Publishers look beyond paper to entice readers
On sale are language books with embedded TV and waterproof children's stories for the bathtub
Publishers have realised that the printed word is no longer enough to sell their wares, if some offerings at this year's Hong Kong Book Fair are anything to go by.
Another leading publisher is aiming to catch readers young, with waterproof books aimed at children under two.
Hundreds queued overnight to be first into the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai when the fair opened at 10am. They included students who received their Diploma of Secondary Education examination results on Monday, with some saying they were rewarding themselves for their hard academic work, while others wanted to salve their disappointment.
"I've come here to get some relief from the shock of failing my DSE exams," said Vacilando Yip Chun-kit, 18, who joined the queue at 4am.
Local fiction books remained the most sought-after products while the longest queues, as usual, were for fashion magazines with free cosmetics.
The Hong Kong Educational Publishing Co has rejuvenated the general knowledge classic 100,000 Why Questions using augmented reality technology with images in 3D on a website dedicated to the 36-volume series. And Cambridge University Press launched a new English textbook series in collaboration with National Geographic that comes with an e-book version and footage from the channel.