Today's post is copied over from my "other" blog, Little Goat Books. A little longer than usual, back into my favourite mode of shameless pontificating, one might say!
I have been asked by potential buyers if my books are available for
Kindle, and others have suggested that this would be a good idea. Yes,
when children are travelling, perhaps this would be useful. Yes, for
getting more books sold, it is probably a good idea. Would I? Should I?
For now, at least, the answer is a firm (yet gentle) no. Why do I
choose to miss out on those sales and that revenue when I am a fledgling
business? The answer is easy; I love books.
When I was a child, the “success” of a Christmas or birthday was
always the number of books I was given. But it’s more than that. I love
the idea of children snuggled into a parent, an aunt or uncle, a
babysitter, an older sibling, pointing to the page, running their
fingers over the words, sharing. Sharing, sharing. I also love paper,
paper of any kind.
I am totally for eBooks, but I am not writing for this format yet. To
me a good eBook is an interactive adventure, a little like a 21st
century “pick-a-path” book. I am not ready to learn all I would need to
know to present a book to its best in an interactive way.
I strongly believe that picture eBooks should be designed for the
pages to be read consecutively. Mine are still designed to a “facing
page” format. My illustrations, particularly as I work on the next
series, need that page turn, that suspense, the adult deciding just when
to reveal the surprise over the page. I like that.
Jon Skuse puts it particularly well. Jon Skuse worked in the computer
games industry then did a Master of Arts in children’s book
illustration to develop his skills. He is now a freelancer helping
publishers move into world of eBooks. He says:
“There are two aspects to this – the business side and the
creative side. The eBook is cheap to make once the technology is in
place and it is cheap to buy. And you are not limited to a certain
number of pages in the way a print-based book is. It doesn’t have to be
linear in its construction either. The creator can make different
‘branches’ or routes; for example, the reader can tap on a door to take
one route or tap on another to follow a different narrative.” (Cited in Children’s
Picturebooks The art of visual storytelling, Martin Salisbury and Morag
Styles, 2012 ,Laurence King Publishing Ltd London, pg 184).
He continues on to say:
“The eBook isn’t about winning or losing. It’s about an
‘exploration’, an experience, rather like a pop-up book. What many
publishers are doing wrong at the moment is just copying printed picture
books on to this format, which does both media a disservice. It’s just
like looking at a PDF. Children will simply flick through. A printed
picturebook is a particular kind of physical experience that can be
savoured and revisited. The eBook needs to exploit its own particular
characteristics and strengths to evolve as similarly special but
distinct experience.”
This month one of the keynote presentations at the world-wide
Children’s Book Fair
in Bologna, Italy, is the development of eBooks in the digital age.
Eric Carle’s “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” has at least two re-makes
into interactive apps, and these will be explored in-depth. I think the
presentation description of a book “re-engineered” is very apt:
Case Study: Two apps; one caterpillar — How StoryToys
successfully re-engineered a beloved children’s publishing icon, with
interactivity in mind.
Emmet O’Neil of StoryToys. Winner
of the 2015 BolognaRagazzi Digital Award. Emmet will provide a case
study into the details of making the award winning My Very Hungry
Caterpillar. (Excerpt taken from the programme update emailed to me).
This is a glimpse of the future for children’s picture eBooks. I am
impressed, I think it is exciting, but I am not in a hurry to write for
this model. For now I will leave that to the younger writers and the
computer enthusiasts.
I write for junior teachers to read to classes. I write for
grandparents who grew up with books and want to share their love of the
printed page with their digital age grandchildren. I write for children
who want to touch the page, to revisit images, to add their own imagined
world into the white spaces I leave, and I write to keep shared reading
alive.
It’s even more simple than that too. I don’t love screens. I love books.
Today I am grateful for books with paper, pictures, covers and spines.
