Digitization has entirely transformed the publishing and education industry. In light of the global pandemic, traditional books have now almost stepped aside for Enhanced eBooks.
With the increasing popularity of eBooks, many publishers have shifted to digital publishing in order to reach their audiences. The eBooks segment is projected to reach a market volume of US$16.08bn by 2027 with an expected annual growth rate of 3.38% (CAGR 2022-2027).
While it is easy to create eBooks in the form of PDFs or a fixed format, adding interactive elements to them will create a top-notch product for your readers. This comprehensive guide will teach you how to create an interactive eBook, one that is sure to put you ahead of the game.
Let’s begin by understanding what exactly an enhanced eBook is.
What Is an Interactive or Enhanced eBook?
Embedded with multimedia and interactive components, enhanced eBooks provide an immersive reading experience. They are shareable and portable files with various elements and rich media with which your readers can interact.
In addition to adding images and text, you can embed your interactive eBooks with quizzes, audio files, animations, video files, widgets, and much more! You can interact with your readers, send feedback and even provide questions & answers- all within the eBook.
Thus, these interactive eBooks help grab the reader’s attention, creating greater engagement and increasing your reader base.
However, some enhancements are not compatible with every digital eBook file type. Every major retailer has its specifications for file sizes and formatting.
Read on to learn how to create eBooks to interact with your readers in a whole new way!
How to Create Interactive or Enhanced eBooks?
By creating an enhanced eBook, you can add a unique selling point to your digital content and gain a competitive edge. Do you want to learn how to spice up your content? Let’s jump in right away!
Clearly Define Your Publishing Platform
Before creating an interactive eBook, it is important to keep your targets clear. Your first steps are to decide on the publishing platform based on the type of eBook you wish to create.
Whether you are creating an eBook for your employee training or marketing needs, or students, it is essential to know how to reach them.
Take into consideration the options mentioned below.
- Dedicated website or a web app: If you want to share the URL of your interactive eBook directly, then consider developing a web app on your website.
- Book as a mobile app: If you’re converting your print book into an eBook or developing your eBook from scratch, then creating a mobile app for your book is an excellent way to reach your readers. You can publish the mobile app on the respective app stores, and your eBook will have its dedicated name and icon. Your readers can access the content by simply installing the app.
- Read aloud or audiobooks: An interactive eBook with read-aloud features is perfect for developing cookbooks, educational books, travel guides, etc. With the growing popularity of audiobooks in the past few years, creating one can be a profitable idea!
- ePUB file: If you want to publish your file on popular eBook stores or give away your file independently, consider creating an ePUB file that can be shared across multiple devices. You can create these eBooks for different platforms & eReaders like iBooks, Apple, Amazon Kindle, B&N Nook, etc.
Prepare Interactive eBook Material and Content
After deciding on the above, it’s time to prepare the content of your enhanced eBook.
- Select from the different eBook formats available: Based on your eBook requirements, you need to select between the two eBook layouts: reflowable and fixed. Be careful while selecting between the two, as a wrong choice might require you to re-create your eBook from scratch.
- Fixed layout: In a fixed layout eBook, every aspect of your content will remain the same irrespective of the device it’s viewed on. Each element of your eBook will be fixed and not optimized based on the viewing device. This layout is best suited for desktop usage, comics, magazines, and storybooks.
- Reflowable layout: In a reflowable layout, your content will automatically adjust to the viewing device’s screen dimensions. It allows content freedom with rescaling and text-wrapping, thus enhancing the user reading experience. This is the most preferred form of layout due to its viewing versatility.
- Write your interactive eBook content: There are many publishing software & platforms available that allow you to import your content from a PDF file or word document or write your eBook directly into the platform. While writing your content, you either add interactive elements simultaneously or at the end.
- Include your eBook assets: Your eBook assets comprise all the multimedia components like audio, visuals, and interactive content.
- Create an interactive table of contents: For easy navigation, create a clickable table of contents and link the pages carefully.
- Include videos: Take your user engagement to the next level by creating and embedding videos of your choice into your eBook.
- Embed audio files: You can upload an audio file or record your audio to enable your readers to listen to your eBook content.
- Add animations: You can add wonderful animated elements to your interactive eBooks to make the content more interactive.
- Attach other interactive elements: Consider including additional interactive elements like charts, quizzes, external links, pop-ups, graphs, and much more!
Customize and Design Your eBook
The next step is to design the eBook and develop a striking and appealing cover. You can seek help from experts or online eBook makers to get stunning designs and typesetting services for your enhanced eBook.
Alternatively, you can also use ready-to-use templates offered by Online Ebook Makers and customize them as per your needs.
Publish and Distribute Your Enhanced eBook
After adding all the content and ensuring that everything is accurate, you can save the final eBook and export it in your chosen file format. Ensure that your eBook reaches a wide audience through appropriate distribution channels.
Secure Your Enhanced eBook
The content of your eBook can be illegally copied and used. Make use of Digital Rights Management (DRM) solutions to protect your interactive eBooks. This will safeguard your digital content from printing, copying, and sharing.
In a highly competitive and expanding field like digital publishing, it’s your content that defines you. If you’re new to enhanced eBooks, things may seem daunting at first, but this guide should help you showcase your content to its full potential.