandra Rose Gunn, which Publish Drive’s blog promotes.

Platforms for the Creation and Distribution of Interactive E-Books

Not all interactive e-books have to be coded by hand though. Kotobee offers a platform specifically geared to enhanced text creation through widgets. Flip PDF does the same thing and enables PDF-usable for the initial upload. Apple’s iBook Author, Aquafadas, PubCoder, Atavist, Calibre, and Sigil all offer the same capabilities. Most platforms that facilitate e-book creation will enable enhanced e-books. Platforms for distribution are a different story, though.

Two things determine access to interactive e-books: the device and the distributor. For example, Amazon supports enhanced texts, but their Kindles do not. Kobo tablets support enhanced texts, but leave their apps and other devices lacking. Google Play Books does not support interactive e-books, but Apple iBooks does. Consequently, authors and publishers bear the responsibility of knowing what platform the audience will use.

Success for Interactive Iterations of E-Books

Interactive texts continue to climb the ranks for B2B publishers, students, and casual readers. Map Systems India explains that for students an enhanced e-book “helps them to participate in the learning process, increasing their activities on the platform. For instance, you need not explain them the procedure of completing a task.”

Kitaboo published an article that details all the ways interactive texts surpass regular e-books such as being easier to update and revise. Furthermore, interactive texts provide: more accessibility to readers who may struggle to read a standard e-book; the ability to “link content to additional resources;” and, “Content creators/publishers/institutes/enterprises can set up an assessment for post learning evaluation and even need analysis.”

Kitaboo also claims,

Through the functionalities of interactive eBooks, creators can embed multimedia which makes the content contextually relevant and easier to relate with. Integrating technologies give students an opportunity to learn by viewing 3D models. This adds a layer of information over reality to enhance the learning experience.

Implications for the Industry

Enhanced e-books appear to be here to stay. Snap App says, “This sustained popularity means static ebooks are only going to become more saturated, and readers more numb to them.” Only recently have companies begun to understand how important their digital content is. Reinhart complained about the sloppiness of the e-books publishers are putting out when he stated:

It seems that textbook publishers are only willing to invest effort in multimedia, animations, and interactivity for big intro books—books which will sell tens of thousands of copies to bored students who will generally avoid reading them.

Consequently, good interactive e-books may be far and few between for now, but the ones coming in the future should be truly revolutionary.

The Fleeting Nature of Technology

The internet and technology are either extremely permanent or uniquely fleeting. Your Facebook post from that cute diner a week ago is still there, but the odds of anyone ever needing or wanting to find it again are practically zero. However, efforts like Project Gutenberg strive to preserve literature in a digital format so that generations will have access to it without having to worry about the physical decay of printed books.

Nonetheless, technologies are always fighting each other for dominance. If someone said the greatest movie in the entire world was only available on HD DVD, and I would probably never make any effort to see it. Blu-ray won the race and proved to be the dominant format. It would be inconvenient to find, buy, and set up an entire piece of technology just for the sake of one movie. Any HD DVD specific art films are lost to the annals of obsolescence and the impermanence of digital content. The world of digital publishing has been and certainly will be affected by the obsolescence of technology: for every preservation project, there’s an art form lost.

Lost Formats

Adobe Flash Player has been a staple of internet playback since its release in 1996. It helped revolutionize the way we view content online. It opened up a whole world of games, animation, and multimedia content that has become a staple of the internet. In its early days, YouTube used Flash Player to display videos. As such, it was a safe bet to use Flash Player to create content. Things like “Faith” require Flash to display the E-Poetry, which is fine in a world where Flash player is everywhere. However, time marches on, and technology changes at a rapid pace. CNN Business states the following:

But the software has been plagued with bugs and security vulnerabilities in recent years. Modern browsers support open web standards like HTML5, allowing developers to embed content directly onto webpages. This has made add-on extensions like Flash mostly useless.

