From coffee table books to iPad apps: publisher ditching paper books
While many of those involved in the traditional dead-tree publishing business insist on using 15th century technology, at least one is leading the way into the 21st century.
Nicholas Calloway, a successful publisher of glossy, expensive coffee-table books (including Madonna's Sex) is "betting the ranch" that apps are the future.
He founded his company in 1980, but it was while watching Pixar's Toy Story in 1995 that he recognized a whole new form of storytelling that was "...going to change the world," he told Reuters. "We stopped thinking of books as the sole vehicle for our products and we thought more of core intellectual property that could be executed across many different media."
Now his authors are partners in projects, not simply recipients of royalties. He's renamed his company Callaway Digital Arts, and all projects start with iPhone/iPad apps, including (amongst others) Martha Stewart Makes Cookies and The Monster at the End of This Book (for iPad).
It would be great to see more publishers taking the same route but, as reader's of Joe Konrath's now famous Newbie's Guide to Publishing blog will know, most are still in love with the dead-tree business.
[Via The Mac Observer]
