Wednesday 14 April 2010

The ipad meets the childrens book




Thought I'd post this excellent article link from publishers weekly. It's all about the ipad and how childrens publishers are either embracing it or waiting to see how it all pans out, but it all leaves you with the feeling that there's a potential revolution about to happen in publishing. Whilst some of us will always want hard copies of our favourite books, newspapers and magazines (and music too), there is a generation coming through who are happy to own their music content digitally, without a hard copy, as I am sure they will be happy to access their favourite magazines, graphic novels and paperbacks too in this way. And why not ? On the subject of graphic novels here's a link about the Marvel comics ipad app - enjoy !

2 comments:

MaggieB said...

I think they better stop procrastinating and jump on the bandwagon NOW! My 2 yr old granddaughter has her own screen full of apps on my iPad, including a number of BOOKS! I think they are wonderful, and so does she! Its a great way to learn.

What's to think about? It's the wave of the future! Ride that wave NOW!

Jonathan Higham said...

Agreed Maggie ! Well said.. Elly book 6 due soon and with nearly 4000 downloads since April I'm really thrilled with the response we've had.

I see 'Spot' the dog has made it to the ipad - that's great but I have heard through colleagues in the business that some publishers are finally panicking about apps and trawling through their archives to release stuff. There was a discussion on National radio recently and its not just apps but self publishing too that has caught many publishers stuck in the starting gate. When I started in the 1980's at Hutchinson and Macmillan it was quite an intimate relationship between author and publisher, but subsequently middle management seemed to have moved in and everything is plagued and delayed by meetings, sales and committees... well IMHO I think they need to change to keep up, and open their doors a liitle more rather than the 'no unsolicited manuscripts' approach, or 'our lists are full please do not contact us' !