Interview: Peter Collingridge - Read my inovel

Published on Wednesday 16 September 2009 18:59

PUBLISHING entrepreneur Peter Collingridge tilts his iPhone, and the text of Barack Obama's book Dreams of My Father scrolls up the screen.

In front of my eyes, I am seeing why Collingridge's innovation is being hailed as the latest death knell for the printed book. We will soon learn whether this prophecy has any credence – within weeks, you will be able to download the United States president's best-selling memoir to an iPhone for 8.99, the same price as the paperback. Will it catch on? Well, Apple seems to think so – in recent days it has put Collingridge's creation, Enhanced Edition, on the App Store home page.

"It's a no-brainer," Collingridge asserts when discussing the value for money of his invention to the customer. Australian singer and writer Nick Cave's new novel, The Death of Bunny Munro, the first Enhanced Edition product, was released last week through Apple for 14.99. The hardback edition of the book is 16.99 and the audio CD costs 30.

It's for no-brainers, I hear the traditionalists barking back. What's wrong with the printed word on paper that's worked fine for centuries? And why would you want to read a book on a telephone anyway?

With a couple of touches, Collingridge summons Bunny Munro to the screen and shows off its USP: not just an eBook, it combines text, audio and video. You can read the book, watch a video of Cave reading the book and add "soundscapes" – music composed by him – or all three at the same time. Enhanced Edition also features updates on Cave and the novel, not to mention all the search and find bookmarking and font options you'd expect.

A few leaps along then from plucking a book from a shelf, finding an armchair and allowing pages of printed text to transport your imagination. Collingridge argues that with the Enhanced Edition, you still drift into the storyteller's landscape, you just don't have to jump off the carousel of modern life in the process.

"The idea is that you follow the story as you go to work," says Collingridge.

"You might be watching the author reading the book at home, listen to the audio on your bike, switch to the text on the train and back on to audio when you get off."

All quite a departure from the Sony Reader and Kindle, the last inventions they said would kill off printed books. In fact, it was his disillusionment with both ebooks that inspired Collingridge, 34, a designer with a background in publishing (he built Fourth Estate and Granta magazine's websites) to create Enhanced Editions. "The eReader is so boring," he says. "The iPhone is a device that's got eyes and ears, and knows what direction it's going in. I knew immediately it had capabilities that are exciting when it comes to books."

Two days after software for iPhones went on the market, Collingridge was blogging on what the publishing world should be doing. "Directors of large publishers blogged back saying, 'We're publishing houses, not software houses', and Apple CEO Steve Jobs said Apple doesn't need books. I thought, if Apple isn't going to do it, I am."

As the money-making potential of apps has become apparent Collingridge had no problem finding forward-looking publishers to work with. Canongate founder Jamie Byng wanted in and he and Collingridge approached Cave, who was halfway through writing Bunny Munro. "Nick said a lot of musicians felt they boarded the new media train after it had left the station – with this, he felt he could be driving the train."

After seeing Enhanced Edition, Apple featured it online. Now books by Philip Pullman and David Simon, creator of The Wire, are planned.

"Supermarkets sell three books for the price of two. Value is being shipped out of books. We want to add value," says Collingridge.

He also believes Enhanced Editions will bring in young readers. "It has wonderful value for literacy, for learners of new languages," he says. "If you gave a child an iPhone with Narnia on it, it's sure to be more successful in breaking down any reluctance to read."