Flash player is being phased out. Its whole deal, as an add-on extension, is becoming obsolete. YouTube moved off of Flash in 2015. HTML5 is simply better than Flash for the purpose that it serves. However, things get lost in the transition. What happens to “Faith” when Flash disappears in 2020? Unless the author/artist or someone else takes the opportunity to recreate, port, or record it, it’s just gone. E-Poetry commonly uses Flash. Some interesting poems are going to simply disappear as a result. It’s not worth it to resurrect a buggy, and vulnerable software just to read/watch avant-garde poetry.

E-poetry like “Girl’s Day Out” and “Pentametron” bring other interesting questions into play. They are files that can be downloaded. However, they only have versions tailored to Mac or Windows operating systems. That’s completely fine, for the most part, but what about other operating systems? For example, 30 million students and educators use Chromebooks as of January 2019. These files will not run on Chrome OS.

Most e-poetry does not have the cultural impact of William Shakespeare or Shel Silverstein, but they will be lost to the annals of obsolescence if Mac and Windows go the way of the MS-DOS. Many books are available as PDFs, as well, but we are not guaranteed that PDF will be the primary file type forever. What happens if PDFs disappear? Digital publishing inevitably loses some interesting comics, articles, books, etc. when new technology takes over. Your favorite e-book may be unreadable on your computer ten years from now.

Corporate Issues

Planned obsolescence is another tactic that has companies like Apple dodging lawsuits: “Italy’s antitrust organisation is also investigating both Apple and Samsung for the same issue.” The biggest tech companies that make most of the market share’s worth of smartphones no doubt operate like businesses with a bottom line rather than preservation efforts. Tech marches on organically like in the case of the swap from Flash to HTML5, but it also happens when companies need to meet deadlines.

Entire marketplaces may become obsolete in the future. It has already happened as Rachel Ward points out:

Microsoft’s discontinuation of their e-bookstore means that consumers will no longer be able to access and view Microsoft’s e-books. Customers who purchased the right to view the e-books within the past two years from the company are now unable to read them.

Microsoft created the store and limited it to the Edge browser to try and boost its use in the market. It didn’t garner enough traction, and now the store disappeared. With no physical trace, the entire store simply disappears. If you don’t get to your library in time for whatever reason, those books are gone.

The only thing that Microsoft offered was a full refund and an extra $25 if you added annotations according to Brian Barrett. He goes on to point out the cold reality: “And because of digital rights management—the mechanism by which platforms retain control over the digital goods they sell—you have no recourse.” The books are gone.

While things like Project Gutenberg release books freely to download forever, the big companies like Amazon are tied to digital rights management. You simply license books from Amazon’s digital marketplace in the same way that you did from Microsoft. If those stores become obsolete, you’ll likely lose access to any purchases that you’ve made past a certain point.

Amazon has quietly removed books from libraries before. They were missing the proper rights to a version of George Orwell’s 1984, so therefore, readers were missing the proper rights, as well. It was removed from the store without fanfare. The interesting thing is that it wasn’t only removed from the store—it was deleted from readers’ devices.

Consumers are inextricable from the services they use. This connectedness is useful and handy so long as the services continue to operate. In the case of e-readers, we have instant access to thousands upon thousands of books. However, this necessitates that consumers are left crippled if the service is discontinued. We’ve seen it in the case of Microsoft discontinuing their store, and one day, Amazon’s library may be removed, as well. It will have been obsolete for a long time, by then, but many books are published only through Amazon—they will be gone.

Technology is a business, primarily. Consumers, readers in particular, depend on this technology to consume art old and new. Due to the evolution of technology, companies pushing new products, and the fact that digital rights do not physically exist, obsolescence has been and will be a permanent problem in the world of digital publishing.

Getting Hooked on Reading

Hooked entices young people to fall for reading hook, line, and sinker. The company aims to engage teenagers and millennials through a near-voyeuristic experience via fictionalized text message stories. Prerna Gupta, Co-Founder of Hooked, claims:

The way we consume content is changing dramatically, especially in younger generations. For example, a majority of young adult novels are being read digitally now in the U.S., and that’s increasingly happening on mobile. But the way that books are created hasn’t changed in centuries.

