Interactive EBooks
I want to create a couple of ebooks, and I have some ideas for something a little different.
To achieve this difference, I want to try to find ways to make it interactive. For example, when the main character “looks for x information on howcoolisthisshit. com” the website name in the text is an actual link to a real landing page for the fictitious website. There, instead of the ebook text describing the main character finding the information they need, the reader can explore the ‘website’ and learn the specific thing as well as all kinds of cool auxiliary information that wouldn’t be worthwhile to describe in words but is a neat and fun thing for the reader to investigate. Perhaps the book includes the main character's "desktop". When the main character gets an email, maybe a notification pops up on the ebook screen, you click the link, you can see the actual email. If the main character is a hacker, there could be an in-book "hacking" mini-game; if a pilot or architect etc, then corresponding mini-games. I am overflowing with ideas about this.
Additionally, a full accompanying soundtrack of ambient noise, music, and sound effects, so that when the main character is walking down the beach, waves and wind and the occasional gull play softly in the background. Scene in a nightclub to include dance music. Romantic date: soft background conversations, clink of fork and plate, restaurant noise. Someone slams a door in a meaningful way, you can hear it. Like that. I’ve got a plan to customize it to the consumer’s individual reading speed, using eye-tracking software.
Books are different now - the page we write for is no longer static, we should play with the limitations of the new medium. Maybe during a scene where the main character is drugged, the letters pulse and wiggle, all that. Below are some ideas I have for specific book projects utilizing some of these concepts.
THE HITMAN’S ASSISTANT (CHORE BOOKS)
An audio book wherein the listener/main character is a sort of butler in service to an exciting character such as a hitman, or a spy, or an exiled prince or whatever. The main character is assigned common chores in the course of this story, which the listener can do concurrently as both a way of increasing immersion in the story, and making tiresome chores more enjoyable. For example, perhaps the listener/main character is sent to "prepare" (clean) a safe-house to serve as a temporary base for the worlds best spy. Or maybe suiting up and using a special machine to clear dangerous space-mold off the hull of your captain's ship turns out to be very like mowing the lawn.
MEAL PARINGS (AND OTHER AMBIENT IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCES)
I used to read the Lord of the Rings books with a lemon scone or some cornbread nearby. When the hobbits would eat their Lembas (elf bread) I would have some of mine. It solidified my immersion nicely. In that vein, I propose stories that feature foods and generalized locations, with pre-story prompts that could even include recipes or cooking videos. So, say chapters 3-5 are recommended to be paired with a trip to the beach, because it turns out the characters are shipwrecked on an island or something. Chapter 7 is paired with a meal, so you plan on reading it over dinner on your next quiet evening in; maybe it comes with 2 recipes: for a pear and blue cheese salad and/or a pumpkin gnocchi - the reader can make their selection at the beginning of the chapter, and the ebook will substitute the correct descriptive passages in the text. Chapter 10 is recommended to be paired with a trip to a museum, as the characters will be walking around one planning an art heist. That sort of thing.
GAMER’S MYSTERY (FULL SOUND AND ADDITIONAL MEDIA)
This is a book about gamers having some kind of adventure (perhaps finding out an online friend is missing, and that their mmorpg character is being played via a hacked account) that would pair a video game with a book - you spend some of your time reading, some of your time playing, and the events in the game are part of the story. Even if not partnered with a full video game, perhaps the reader gets to do the main character's avatar creation, or play demo content that aligns with the story. This was originally meant to be paired with early stages of another project of mine, Starsys 9.