Earned Attention and the uber eBook

Imagine if you bought a book and got not just a printed book, but an iPhone app, an enhanced multimedia eBook, a blog, a Twitter feed, an audio book and a few other social media connections, all of which were frequently updated so that you never actually finished that book, but could always go back to it and find something new? Sound good?

If it does, you'll like Earned Attention, a new marketing book that is published as everything I listed above. The idea is that if you're going to get a book, why not get everything digital that could go with that book all in one package.

But there's more. This book is being published by a Dutch publisher. For most books, negotiating and distributing international publishing rights is a long and complicated process. But this is another area where digital books are making an impact. Here's what Timo Boezeman of The Arbeiderspers/A.W. Bruna Publishers' digital publisher had to say:

"This a huge project. It is also a new way of dealing with a changing publishing world. Instead of trying to sell the rights to international publishers, we decided to do it ourselves."

It's a publisher deciding to take the same approach to international publishing rights as a DIY author would want to, and its an interesting twist in this evolution of the publishing industry.

It's a multimedia book that is published in full integration with social media, and published out to the world all at once. It's the way that people have been treating blogs and websites for years- only this is how an old school business, a book publisher, is stepping out to treat their next title. I'll be interested to see how it turns out. And since the book is about social media and marketing, I'm guessing they have even more outreach and promotion tricks up their sleeves.

Image courtesy of Earned Attention Vimeo page