Hooked allows readers to select stories presented as a text message conversation between characters through a mobile app. Anthony Ha from TechCrunch explains that instead of flipping pages, taps summon the next text. The app includes stand-alone stories and chapter series that reach about 1,000 words. Users are offered several free stories along with a charged option for unlimited access of $2.99 for a week, $7.99 for a month, and $39.99 for a year.

The History of Hooked

Prerna Gupta and Parag Chordia previously worked as successful app developers before they founded Hooked, the self-proclaimed “future of storytelling”. After Gupta experienced a panic attack about the uncertainty of their novel and its lack of a typical protagonist, the pair decided to test a selection of their novel on an app and track audience response. They realized that the audience barely finished even the limited best seller excerpts as Gupta explains:

People say that reading is dying. But we refused to believe this. Storytelling is fundamental to humans; some believe it is the essence of humanity. The demand for great stories is ever present. Fiction must evolve with the times.

After attempting various approaches to encourage audience completion, the couple decided to test out text message stories. They discovered that the format appeals to young audiences for several reasons: the text message style ensures brevity, encourages intimacy in storytelling, and feels familiar to an uber tech-literate audience.

What Hooked Has to Offer

Hooked hires college students to write fiction stories for the app. The writers then produce more pieces in the genres that receive the most engagement. Romance and horror top the list of the most popular genres among their teen audience with endless chapters available and an option for subscribers to self-publish.

The success behind the frivolous content centers around young people reading to completion on the app. The content also fits precisely with readers’ parameters for time consumption, tone, and style, which promotes returning readership. Forbes’ Adam Rowe describes the challenge of the text style content: “To keep the audience engaged, you have to be pithy and keep the story moving along at a brisk pace.”

The Market’s Take

Readers are obsessed with Hooked. Gupta claims that “rather than destroy reading, Hooked makes reading engaging for a broad audience. We’ve heard from many teens who say they hate reading books, but they love reading in Hooked. It’s a gateway drug.” Overall, the app boasts 10 million subscribed readers, with over 20 million downloads. Gupta also states that the audience has “collectively reading over 10 billion fictional text messages in the app” and written “a million chat stories of their own, directly from their phones.”

This enterprise offers real-time data about audience interaction along with providing a unique reading experience for their teen readers. Along with the success from their innovation and versatility, the app has also secured substantial investments since its initial conception in 2015.

What Hooked Created

The most business-oriented use results from the app’s original purpose: a/b testing storylines. Gupta told the LA Times, “I think it can push the boundaries for Hollywood in experimenting with new storylines and diverse characters. If you can test stories … you could take out some of the guesswork.”

The app’s analytics resulted in three main conclusions about audience reading patterns that differ from current industry practice. First, the point of view doesn’t matter; readers connect the same with first present as they do third past. Second, readers seldom engage if the piece begins in media res. Third, the race and gender of the protagonist make no difference in engagement, aside from teenage girls actually preferring female leads. Michelle Castillo from CNBC says that Hooked’s audience is “18 and 24, with 69 percent under the age of 25. The average user, however, is 25, and more than half are female.”

This analytic function serves both writers and publishers who are looking to test new material, along with Hollywood execs searching for the latest piece, as David Drake of The Huffington Post writes:

[Gupta’s] team is using this data to transform the content industry and Hollywood is catching on as film studios can test stories in the same way before production. This is the reason why investors, including Greg Silverman, President of Warner Brothers, has invested in the app.

Hooked also creates other avenues of content such as spoiler sites and featured series. One of the spoiler sites, Hooked Stories, publishes complete stories and popular chapters from Hooked free of charge. These sites essentially poach content for readers and capitalize on the app’s paywall.

Featured series, such as “Dark Matter,” are produced for platforms like Snapchat. Todd Spangler describes the series as a “multimedia series [that] blends the chat-fiction format” with voice-overs and illustrations. The featured series last longer than a standard Hooked story and draw massive audiences to the platforms.

