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oday’s ereaders are amazing devices, allowing people to carry hundreds or thousands of books, reformat text size on demand, and help look up unfamiliar words. More advanced ereaders even play audio and video, and feature seamless integration with the web.

However, current-generation ebook formats only scratch the surface of what these powerful handheld computers can really do. While much of this is set to change with the newly-announced EPUB 3 and Kindle Format 8 (KF8), both based on the richly-featured HTML5 and CSS3 standards, some publishers have chosen to, in effect, create their own ereaders in the form of mobile applications.

These specially-developed programs, while difficult and costly to build, are designed to take best advantage of the underlying hardware, including that offered by the Apple iPad and iPhone, and Google Android-based smartphones and tablets.

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Charlie Redmayne, Chief Digital Officer of HarperCollins told Publishers Weekly that, from the company’s perspective, “each app is treated as a completely new format.”

Understanding Mobile Application Features

Mobile applications can offer all the capabilities of dedicated ereaders (although it’s up to you to program these features, of course). They also include one important additional feature: interactivity. This simple distinction is critical. Delivering an ebook as an application means that your book can interact with readers in practically any way you can imagine.

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What’s the difference between a mobile application and an enhanced ebook? As Dominique Raccah, CEO of Sourcebooks told Publishers Weekly, the difference is simple. “It’s interactivity; if the reader can do stuff with the content, it’s an app.” Sourcebooks is said to be working on 30 or more applications, some of which are already available.”

Examples of works where you might want to consider going the mobile application route include:

• Children’s books, which could feature animation, built-in games and puzzles, along with other forms of interactivity

• Learning titles, such as travel guides and DIY manuals, that could include step-by-step (and perhaps location-based) interactive audio and video

• Textbook-style publications that might add dynamic graphics, stylized page layout, and advanced interactive features

And if you’re more adventurous, mobile applications can offer other tantalizing options, including the ability to offer in-app sales. This allows your readers to purchase extra features or information, as needed, on a feature-by-feature basis (imagine selling extra recipes in a cookbook, for instance).

Additionally, mobile applications allow you to accept and display advertisements integrated with the user experience. While it’s probably not a good idea to feature advertising in your full-price book, this alternative revenue option allows you to consider creating and selling a “lite” version of your book at very low cost (in some cases, perhaps even free).

Mobile phone and tablet users are very comfortable with this model and for certain content, this can provide significant upside potential for authors and publishers. As with other features we’ve discussed, this is currently difficult to accomplish through conventional ebooks.

Creating a Mobile Application

Building a mobile application requires a high degree of expertise and a fair amount of time, involving computer programming skills and software engineering knowledge beyond the reach of many authors and small publishers.

Another option is teaming with an experienced application developer or with the growing number of small firms that specialize in custom application development services, particularly if your book requires features not currently supported by a standard ereader.

The good news is that a number of new tools have been released that streamline the process of developing mobile apps. With the growing popularity of mobile computing devices, expect to see more development tools that open up interesting possibilities for authors and small publishers who want to target these platforms.

Aside from the cost of building a custom reading application, there are at least two other considerations to take into account. First, unlike ebook markets such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble, where authors and publishers basically decide what gets sold in the store, certain mobile application marketplaces (notably, the Apple App Store) use what could be called a curated model.

This means that if you build a custom application for the iPhone or iPad, for example, Apple decides whether you can sell the application in their market or not. Famously, Apple in particular has been known to reject applications that are either too nonstandard (stray too far away from the device’s normal mode of use) or applications that in some way infringe upon Apple’s proprietary technologies.

A second consideration involves how you plan to market your custom book. Currently,  both Apple and Amazon sell mobile applications completely separately from books. This means that if you create a custom iPad application for your book, for instance, you will need to sell it through the Apple App Store (or in the Amazon App Store for an Android application).

The disadvantage of this, in most cases, is that your readers are not likely to be searching for books in an application store. The exception, of course, is if your book is targeted at an audience already navigating  an app store. For instance, parents looking for interactive games for their children to play on the iPad while traveling will likely discover your book more often than if it was available just in the ebook store.

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Peter Costanzo, Director of Online Marketing at Perseus believes that apps work best as companions to books but, by themselves, “apps are not appealing as reading material.” Plus, notes Costanzo, “it’s hard to market on the App store.”

All of this is not to discourage you from building a custom mobile application if your content really demands it. As the number of mobile phones and electronic tablets continues to grow, applications—probably even more than books—have an opportunity to experience unbelievable spikes in sales over a very short time.

But it is important to remain aware of the extra costs, the somewhat diminished control, and the completely different marketing model that this approach requires.

Strengths

Mobile applications are, by far and away, the most flexible and powerful ways to deliver an exciting reading experience. The types of features you include is limited solely by your imagination and your programming skills (or your willingness to pay for someone else’s development skills).

Using a mobile application, you are free to tailor the reading and exploration experience in any fashion you want. Basically, if you can dream it and you have the budget—in terms of skill or money—you can realize it using a mobile application.

Weaknesses

The principal weakness of mobile applications is the cost and complexity of development. In almost all cases, you’ll be starting from scratch building not only the advanced features but also the most basic elements (to display simple text, for example).

In addition, for certain environments, you also need to be a licensed developer. In the case of Apple, for example, this means shelling out a $99 yearly fee and wading through a slightly cumbersome registration process that can take a week or two for approval.

Digital publishing solutions offered by Adobe and Quark involve discrete app publishing fees, which vary from about $300 to thousands of dollars in some scenarios. These costs can quickly discourage budget-conscious small publishers.

Also, be aware that the app stores do not operate using exactly the same model as the online bookstores. Specifically, your application might need to go through a rather lengthy (again around two week) approval process without any guarantee that it will be accepted.

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Dominique Raccah, CEO of Sourcebooks, told Publishers Weekly that in-house application development typically ranges between $3,000 to $10,000 per application.

Finally, remember that your application will appear in an application store, such as the Apple App Store, instead of the more common online bookstores such as Amazon or Barnes & Noble (though both have started to blur this distinction by opening their own app stores).

Our Recommendation

You should consider creating a mobile application in cases when either your content or your audience demands the type of enhanced interactivity currently unavailable in ereaders. Understand that the cost of development, the extra level of design, and the need to properly test and offer technical support for the application currently puts this type of effort pretty much into a class by itself.

Alternatively, before jumping all the way on board mobile application development, learn more about the just-released EPUB 3 and Kindle Format 8 standards and technologies. While both still require programming, using HTML5 and CSS3 is considerably easier than building native applications in Objective-C (Apple) or Java (Google).

If a mobile application is exactly what your book requires, the Apple App Store, the Amazon App Store, and the Google Apps Marketplace are the three leading markets.

Mobile applications are best for the following types of ebooks:

• Interactive children’s books

• Complex or data-intensive reference books

• Books that benefit from location information, such as travel guides and restaurant reviews

• Interactive entertainment books

• Books benefiting from readers accessing the information in a non-sequential manner

Mobile applications are less suited for the following types of ebooks:

• Regular novels or other conventional, text-based content

• Books with a limited audience (since fixed development costs are typically higher than for conventional ebooks)

Lead image courtesy of NASA/Goddard.