Tailoring Book Content to New Breed of Reader?

No...

No. People who read non-fiction books are still basically the same as ever.

I will sometimes write material requested by a particular audience - specifically, the things I've written for a "beginner" audience have pretty much all been by request, as I'm personally more interested in an audience that's ready to move past the basics to more advanced theory. I quite like the crazy formatting of some existing how-to-write books, like that bootcamp one, and I've always preferred textbooks that make good use of pictures and diagrams to those that are all text. So I have a vague ambition of using that sort of 'unique' style. But it doesn't really have anything to do with a culture of impatience - I'm not even sure that's a real thing, or really different from the culture of, say, the 80s.

tombookpub said:

Are any of you planning to uniquely write your book (e.g., voice, tone, format, length, style) due to eBook popularity and the pervasive "want it now" culture?

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I have debated writing (or trying to write) a series of non-fiction "science" type books. I'd do them in layman's terms and try to keep them short, around novelette length, partly because I would keep them mostly as eBooks and that would allow me to have each one focus on a niche.

If it wasn't for the popularity of eBooks I probably wouldn't have considered doing it that way.

Can you clarify what you mean about the difficulty of using photos and how traditional usage of photos differs from what you plan to do?

Ok, I understand. I'd disagree, though, with a suggestion that sidebars, callouts, breakout boxes, factoids, etc., are new innovations in writing because of ebooks. Those have been around for quite a while. I'm not sure that's what you're saying, however.

I would suggest getting objective studies of these traits first. Because all the same things were said about Gen X, and yet here we all are with jobs, and responsibilities and reading books as blocks of text because we are interested in the content. Just like Mom and Dad did.

(Nothing annoys me more than a narrative being fragmented by some pointless pull quote in a blue box and other bells and whistles that just make the book more expensive and harder to read).

tombookpub said:

For my previous nonfiction work, and the book I am working on now, I ruled out including pictures of people - in that I would have had to obtain a release not only from each of them, but even from the event organizers in which they participated in. This would have been a painstaking, laborious process for me.

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But model releases are not required for editorial use, only for advertising use.

Well... that depends. I would tend to stick to stock with model releases regardless.

My book is centered around two unique diagrams.

I've decided to pursue the normal hard copy publishing route, but if it goes the e-pub route I invision interactive diagrams.

But, with the hard copy, I could also supply a CD that would allow the reader to interact with the diagrams.

Sorry, I was trying to say that the diagrams could become interactive in either of two ways.

If the book is published only as a physical book, an interactive CD could be supplied along with the book.

Interactivity could easily be part of an e-book.

I am not sure, but I wonder if some publishers today aren't set-up to produce two versions.

P.S. Now that I've thought about it, couldn't the CD, which would be supplied along with the physical book, be a copy of the e-book?

Edit to add: CD should be interactive DVD.

I think you will find the standard ebook formats less than cooperative when it comes to interactivity.

But then I am one of those 'let books be books' people.

veinglory said:

But then I am one of those 'let books be books' people.

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I'm with you, concerning fiction books like novels and short stories. Visual aids would ruin the reading experience, take you out of the story.

But nonfiction books are different. We already include pictures, graphs, charts, diagrams, etc. in how-to books and textbooks. The more complex the subject, the more we require visual aids.

Interactive diagrams are just another advancement, and can be very helpful, imho.

I think having diagrams is part of being a non-fiction book. Having animations, not so much. They will tend to malfunction and so leave you not only without the animation, but without the diagram.