Hooked has been enticing readers since 2015 and ranked among the Apple store’s top apps since 2017. The tailored series, which are available in more than seven languages, attracts readers without demanding excessive amounts of the readers’ time. The understanding of readership Hooked provides also proves that audiences, such as the arts, are changing. With an ever-growing audience base, this app has truly transformed fiction reading from flipping through pages to swiping through text messages for a watchers’ perspective.

Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Oasis

For years the e-reader market has been dominated by the Amazon Kindle. Amazon continues to produce devices for consumers looking for more book-like e-readers as well as those who desire a more technologically advanced e-reader. This article will be exploring the newest installments of two of the most highly ranked Amazon Kindles: Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Oasis.

What is Kindle Paperwhite?

Consumers are falling in love with Paperwhite for being the most advanced Kindle with the most budget-friendly price tag. By combining the affordability and durability of the original Paperwhite model with the Bluetooth and waterproof features of the pricier Kindle Oasis, the newest Kindle Paperwhite has become one of the bestselling e-readers.

Kindle Paperwhite is one of the most popular Kindles in the franchise. Amazon has improved this device by waterproofing and adding more storage. Users are now free to read by the beach, pool, or bath at their leisure without the worry of getting the device wet.

According to Jeffery Van Camp, “for a couple extra Jacksons, it opens up the joys of reading in the pool, beach, and bathtub without fear. The display is flush, and the device is rated IPX8, meaning it can sit in 2 meters of water for two hours.”

The previous Kindle holds a battery that takes at least three hours to charge, and many consumers found the battery endurance to be gravitating; for such an extensive charging time, the battery did not seem to last as long as it should have. The Kindle Paperwhite, however, can last for weeks at a time, depending on usage, before needing to be recharged and it only takes about 90 minutes to be fully charged.

Paperwhite now has Audible so consumers can listen to their audiobooks through Bluetooth speakers. With the addition of Audible, the device’s storage capacity has increased in order to hold more audiobooks, which require more storage space.

Avery Hartmans explains, “… Amazon increased by a lot on the new Paperwhite. You can now buy the device with 8 GB of storage or 32 GB of storage. The latter should be more than enough space for all your e-books.” The storage available on this device is comparable to that of the Kindle Oasis, which is almost double the price of Paperwhite.

Consumer Reviews

A feature appreciated by most Paperwhite users is the device’s simplistic design. According to Jason Snell & Dan Moren:

I found the display to be appreciably better quality than on the base model, with higher contrast and more consistent lighting. The display on the Paperwhite is also flush with the front bezel, so there are no nooks and crannies for lint and dust and crumbs to get stuck.

On top of the sleek yet simple design, consumers also enjoy the fact that they do not feel the need to put a protective covering on their device thanks to its durability.

Consumer David Carnoy says the bottom line is that the Kindle Paperwhite “is more durable, fully dunkable, and ultimately the best Kindle reader for most people — especially if you snag it during one of Amazon’s frequent sales.”

While the design of the device is highly praised, consumers should be aware that the Paperwhite does not have a built-in headphone jack. This means that for those wanting to listen to audiobooks, they will need to have a Bluetooth speaker or wireless headphones. According to Max Parker of Trusted Reviews, “during my time with the device, I didn’t ever experience any issues with connection or pairing – both were solid.”

Advantages of Paperwhite

Price: $119.99
Light Weight
Bluetooth
High Storage Capacity
Longer Battery Life
Durability

Reading Material Available for Download

Kindle Unlimited
Comics
E-books
Magazines

What Is Kindle Oasis?

Described as “frivolously awesome,” the Kindle Oasis is the highest quality e-reader created by Amazon as of 2019. Van Camp explains:

The Oasis is more expensive than two Kindle Paperwhites—but it’s an absolute joy to use. The 2019 version has 25 LED lights to make its screen glow evenly (double the previous version), and you can adjust it to give off a more pleasant, warm orange glow.

Lightweight, waterproof, and Bluetooth, the Kindle Oasis offers the same basics of the Paperwhite, but on a more extreme scale. The price of the Kindle Oasis stumps many individuals because they do not understand how a Kindle could be worth this nearly $300 price point. While Kindle Oasis is admittedly expensive, it offers the highest quality experience for e-reader lovers.

