Back in May of 2009 we covered Al Katkowsky’s new ebook app Question of the Day. It was one of the earliest books to be turned into an app. A while back I ran into Al and asked him to give me an update on where his app/book stands. Here’s what he had to say:
Question Of The Day Version 2.0 for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch came out today [October 6]. Aside from some light remodeling, we equipped the new app with sharing capabilities. Now, questions can be shared via texting, email, Facebook and Twitter. The first revision will also incorporate Tumblr sharing.
On the development side, we’ve also added in Flurry analytics. Flurry does things that Google analytics does for web pages, like telling the user where in the world their hits are coming from, hits from unique viewers, etc. With Flurry, we were also able to program in requests to find out about the specific activities that go on that pertain specifically to our app. Now, in addition to knowing how often the app gets used every day, we will know which questions are being shared, how often, and which sharing tools are being used.
With the App Store, there is the aspect of not knowing who your readers are that tends to put some people in publishing off. While also looking to enhance the reader’s experience, and spread the work, this is also our next attempt to connect back to the readers. Clearly, these new tools will only be used by those who are at least somewhat enthusiastic, and we look forward to connecting with them.
Next up will be the pay version, which will have the entire next book incorporated. So, the 120 question app will expand to 240 questions, with all of the new features included.
I’m going to be presenting a session on my own at the next Writer’s Digest Conference, sometime during the three day stretch. It runs January 21st – 23rd. I’ll also be on a panel with Jane Friedman, Guy Gonzales, Seth Harwood and Kevin Smokler at the AWP Conference in Washington, DC, which runs February 2nd – 5th. The panel is called “Thinking Beyond the Book: The Future of Authorship and Publishing in a Transmedia World”.
