Media
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Last month, book publishing giant Simon & Schuster made headlines by blindly leaping into the future and presenting the world with its first ever “innovation in reading” – the “vook.” A vook, the clever conjunction of video and book, is a new type of media intended to combine the exhaustive detail of the written word with the fast-action of cinema (i.e., explosions) into one seamless entertainment experience. You read some, you watch some. A perfect balance for the changing world.
Okay, so maybe it’s not exactly a new idea (perhaps you’ve seen something similar on this place called the Internet?), but there’s something notable, even praiseworthy, about Simon & Schuster’s new tech venture. Which is to say: No one’s going to buy the veteran publishing house is revolutionizing the noble diversion of reading (because they aren’t), but, even so, they’ve managed to establish themselves as the first in a confused and petrified industry to ignore their base nature and take a risk on electronic-only content. That’s right, the vook has no printed counterpart and can only be readwatched with an e-reader, an iPhone, or a good ol’-fashioned personal computer. And this is not insignificant because writing — one of the most conservative of all world art forms — and book publishing — a business more than a little infatuated with its own tradition — haven’t really had to face major changes in, oh, the last 500 years or so.
And now somebody’s gone and thrown logic out the window.
So of course some of Simon and Schuster’s peers have derided the vook as pure silliness while others have commended their ingenuity. But is anyone surprised at the gambit? Not hardly. Though no one’s coming out and admitting it, business analysts for book publishers around the globe will be peeking through their fingers in trepidation during the coming months, readying themselves to pounce on the vook trend if it looks like there might be a payoff at the end.
Who can blame them: Purveyors of the written word live in a terrifying new world. Having watched their comrades-in-arms at newspapers and magazines all but collapse at the hands of bloggers and internet ‘zines (you know who you are), bookmakers and sellers tend toward doom and gloom when it comes to their future. But this is despite the fact – or more likely because of the fact – that no one in book publishing knows anything about how they’re being affected by the 21st century. Clearly, sales are down, and it’s already cliché to lament how no one reads anymore. But at the same time, one could argue that people are reading now more than ever, or at least that young people now are reading more than the generation before them. Just in text message format. So the question for book publishers is: How do we reach out to a broader, and mostly disinterested, audience? And they haven’t got a clue, so now the experiments start and …
In stumbles the vook.
Somehow, though, the idea of adding video content to a book seems to be missing the point. I mean, really, who’s the audience for this? (And don’t say ‘book buyers.’ They’re as set in their ways as bookmakers are.) Though the plan is clearly to lure in a crop of tech-savvy teens, the e-reader has already proven itself to be the least cool invention of the 21st century (excepting maybe the Comfort Wipe); “not sexy” is the phrase most commonly batted around e-readers — no doubt kids will be lining up at their local Best Buy once they hear that “not sexy” now comes with bonus video content. (Side note: A friend recently explained to me that in order to sell books, publishers should make them more like video games, and then get rid of the book part …)
But maybe we’re being a bit unfair. From a pure functionality standpoint, the vook is not without its charms. Of the four Simon & Schuster releases, two are self-help titles, one being an all-natural skin-care guide called Return to Beauty and the other an exercise guide called The 90 Second Fitness Solution. And that’s perfect because who – wanting help – wouldn’t grab the most they can get for their money? Surely, a description of how to make sunscreen out of discarded lemon peels (I’m guessing) isn’t as thoroughly enlightening as that same written description coupled with a video of the author showing precisely how one would take a lemon peel and grind it into her pores. And the same would go for a cookbook, or a book on carpentry, or really any other sort of how-to book. The more illustrative the instructions, the more the reader stands to gain.
The bigger wall of doubt comes when we consider the vook with regards to the novel. Or with regards to popular biography and history. Or even science. Anything that we typically think of as “literary” is at issue because these are the guys that define what a book is to so many people. (Not to mention, these guys are the industry’s bread and butter.) And now we’re going to make them more universal? More modern? Or simply in some way better?
According to the vook’s fiercest champions – yes. And here’s why: Suppose Mark Twain or J.R.R. Tolkien or (giggle) Socrates had the means to extend their imaginings off the page and plant them more firmly in our minds through the use of sound, color, and movement. Wouldn’t their stories be altogether more compelling, more fully realized?
Or how about this: what if your favorite author – let’s just say Simon & Schuster’s own workhorse, Stephen King – is given a camera when he renews his contract and is told to go wild with it: Make a mini-movie in your living room. Give video commentary to every paragraph in your new book. Film your cat wearing a tube top. Do whatever you want. It won’t matter because you’re Stephen King and people will buy the shit out of it. Wouldn’t people – well – buy the shit out of it?
As for the first argument, sure. If you can convince me that any of the old masters or really anyone who aspires to wordsmithing as a trade is as good with a camera as with a pen, then yes. I’ll take ten of ’em right now. The problem is that most modern writers, novelists or otherwise, aren’t directors. Sure, some of them write for the screen, but very few of them would know what to do behind a camera. Otherwise they’d be in Hollywood already (casting themselves in sex scenes with unreasonably hot partners). So hire an outside studio? Part of the point of the vook – because digital video production can now be done so cheaply – is to create something special for little or no money. But this is book publishers we’re talking about. If they had enough money for actors and directors and special effects, they wouldn’t be in this frantic mess to begin with.
And the Stephen King free-form montage? Now we’re just talking about add-ons. Admittedly, we’re a society obsessed with details and information and excesses, and we treat our authors, even the less popular ones, like celebrities. We devour them. But don’t we already have book Web sites to give us the story behind the story, and author Web sites to tell us what their dogs’ names are, and book blogs to tell us what they like to listen to while writing (see: LargeHeartedBoy.com, or even the New York Times’ “Paper Cuts”)? Of course, there’s always room for more extraneous data, but people tend to draw the line when that data isn’t given up for free. When was the last time you bought a DVD for its special features? Or better yet, when was the last time you bought a DVD in a new, unfamiliar format just for the special features?
Undoubtedly, someone, somewhere, at some point is going to do something great with this, and we’re all going to stare at this media Jesus’ creation and say, Damn, it’s so obvious. Why didn’t I do it first? It’s only a matter of time. But the thing is, when this happens, it won’t come from the book publishers, and we won’t have to call it a vook (or anything else that reeks of such boardroom cleverness). It will be organic and will choose its own name because that’s the way innovation works. Bookmakers will try to jump on board and make a mess of it, but that’s okay. They survived radio and movies and TV (and Nazi Germany), so there’s no reason why they won’t survive this, the ADD-Internet age. That is, as long as they can keep themselves away from their own revolutionary ideas.
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