Illustrators can now jump with both feet into digital publishing with the help of some free software and a contest launched by InteractBooks.com
“What better way to showcase all that our InteractBuilder e-book software can do on the iPad and iPhone than holding a contest to find the very best interactive book it can make?” asks the Interact Books website .
“And who better than you to produce this book by using your developer talent and our app software for the Mac and PC?”
A Youtube video doesn’t do the reading experience justice, but an actual iPad encounter with The Tortoise and the Hairpiece by Don Winn, illustrated by Toby Heflin and distributed on the Apple iTunes store demonstrates how the touch screen interactions and subtle animations of an interactive book (let’s call it an i-book) make for a whole new storytelling language.
I-books or interactive e-books aren’t quite the same as the e-books now making headlines for trouncing paperbacks in sales at Amazon.com.
They’re a new animal — maybe a new art form, and it may be months or even years before anyone knows where this fusion of interactivity and literacy is going, aesthetically or commercially speaking. Developers and a few publishers are delving into the format, but no leader for an interactive book-building engine or platform has emerged — yet.
In the meantime Austin, Texas based-InteractBooks wants to push the innovation timeline up a little by launching the first ever contest for an interactive children’s book. Entries must be built with their free InteractBuilder software.
First place prize – 16gb white or black WIFI iPad2, or $500. lnteractBooks will also publish your title and give you a three year membership in the InteractBuilder community (a $300 value)
- 2nd Place wins a 32gb iPodTouch or $200* and a two-year membership to the InteractBuilder community.
- 3rd Place yields a $100 Best Buy Gift Card and a one-year membership to the InteractBuilder community.
All runners up and anyone entering the contest with an InteractBuilder-approved book will have a free year’s membership in the InteractBooks builders community.
The deadline is September 18 and the winner will be announced October 1, which doesn’t give you much time.
That’s why the InteractBook folks are encouraging illustrators and authors to mull over the books they’ve already done, published or unpublished, with pictures and text ready to go — and see how they might adapt their story to this new media
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