James Patterson has teamed up with Facebook to create an interactive edition of his forthcoming novel The Chef.
At a Manhattan press conference Monday evening, Patterson said he approached Facebook about a year ago with the idea of creating a more immersive reading experience for people, especially those who use social media.
The free book is now available via Facebook Messenger and features a host of multimedia features, including film clips, photos, and audio. Some of the digital assets are embedded right in the story flow along with the text, while others can be found by clicking on an icon that will present more in-depth information on such things as characters in the book.
Patterson has begun promoting The Chef on his Facebook page, and made some media appearances for the book on Tuesday morning.
Patterson said he approached Facebook about the project because he is convinced publishers need to be more creative in reaching readers. He believes the deal with Facebook “could move publishing in a new direction" and added that even if the current presentation isn’t perfect. “we’ll learn some things.”
The Facebook edition of The Chef contains about 85 to 100 digital assets, a Facebook representative said and is a condensed version of the murder mystery set in New Orleans. The full version of the novel will be released by Little, Brown in February.