Just like the Kindle Paperwhite, there is no headphone-jack available with the Oasis, but the device does include Bluetooth.

Consumer Reviews

According to the Amazon Kindle Oasis 2019 review by Samuel Gibbs, “Amazon’s most expensive, luxury e-reader, the Kindle Oasis, has taken a leaf out of the modern smartphone’s book for 2019 with a colour adjustable light that gets warmer as the sun sets.”

David Phelan, a Forbes Consumer Tech writer, says:

Although I’d still maintain that nothing compares to a real book, this is the best e-book reader in terms of reading, for sure. Amazon has worked to improve parts of the software, so it’s much harder to lose your place than before.

As far as price goes, Courtney Jespersen says “if you treat your e-reader like a tablet, go for the Oasis.”

Advantages of Oasis

Price: $289.99
Big and Sharp Displays
Page-turn Buttons
Longest Battery Life
Most Lightweight Edition
More built-in LED Lights

Reading Material Available for Download

Kindle unlimited book
Audiobooks
Magazines
Comics
Amazon Prime Readings

While these new and improved e-readers may not look so different from their predecessors, the internal improvements are what keep users coming back for more. With must-have devices like the Paperwhite and Oasis, it is clear why consumers flock to Amazon for their e-reader needs.

What is the Dark Side of Print and Digital Publishing?

The controversial topic of print and digital publishing has been an ongoing debate for years. Both methods can be harmful to the environment due to the unawareness of the disposal process of print and digital publishing.

How Is Paper created?

Since paper’s creation, the construction process has been misunderstood. Paper is nothing more than a dried compressed mat of plant fibers. To create paper from trees, the raw wood has to turn into pulp. According to How Do You Make Paper From a Tree, “ The more commonly used method is chemical pulping, also known as “kraft.” Chemicals are used to separate lignin from the cellulose fibers, leaving a pulp mixture that can make stronger papers.” Once the pulp is finished preparing, it is placed in a roller machine to form paper.

Steps of Papermaking

Headbox: The soggy wet mass of pulp starts off here. It could be a mixture of wood pulp and recycled paper fibers.
Mesh: Sometimes called the Fourdrinier table or wire, this is where most of the water from the pulp is removed and the paper slowly starts to form.
Suction boxes: While some of the water drips through the mesh, more is removed by suction boxes (a bit like box-shaped vacuum cleaners designed to suck up water).
Dandy roll: This large roller puts a watermark, pattern, or texture on the paper.
Felt belt: The forming paper runs over a rotating felt belt that mops away further moisture.
Dryer: The paper loops back and forth over more felt rollers and heated dryers.
Calenders: The rollers at the very end smooth the paper, so it’s of completely uniform thickness.
Paper roll: The paper is all finished and ready to use.

Is Print Harmful?

Print publications take a significant toll on the environment. In one year, the United States produces over 2 billion books. As a result, more than 32 million trees are burning to produce printed books. One tree can conceive 16.67 reams of copy paper or 8,888.3 sheets.

Sora Davidson explains,

…the print industry is also one of the main contributors to the negative state of the environment as we know it today. There are many key environmental issues caused by the print industry. These include and are not limited to: air pollution, handling and disposing of hazardous materials, waste management, and energy use.

Trees hold a significant contribution to filtering out the air and absorbing odors. The printing industry tears down the filter by having to burn the trees, which causes air pollution. As a result, about 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide is being released back into the atmosphere.

Throughout the print industry, the toxic level of materials used is at an all-time high. Materials such as ink, fountain solution, solvent, and photographic chemical waste are hazardous to the health of the environment. According to Aaliyah Madadi, writer for Resource Hub, “printed books have the highest per-unit carbon footprint – which includes its raw materials, paper production, printing, shipping, and disposal – in the publishing sector.”

What is Digital Publishing?

