crowdsourcing | storytelling | citizenship
People’s Insights: Volume 1, Issue 14
Vook
Vook Vook is a public, cloud-based e-publishing platform that allows authors to create great-looking digital books, distribute them on e-bookstores and track sales for a fee.
Source: http://vook.com
Multimedia e-books Vook lets users create multimedia e-books with audio, video and images that can be dragged and dropped into the documents, creating an enhanced reading experience.
Source: http://gesterling.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/vook-launches-multimedia-books/, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ovHjsRlw68
The origins Vook launched in 2009 as a digital publishing specialist, with four titles. Since then, it has worked with household names in the media industry, publishing over 800 multimedia e-books.
Source: http://vook.com , http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jfk-50-days-ipad-edition/id402259732?mt=8
Question marks about multimedia books Purists did not take well to multimedia e-books. They felt that reading was all about setting the imagination free and not about images or videos. The charm of a book lies in the reader's interpretation, they felt.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com
Publisher to e-book aggregator Eventually, Vook decided to change from a publishing house to a conversion service that enables people to make and share books. This fitted well with its ambition of encompassing the full production cycle.
Source: http:// http://www.teleread.com , http://thenextweb.com
Revenue model Vook changed its revenue stream to a licensing model by which users paid monthly subscriptions. It stopped taking royalties on e-books sold by authors, which meant that the business risk stayed with the author.
Source: http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com
Stories created faster, easier Vook makes it easy for authors to create and release their stories by simply uploading a file and making changes to it. The key to it is that authors can release e-books fast, without publishing lags.
Source: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/tech-in-twenty/2012/03/22/tech-in-twenty
Sales tracked in real-time After styling, authors enter meta data and pricing information. The e-book can be distributed to Amazon, iBooks and BN.com or uploaded to e-bookstores. Vook provides a sales-tracking dashboard.
Source: http://vook.com/whats-vook/
Too expensive Critics said that the platform doesn't do enough to justify its price tag of $79/ month ($849/year) to $299/month ($3,199/year) compared to Sigil, Bookbaby, CreateSpace, etc.
Source: http://www.publishersweekly.com
Vook works for non-fiction Multimedia content has not worked for fiction as videos stop readers from exercising their imaginations. Non-fiction work, like how-to books, have done better as video can help explain complicated steps.
Source: http://shelf-life.ew.com/ , http://facebook.com
The future of publishing? Experts say if the price can be controlled, and a need is created for multimedia books, the deadly combination of self-publishing and multimedia books could well become the future of publishing.
Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/ , http://goodereader.com/
More People’s Insights Weekly reports Every week, we dive into one topic for discussion on the MSLGROUP Insight’s Network and discuss insights and foresights, in three key areas: crowdsourcing, storytelling and citizenship.
Crowdsourcing
Storytelling:
Citizenship
Mahindra Spark the Rise
@MarsCuriosity
#Kony2012
For more reports, visit: peopleslab.mslgroup.com/peoplesinsights/
Read People’s Lab insights and foresights The People’s Lab team shares the insights and foresights from the MSLGROUP Insights Network on the People’s Insights weekly blog and the People’s Insights Quarterly magazine.
MSLGROUP Insights Network
People’s Insights weekly blog
People’s Insights Quarterly magazine
50+ MSLGROUP planners share and discuss inspiring projects on corporate citizenship, crowdsourcing and storytelling.
We deep dive into conversations around one project -- on the MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but also on the broader social web -- to distill insights and foresights.
Every quarter, we will compile the best insights from the network and the blog in the iPad-friendly magazine, as a showcase of our capabilities.
For more, visit http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com
Coming soon: People’s Insights Annual Report In early January 2013 we will publish the People’s Insights Annual Report, in which we synthesize our insights from throughout 2012 and provide foresights for business leaders and change-makers for 2013.
People’s Lab: Crowdsourcing Insights & Innovation People’s Lab is MSLGROUP’s proprietary crowdsourcing platform and approach that helps organizations tap into people’s insight for innovation, storytelling and change.
For more, visit http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com
For People’s Lab solutions, contact pascal.beucler@mslgroup.com