TED Books are short original electronic books produced every two weeks by TED Conferences. Like the best TEDTalks, they’re personal and provocative, and designed to spread great ideas. TED Books are typically under 20,000 words — long enough to unleash a powerful narrative, but short enough to be read in a single sitting.
Launched last January, TED Books is now moving away from Kindle singles to their dedicated app. The new platform accommodates browsing through in-line items that can link to images, maps, audio and video. Best of all, the interaction is optional—users choose the way in which they read by toggling the additional elements on or off.
There is also social element that allows for a kind of user-generated marginalia. While books come in at $2.99 on the free app, TED encourages the subscription model for $14.99, which delivers two monthly books for three months. Because users know what to expect from TED, the company can get away with this subscription model.
TED Books is available as an universal app ( iPhone and iPad ) in the app store…