Many people would probably assume that digital publishing emerged from the World Wide Web, this assumption would be wrong. Digital publishing was actually created b on July 4, 1971, by Michael Hart when Project Gutenberg began. The meaning of Digital publishing means different things due to people’s different perspectives. According to Digital Marketing Defined , “The use of digital technology to replace written material so that it can be disseminated and accessed through computerized electronic devices.”

Examples of Digital Publishing

Articles
Books
Journals
Blogs
Advertisements
Company Reports
Catalogs
Newsletters
Magazines
Advertisements

Benefits of Digital Publishing

While using digital publishing, the use of toxic chemicals is reducing. This method produces with speed and better quality. Therefore, digital content can always be issued out to the world at any time. If online publishers find errors such as incorrect dates, typos, or invalid information, editing and updating the content is easily able to achieve.

Ebooks Save Millions of Trees (Links to an external site.), “ In the USA in one year, 2 billion books are produced. To get the paper for these books requires consuming 32 million trees. We can estimate that one tree yields enough paper for 62.5 books.” Digital Publishing saves energy in book productions. As a result, money and fuel can be collected from not having to produce and ship books to other states and countries.

Is Digital Really Green?

Pro-print argues that the e-waste arising from digital publishing is harmful to the environment.E-waste holds toxic materials containing heavy metals, that can soak into the ground. Eventually, the e-waste can get into groundwater supplies affecting land and sea animals.

According to Madadi

… while the creation of digital publications eliminates the destructive component of straining environmental resources, concerns are related to the CO2 emissions that occur during the manufacturing of technological products. Studies show that it is indeed tougher on the environment to create an iPad rather than printing a book, but the paper and water saved from reading content on tablets make up for the initial CO2 emissions.

The estimated waste stream as of 2018 is 48.5 million tons. For instance, the more individuals buying electronic equipment, the more e-waste is growing. E-waste has become the fastest-growing waste stream in the world. The electronic industry is continuously making new technology adds to the e-waste because the lifespan of electronics is short. Electronic devices such as computer equipment, stereos, televisions, and cellphones are apart of the contribution to e-waste.

The New Libraries of Alexandria

The world of digital book preservation eases the burden of literary scholars and historians while serving to make historically important literature widely available. In the past, scholars had to rely on one or two fragmented manuscripts that likely had inconsistencies. The Library of Alexandria burning down was a big hit to literary history because extra copies were tedious and expensive to produce. In the age of the printing press and mass-produced books, paper decays. Organizations, such as Project Gutenberg, must take special precautions to preserve ancient paper. Your average paperback will probably be printed with short term profit in mind. After all, the smell of old books exists due to the breakdown of chemicals within the paper itself.

Plenty of books are worth preserving, even in a world where cheap, by-the-numbers romance novels dominate every grocery stores’ shelves. Knowing just which books will be important has not been determined yet. Books are snapshots of time, and as such, are necessary for a more complete view of history. Digital preservation seeks to make as many books as possible available digitally to anyone who wants to read them.

Project Gutenberg

The most successful group has been Project Gutenberg. PG is at the forefront of digital preservation. Rather than the literal printing press that its name refers to, this press makes strides in digital preservation. They have been “the original, and oldest, etext project on the Internet, founded in 1971.” Michael Hart had, essentially, indefinite access to a mainframe computer at the University of Illinois and a simple premise: “anything that can be entered into a computer can be reproduced indefinitely.” He came to the conclusion, even in the 70’s, that something recorded digitally could be reproduced in any number of copies.

The internet is a dream come true for Hart’s idea of spreading the books around as far as possible. As PG developed, a philosophical system has also developed. The first aspect of this philosophy is “The Project Gutenberg Etexts should cost so little that no one will really care how much they cost. They should be a general size that fits on the standard media of the time.” As such, the reader has the simplest access as possible.

The texts are transcribed in American Standard Code for Information Interchange, or ASCII, which is the simplest transcription of text possible: “Plain Vanilla ASCII can be read, written, copied and printed by just about every simple text editor on every computer in the world.” Basically, any written book can be done in this format and translated from there. A glance through the Gutenberg Press catalog shows that you can download epub, Kindle, plain text, or just read it online in HTML. The texts are easily put into any of these formats from the initial input.

