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E-Books as Non-interactive Textual Compositions: An Argument for Simplicity over Complexity in Future E-Book Formats

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Abstract

This paper serves to qualify the present form of the e-book as one of many different kinds of digital compositions, or voluntarily consumed digital media. This paper also aims to show how future e-books, by virtue of its responsive nature and higher text-to-nontext ratio compared to other digital compositions, may only iterate into simpler formats (emphasis on textual components) as opposed to more complicated formats (emphasis on audiovisual components). This is due in part to consumer and market expectations of the e-book as well as limitations for the e-book as a medium. Because of this, I predict the next iteration for the e-book—the web book—will exist almost entirely in web applications.

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Notes

  1. For the purpose of this paper, I will use the phrase digital composition as the label to discuss e-books, video games, and other forms of structured audial or visual content. Digital compositions are voluntarily consumed, so digital advertisements like banner ads would not fall under this definition. When discussing e-books as digital compositions, I am also referring to all trade and mass-market e-books. This definition does not include electronic educational textbooks, which follow alternate rules than do fiction or nonfiction e-books and warrant a different conversation altogether. I will also use the word text strictly to mean written characters (as seen in books, articles, and other textual compositions) rather than a general form of expression.

    Based on a composition’s text-to-nontext ratio and level of interactivity, the composition will fall into one of four quadrants in what I call the digital composition spectrum (see “Fig. 1: Digital Composition Spectrum”). This spectrum captures any digital media that a user voluntarily consumes.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Professor Jane Kinney-Denning at Pace University, Joe Frizzell, Jay McNair, Peter Clark, Arthur Klebanoff, Joseph Touch, Vivek Tiwary, and Sara Glancy for their important contributions to this paper.

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    Alex P. Grover

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Grover, A.P. E-Books as Non-interactive Textual Compositions: An Argument for Simplicity over Complexity in Future E-Book Formats. Pub Res Q 32, 178–186 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-016-9470-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-016-9470-7

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