For poseurs only: HarperCollins launches “video books”
HarperCollins has just launched a new format called the "video book"-leading one Ars staffer to ask, after hearing the news, "Aren't those called movies?"
But movies aren't generally 23-minute productions that feature a book author giving the Cliffs Notes version of his work in front of a blank white background. HarperCollins' first effort comes from blogger/Real Journalist/academic/Davos gadfly/TV critic Jeff Jarvis, who pitches his new book What Would Google Do?.
"Scintillating" this production is not, but HarperCollins clearly wants to do something buzzworthy in the book market; using the author of the "Buzzmachine" blog to do it must have felt almost fated by the gods. But the suggestions of the gods must be acted on with care.
As a term, "video book" is execrable, joining terms like "circle back" and "out of pocket" in the linguistic Hall of Shame, but the problems here go deeper than the name. For instance, HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray told Publishers Weekly, "A video edition of Jeff’s book is a terrific example of a product that is both a viral marketing tool and possibly a new revenue stream."
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