The second part of the philosophy states that “The Project Gutenberg Etexts should be so easily used that no one should ever have to care about how to use, read, quote and search them.” The simple ASCII foundation also lends itself well to being discovered from a simple search. Their website is simple to use and lends itself well to this quote from their philosophy page:

We love it when we hear about kids or grandparents taking each other to an etexts to Peter Pan when they come back from watching HOOK at the movies, or when they read Alice in Wonderland after seeing it on TV. We have also been told that nearly every Star Trek movie has quoted current Project Gutenberg etext releases (from Moby Dick in The Wrath of Khan; a Peter Pan quote finishing up the most recent, etc.) not to mention a reference to Through the Looking-Glass in JFK.

The point of searchability is that you can look for phrases you’ve heard in conversations, quotes you saw at the beginning of movies, and the names of authors you are interested in.

The management of Project Gutenberg is what makes this possible. PG is a non-profit organization and is run by Dr. Gregory B. Newby, volunteer CEO. The books are all submitted to the Project by volunteers, as well. They do not have to worry about maintaining a staff.

PG only publishes what is in the public domain. So, as soon as something enters the domain and a volunteer shows interest in the book, PG can enter a submission. PG, as such, avoids any potential legal issues that come with the tricky world of copying works of literature. From the volunteer force to steering clear of lawsuits, everything about Project Gutenberg is designed for the purpose of digital preservation and the dispersion of texts.

Google Books

Issues arise when you overlook copyright laws. Google Books is an excellent example. The idea is great: They wanted to physically scan books and make them searchable on Google. As their own website states:

…in a future world in which vast collections of books are digitized, people would use a ‘web crawler’ to index the books’ content and analyze the connections between them, determining any given book’s relevance and usefulness by tracking the number and quality of citations from other books.

Google partnered with Harvard, the University of Michigan, the New York Public Library, Oxford, and Stanford. However, Google sticks strictly to copyright-unprotected works. They encountered legal trouble which boils down to copyright law: “Plaintiffs, the Authors Guild, Inc. and individual copyright owners, complained that Google scanned more than twenty-million books without permission or payment of license fees.” The Authors Guild accused Google of doing the equivalent of walking into a library, just scanning everything, and then putting it on the internet.

After a decade, Google won, but “the company all but shut down its scanning operation.” Their books are available to rent or buy, and are searchable, but is a fractured database that has not been updated in recent years. However, the operation has been put to some use, though: “Through the HathiTrust Research Center, scholars can tap into the Google Books corpus and conduct computational analysis—looking for patterns in large amounts of text, for instance—without breaching copyright.” The project was ambitious and still has benefits today.

Million Books Project

The Million Book Project straddles the line between independent, volunteer projects and ambitious, big-tech business. They were a nonprofit organization that scanned physical copies of books. As their objective states, “The objective of this project is to create a free-to-read, searchable collection of one million books, primarily in the English language, available to everyone over the Internet.” Similar to Project Gutenberg, they simply sought to preserve books, along with backing from universities in China, India, and even Egypt.

However, the Million Book Project was expensive, and ultimately ended. As of January 2008, their website said they anticipated over ten million books in the next ten years. The project ended that same year. In addition to those universities, the website states, “National Science Foundation provided funding for Scanners, Computers, Servers, and Software.” A necessary web of manpower is required to pay for and run all of these machines. Million Books had a Rube Goldberg machine of sponsors and staff that was bound to break. Most of the texts could only be accessed through Internet Archive’s efforts.

Project Gutenberg’s administrative structure is simple. Anyone with a computer can volunteer to type up books for Project Gutenberg. Google Books was ambitious, and ultimately tripped over the red tape it so often attempted to hop over. The Million Books Project is a phenomenal idea, as well, but had so many moving parts that something was bound to breakdown.

Each of these pioneers in the world of digital publishing made important strides and learned lessons that we can take with us into the future. Digital publishing allows unparalleled access to the world of literature preservation available to anyone who thinks to search Google for “What is the Library of Alexandria?”