The magazine McSweeney’s has a beautiful app that works just like you think it should, but it’s a custom programming job. And there’s the option to get your books onto the Kindle and Stanza apps through Smashwords, except that Smashwords insists that you create your e-books by converting them through their website, which proves to be aptly named: if your text is styled at all, the conversion engine mangles it into something that I would never want people to judge the quality of my work by, and wouldn’t inflict on them as a reading experience.

There are sites offering e-book app creation services, but they charge by the page to put your book into what looks like a template — and a not-nice template at that.

So there’s a big opportunity here for someone who creates a method for converting manuscripts into individual, App Store-submissable, nicely-designed e-book apps. I would pay a fair amount up-front for software that could do this, but I don’t want to pay high one-off fees for a similar service that would leave me powerless to update the book or create more.

If such a thing exists, I’d love to hear about it.

Carla

For example, Martin Seligman wrote betselling book Authentic Happiness and he also runs a lab at U Penn that offers online surveys that identify your signature strengths. What if he apped the surveys? This is where serious brainstorming comes in.

Very interesting. I think using a [very relevant and useful] app to garner true excitement and user support to help build your platform is an excellent idea! From a marketing perspective it would be very cheap! If you are targeting future book sales, however, the key would be to have a direct link. What would that be? A game? Perhaps. But what about an interactive study guide? Perhaps with embedded streaming video? I will definitely be thinking about this for my upcoming book!

Thanks!

tom