On Tuesday, Penguin released the first electronic book with a video tie-in, opening up a new chapter for ebooks. Penguin Books’ CEO, John Makinson gave an overview of how publishers might approach the iPad as a publishing platform. They hope that this deal will serve as a model for other cross-media partnerships.
Penguin’s iPad version of Ken Follett’s 12th century England epic ‘The Pillars of the Earth’, will be priced at $12.99 (above the $9.99 industry norm for e-books), but it will let users read the novel and watch scenes from the mini-series, which airs July 23.
Some of the books that Penguin are releasing to the iPad challenge the concept of what we perceive as books. They include experiences such as video, sound, touch interactivity, games, and even integration with social communities.
Penguin is thinking big, and hoping that the iPad will help make electronic books more profitable. Due to this, they expect e-Book sales to grow from accounting for 4% of their sales to 10% next year. Here is what John Makinson, Penguin’s CEO had to say about the new developments:
