Your bed time story just got 100 times cooler

The Infinite Adventure Machine (prototype 01) from David Benqué on Vimeo.

You've got to check out this bedtime story ipad app being funded by Microsoft (called Infinite Adventure Machine). The creators set out to explore the links between imagination and computation. Tales and myths; the core narratives of human culture, have been transmitted for generations through various technologies and media. So they were curious about what new forms might they take through digital formats and artificial intelligence.

This app takes 31 different narrative elements from tons of fairytales to initiate story plots. The user then uses their imagination to fill in the details, or can reload the page for another story plot. Is it really a bedtime story app if you never want to go to sleep?

(Via @brandflakes)

Check out a "living book"

In an effort to combat budget cuts and ebooks, City Centre Library in Surrey, British Columbia, which is scheduled to open next month, has created the first ever "living books" program.

Basically in addition to bound volumes, the library will also provide residents with access to people. The librarian staff will maintain a list of local residents who have volunteered to share their knowledge of any topic, and other library patrons can make appointments for 30-45-minute conversations.

According to Good.is, librarian Ravi Basi told CTV British Columbia that the Surrey library staff initially imagined the living books initiative as a way to break down barriers between people of different races or religions, but people with interesting careers, life experiences, or academic research topics would make good volunteers as well.

The library is connecting local neighbors in a social atmosphere and advocating for open-knowledge sharing. My only question is how long until this hits the US?

A new kind of ink book

McSweeney's brand new children's imprint has a book coming out in December that you'll want to get your hands on- literally. Remember those cool hypercolor tshirts you wore when you were in elementary school that changed color when you touched them? Well, the book equivalent has been created!

Keep Our Secrets by Jordan Crane will be printed with thermally-activated color-changing ink that lets kids discover hidden illustrations as the heat from their fingers rubbing the pages causes some ink layers to become transparent (check out the video below). It's a fun way to encourage children to learn and explore on their own.

In an industry ripe for innovation, we're seeing some exciting changes recently. Push Pop Press, acquired earlier this year by Facebook set out to re-imagine books on the iPad. Now we've got a publisher re-inventing the wheel with a hard-cover. How would you change books to enhance the way we interact with them?

A Facebook fanpage that's not putting anyone to sleep

If you're thinking of hopping onto Facebook with your book, to reach the growing audience of over 750 million active users, go for it! But before you build your fanpage, you've got to check out the one for Harpercollins' Before I Go To Sleep. This is a fanpage that has been executed brilliantly, and as a result has garnered over 9,038 fans! Here are a few specifics they rocked, that you should apply to your page:

The landing page they created encourages folks to "Like" the page (making incoming viewers into permanent fans so the author's updates will appear in their home feed) and explains what the benefit will be of doing so. Basically the author is revealing the contents of the book, chapter by chapter, and the next portion is only released after reaching a certain number of fans. Because of this, the viewers gain something of value by liking the page. And this sort of contest is a great way to get people talking about your book, and sharing it with their friends.

Another highly functional feature included on the landing page are the links directing readers to places the book can be purchased. Thus they've made it easy to convert the reader from a passive observer to a buyer. Don't make your customers work to buy your book.

(Feeling overwhelmed already? No worries, you can easily create these types of custom pages for your book. I found a useful tool today, called Pagemodo for creating free custom landing page, that might help. And there are companies like HyperArts that will build one for you.)

In addition Before I Go To Sleep made excellent use of custom tabs that you can add onto your fanpage, including an option to listen to the audio book, check out the book trailer, and get a signed bookplate. As I mentioned earlier last week, giving away content is an excellent way to interest people in a book

And finally the fanpage's wall is filled with entertaining and engaging updates from the author. The content ranges from news about the book, to polls, to personal thank-yous.

So there you have it folks- what are you waiting for? Get busy!

Innovative University Press giving away installments

I read this morning that The University of Michigan Press is hoping to entice Facebook members into purchasing two new releases this summer by posting installments from each novel on the press’s Facebook page over the next eight weeks. Their reason for doing so is that the books are by two authors whom “people might not recognize"- and the giveaway introduces these authors' work to readers who might otherwise not want to take a risk on them.

I've seen a lot of publishing folks worry about giving away content (what if readers copy/paste or modify? where will it end up? which part do we give away? etc), but frankly I think this is a great move.

What better way to interest people in a book, than by offering a sneak peak within the cover. Then you're not just telling people what they're going to get, they can see for themselves. And if they like it, they can easily share it with their friends. Like anything else, I'm sure installment giveaways work best for certain books. It's important to take the time to find the right chapters to promote, and also to track how many people are reading, sharing, and then purchasing.

Keep it free though! "Content has a higher chance of being downloaded and shared with peers if it is free – A study that David Meerman Scott conducted showed that the ratio is 50:1 for free downloads vs form downloads," Wordviewediting.com. Based on that evidence, I'd say publishers should be making the content easily accessible- not requiring registration, or even "liking" the press' fanpage. As Seth Godin has pointed out before 'registration for content’ feels more like a transaction, causing people to expect both sides to be of equal value, so you have a chance of disappointing. However free content is more like a gift.

Readers are already used to this treatment. Amazon lets you preview a chapter or two of most books. If you're not thinking about offering free content, you'd better start thinking!

Penguin audio book ads- well done

I Believe in Advertising is featuring very unique and intriguing poster ads for Penguin Audio today. Beautifully illustrated classics, in an ear canal- simple yet gets the point across.

How many can you name?

A lot of the greats pictured here! So cute!