Here’s what they say about it on their site:
The HybridBook project is an innovative publishing program that takes the concept of the enhanced ebook and integrates it with print media.
Each book in the HybridBook program features not only the core text of the novel, but extensive additional material rendered in digital form—the Melville House Illuminations. The Illuminations consist of highly curated text, maps, photographs and illustrations related to the original book.
The Melville House Illuminations are free with the purchase of any title in the HybridBook series, no matter the format.
Purchasers of print copies of books in the HybridBook series can obtain the Illuminations for a given title simply by swiping the QR code found in the back of each book, or by following the url also given in the back of the print book.
Purchasers of the digital version receive the appropriate Illuminations automatically as part of the ebook edition they’ve purchased.
There is an NPR story about them here. According to NPR:
One new idea, which comes from the Brooklyn independent publisher Melville House, is that of the “Hybrid Book.” The idea, says publisher Dennis Johnson, is to both distinguish the Melville House e-reading experience from others, and also to push paper books by offering a little something extra on the top. The program, which launched in August, adds the equivalent of DVD extras to books in packages called “Illuminations.”
Often the Illuminations are longer than the book itself, stuffed full of illustrations, maps, articles, photographs and historical documents. It’s the kind of trove of information you might find if, after reading, you decided to Google everything you could about the author and the book’s subject. Melville House has simply run the search for you, and is hoping you’ll find their curated findings to be frosting on top of the text. They’re offering the Illuminations via QR code, e-pub file, PDF — and if that doesn’t work, you can e-mail a member of Melville House’s staff. As Johnson says, “If you want to get the materials, we will find a way to get them to you.”
Thanks to Michael von Glahn for the link.
