E-lementary, my dear Watson, as Sherlock Holmes book goes digital

Published on Thursday 17 February 2011 18:29

IT PROMISES the sounds of screams and the sight of blood spreading across the page.

• Sherlock Holmes readers using the new Bybook application, available on iPhone and iPad, can enjoy sound and vision with the text

A French technology company announced its first "Byook" application for the iPhone and iPad yesterday, an ebook hybrid mixing text and effects to bring alive a classic Sherlock Holmes story.

The Adventure of the Speckled Band, has thrilled readers since its publication in 1892, when the young heroine Helen Stoner is introduced appealing to the fictional detective for help after the horrific death of her sister is followed by sinister noises in the night

This is probably the most famous short story ever written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author and former Edinburgh University medical student. But it may now be on the cusp of a revolution in how people read.

While sales of downloaded books for the Amazon Kindle, Apple iPad, Sony Reader and similar devices have been surging, a new generation of "enhanced ebooks" is mixing text with video and audio content.

Yesterday, the French firm Byook, launched three years ago and whose business includes developing electronic guides to French museums, announced its new edition of The Speckled Band.

For 1.91, users buy cinema-style sounds, from screams to horses' hooves, and visual effects including a simulation of spreading blood.

About ten programmers worked on the application for several months.

• Analysis: The biggest mystery, why pay for a story that's free?

"The first reason we chose it is because Sherlock Holmes is a free author, there are no copyrights on this story," said Erwin Martinache, producer on the project. In Britain books typically go out of copyright 70 years after an author's death.

"But also because we loved it.. We loved the universe, the characters, the story, and we thought it would be interesting to tell this story using our knowledge."

While ebooks are touted as a way to carry and read scores of books in one neat portable package, last year products began to appear on the US market described as "enriched" and "enhanced" ebooks that go far beyond electronic versions of print, with multi-media content.

One publication Nixonland, describing the rise of US president Richard Nixon, included 27 videos playable with a simple touch of the screen.

BBC Audiobooks worked with a partner company to release enhanced ebooks by authors including Stephen King, Phillip Pullman, and even current US president Barack Obama.

The US company Vook has expanded ebooks to include embedded video, social media and networking links, ranging from classic works by Lewis Carroll and Shakespeare to cookbooks.

Last year, the Amazon website's sales of ebooks outstripped physical books for the first time.

One company, The Atavist, specialises in including interactive timelines and character biographies in these short works.Edinburgh-based literary agent, Jenny Brown, said: "A lot of publishers are very interested, particularly for non-fiction, with looking at links to material. For example if you are reading about history, then it would immediately link through to contemporary news film footage, or whatever else.

"It is expensive to develop, but as the number of users increases, it is going to be more and more of a possibility.

"At the moment, most publishers are looking at this with non-fiction rather than fiction."