What Can Publishers Learn from Digital Comic Books?
In many ways, non-trade books, such as textbooks, have more effectively acclimated to the digital form. Although initially the complex layout and design of certain nonfiction genres made them problematic on reflowable content-reading devices, the advent of interactive tablets made such titles natural candidates for interactive, rich media publishing. Really, the education sector is leading the way in the use of "content chunking," adaptive content, and interactive publishing.
John Parsons (john@intuideas.com), former Editorial Director of The Seybold Report, is an independent writer, ghostwriter, and editor. He is the co-author of the interactive printed textbook, Introduction to Graphic Communication, on the art, science and business of print, which has been adopted by Ryerson, Arizona State, the University of Houston, and many other schools and vocational training centers. Custom editions of the book are under consideration by major printing companies and franchises for internal training purposes.