Diary of a Mad Editor

I don’t know business attire from blac label clothing, which is, I suppose, why I’m not involved in the fashion biz. But I do know the difference between a good publishing idea and a bad one. A good idea: e-books. A bad idea: adding soundtracks to e-books. Yeah, I know . . . Who the fuck wants to listen to a soundtrack while reading a book?  But that’s exactly what Peter Thiel, one of the co-founders of Facebook is doing. He’s formed a company called Booktrack that will be producing and adding  music to e-books.

Much like the current 3-D fad with movies, adding audio tracks to e-books is nothing but an excuse to jack up the price of an already too costly product. I suppose it makes sense to resort to gimmicks if you’re greedy and think you can make a buck, but from the consumer’s point of view, what’s the value? Be interesting to see how many of these enhanced e-books sell.