Why can’t I click on the page?

From: Clients from Hell.net

Client: I love the flyer you sent! It’s clicky!

Me: Great! So we’re done now?

Client: No. When I print out the flyer, the links aren’t clicky. Can you make them clicky?

Me: I don’t understand.

Client: I want to be able to go to our website … when … um, when I …

Me: You do know that a piece of paper can’t be interactive, right?

Phil: I read (on-line) the posting above at the same time as I was reading (on-paper) “Who Goes There – Travels through strangest Britain in search of the Doctor” by Nick Griffiths, and it struck a chord.

I enjoy travel books. Sometimes they make me want to go and see the places described. Mostly my traveling is vicarious but none the worse for that. I also love Dr Who. Put the two together and we should have a winner – right?

Wrong.

Even once you get past the stream of consciousness writing style (it calms down after the first few chapters) and the lack of capital letters in the title (Grrrr) there is a fundamental problem with the book. The author keeps referring readers to his website so they can see photos of the location he visits.  That’s lovely but I was reading on a train and so constantly being pointed at a web page was a reminder that I was missing out on a good chunk of the fun to be had from Griffiths travels.

To compound matters, he keeps referring to Who episodes that I don’t remember. I mean, I love classic Who, but I don’t have an encyclopedic memory of a TV show I watched when I was 5 or even one from before I was born. I’m nerdy, but not that nerdy. Thus, I often have no idea what the location being visited looks like ‘cos I’ve not seen it on telly or on the web.

Frustrating. Very.

But, Candice and I were chatting about this over tea and squash earlier in the week, more and more people are reading on eBooks. Travel on the tube in that there London and you’ll hardly see the traditional paperback. It’s all iPads and Kindles now.

These are perfect for a book like this. If I want to see the picture, I can click on a link and assuming I’m not in a signal-free tunnel, up the photo will pop. If licensing were possible, even a clip from the show could be included. All this makes writing a rather more involved job than traditional, but it creates a very different type of book/website hybrid that could be very exciting.

None of this works (for me) on paper but it does beg a question. If the eBook/website hybrid is the way things are going, has this book about a time traveller fallen back through a wormhole from a few years in the future?

Well we’ve got part of this whole publishing thing right…

Candice: I spotted an interesting article about social media and ereaders on the BBC website   the other day.  Funnily enough Phil sent it to me too, if the husband knew we were this much on the same wave length I think he’d be worried!

Anyway, it is supposed be about the prevalence of ereaders, but actually its how the world of books is not coming to an end just because people aren’t buying ‘paper’ books.  Of the authors mentioned at least half of their books have been sold online. It also talks about how social media is getting the word out there, as well as on-line reviews helping to sell.

It also mentions how this is helping new authors, who don’t have to just rely on that small budget campaign when everything is put into publicising the new Dan Brown.

Another interesting point is how men are using ereaders to hide what they are reading.  No more hiding that dodgy chic lit book cover on the train, just load it on to your Kindle and you are off (Phil take note when doing your research)

So, we use social media – tick, we do our own marketing (you are reading it) and we have written a chick lit style book that will appeal to men as well as women that could just be downloaded.

Ah, one thing missing, the whole agent and book contract thingy. 😦

We will take heart in the first author in this article, as we met him last year as Stratford Literary festival., has done rather well.  SJ Watson did spend a lot of time talking about his job in the NHS but it sounds like his book has gone down rather well (Film deal and everything).  Well done to the Literary Festival, look forward to seeing who you have coming this year.