Prior to the digital revolution, book fans have no option but to flip through books within the restricted boundary of print technology. Despite this, it was engaging for a few readers to read the printed informative sections, stories, or experiences even if they crossed 200 pages.
This became evident when the digital revolution transformed the way books are accessed and read. With it, books are no longer restricted to the shelves of library or store. Further, they are no longer confined to those typical paper pages. Today, publishers are crossing the limitations of print technology by leveraging smartphone technology for maximizing readers’ engagement.
Latest Technology of QR Codes into Action
Considering that countless people have started using mobile gadgets, publishers are trying to connect print and digital technologies to maximize engagement. They are doing so with the help of QR codes.
For example, Atria Books has already used this 2D technology for engaging readers. According to scanlife.com, the publisher has printed them in The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook through which it gained almost 40,000 viewers from over 90 nations. Isn’t that inspiring?
By just introducing a QR Code, publishers can easily get the benefit of more engagement, which otherwise was limited in the era of print technology. This new media of interaction can easily make them reach more readers in no time. This is because QR codes facilitate readers to interact like never before.
A prompt scan can deliver interesting and engaging content such as audio reading the whole book, a video revealing the author’s words, a game making a narrated story go live, or an infographic showing the main book milestones. It takes no time for a reader to ask her or his friends or relatives to scan and spread a word about that book and publisher.
Books Suitable for QR Codes
QR codes can be customized for suiting a myriad of books, ranging right from children’s stories to cookbooks, novels, and textbooks. For a self-publishing writer or author, these 2D codes are an ideal branding tool.
Travel, educational, linguistic, and guides are some books on which printing QR codes can add value to the overall reading experience. For example, in case of a travel book, a QR code can open a gallery of photos and videos of the places covered in the book. This is likely to persuade the reader to plan a vacation at that destination.
Let’s say there is a travel book dedicated to the top European museums. The publisher can have a QR code printed near each museum content. Scanning a code of a particular museum directly takes the reader to that museum’s website for visitor information. Isn’t this a perfect value addition?
If it an educational book, a QR code can connect the students to a quiz or exam preparation resources. Similarly, a QR code on different pages of a linguistic book can play an audio or a video to translate the content or explain the meaning of tough words.
Ideas for Using QR Codes for Publishers
Publishers can link their QR codes to useful content for the readers in different ways. Following are ways to consider and implement:
- Add a video at different pages of a non-fiction book for narrating a specific scene or showing the actual place where the scene has taken place. This is applicable to books dedicated to travel sagas, historical tales, or real stories.
- Share a promotion offer via an audio file. For example, hold a competition for creating the best video for a specific section of a book on sale and the best video will be linked forever to a QR code inside the book.
- Share existing customer reviews by adding a QR code to a popular book title when printing it for the Xth time.
- Add a QR code to a book so that the readers can promptly leave ratings and reviews and share the same on different social networking sites. This can make the experience truly interactive between the readers and the author.
- Add a QR code on the display window of a book store for inviting readers to an upcoming book release event or a trailer of a new release.
- Share a discount coupon that book buyers can redeem on their next purchase.
- Allow downloading a few initial pages of an upcoming new book of the same author.
Conclusion
The aforementioned capabilities were previously unavailable during the era of print technology. The core part here is to provide useful content to the readers through QR codes so that it adds value to the reading experience.
