Futurebook: Random House, Pan Macmillan and Penguin talk digital

What did this mean for Random House? Franklin related the creative unrest in the publishing industry due to new technology and platforms to wider social unrest - as shown in the recent student riots. Franklin has commissioned a series called The Summer of Unrest, inspired by a previous series of e-books called Brain Shots, published by the company last year.

So, five e-books, 10,000 words each and price points of £2.99, which will be published in July, from journalists from the New Statesman, Guardian, Observer among others. "We don't need to get hung up on the book," he said. "Also, failure is not a viable strategy for success. It's an inevitable consequence of innovation that there are going to be failures in the area, but we shouldn't be gleeful in that."

Pan Macmillan

The second talk came from Pan Macmillan's marketing director Rebecca Ikin and sound consultant Nick Ryan, who worked on a project using binaural sound for a new book by Ken Follett, Fall of Giants.

"We wanted a launch element that would put Ken Follett at the heart of these emerging platforms as well as creating excitement and standing out in the traditional channels," said Ikin. Pan Macmillan worked with agency pd3 on the project. "We were most interested in the idea of 3D sound," she said, citing the (at that time) unreleased iPhone game Papa Sangre as one inspiration.

One good thing about using audio - it seemed less of an interruption to the narrative than video content. At this point, Ryan stepped up to give his views on the project, as the sound designer. "I'd never interpreted a passage in a book into sound," he said. "What makes it most interesting for me is its goal is to enhance the reading experience, but it's not delivered through interactivity, it's delivered through immersion. The difference between interactivity and immersion is important... Immersion doesn't require authorship to be delegated to the reader or user."

So, 3D (or 'binaural') sound. "What's most similar between reading and listening is visual hallucination," continued Ryan. People imagine what the thing they're reading or listening to looks like, in other words. Here's a demo of the results:

This YouTube video was a part of the marketing campaign for the 'sonified' e-book, which also included Facebook and website elements, as well as a physical sound-booth hosted in Waterstones' flagship Piccadilly store. Ikin said Apple promoted the iBooks version heavily, and Fall Of Giants became Pan Macmillan's third biggest selling e-book.

Ikin had some advice for publishers. "It's really important for editorial, digital publishing and marketing relationships to be more collaborative," she said. "It's also important to get to the heart of the book: what is the overriding thing the book makes you feel or want to do? Use that to drive the enhancements and campaign."

Penguin

Third up were Penguin's marketing manager Ruth Spencer and designer Stefanie Posavec, to talk about their work on Stephen Fry's MyFry mobile app - which was critically acclaimed for its index-wheel user interface and its non-linear approach to content.

One challenge: the famously technophile Fry was guaranteed to be interested in an app, but only if it was innovative and interesting. The UI was certainly innovative - a colour-coded index wheel providing access to tagged sections of text. The idea being people would "create their own narrative and build something that was completely unique to them," said Spencer.

That meant theme groups of Emotion, People, Subjects, and Fryisms, under which sat tags for Fry's feelings, the people mentioned in the book, specific topics and his turns of phrase.

Posavec said Penguin's strong design heritage gave her a lot of freedom when designing this app, although that meant there was also an expectation of an attention to detail, and that it fit in with other versions of Fry's latest autobiography, from which the text was taken. That meant the colour-wheel palette was taken from Fry's own stripy socks, as seen on the cover of the print version.

"It's probably not a mechanic we'd look to replicate in the future," said Spencer, warning that it was a fit for Fry and perfect timing, but not something Penguin would look to slap onto other authors' book-apps.

Q&A

How are publishers finding developers to work with on apps?Penguin worked with agency Dare on the MyFry app, but according to Spencer: "We're beginning to bring all our development in-house". Franklin admitted that there can be culture clashes, where creative agencies are "shocked and appalled" by the way publishers operate, while publishers worry about being taken for a ride by agencies.

Would he bring app development in house as a result? "It's certainly not a move that Random House is making yet. What creative agencies bring to the table is a completely different way of thinking about digital - more of a native way of thinking - and some of the partnerships like Touch Press and Faber are blowing everyone out of the water," he said (those companies just worked together on the iPad app for The Waste Land).

How do authors react to these opportunities, for better or worse? Ikin said Follett was very enthusiastic and "trusting" for the Fall of Giants project. "Not all authors would be that accomodating," she admitted. "The complexity and fear factor - the more we can showcase work and explore possibilities directly with authors, the more interesting it will become. When it comes directly from the author, it will be more compelling, versus publishers presenting a marketing idea."