Abstract

In the publishing sector, electronic book growth figures have shown progressive consolidation in markets around the world. The electronic book evolution in the last 15 years shows the paradoxes and contradictions that every new technology has to address in its implementation process. In addition, the editorial industry is resistant to new business models due to the possibilities of piracy and the fragility of a system in full transition. And, although digital reading is on the upswing and shows undoubted progression, the print book remains central to publishing and continues to maintain strongly competitive odds with the new systems.

Abstract

Within the framework of the information society, we are witnessing a paradigm shift in reading characterized by the convergence of analog and digital supports and the consequent challenges. In this context, the illustrated nonfiction book emerges as a format with great editorial vitality. They are open works subject to the reader’s critical interpretation that move away from the traditional encyclopedic discourse and towards a confluence between art and knowledge. As a way of promoting these books, the book-trailer is defined as a virtual peritext that generates meanings, guides the reading, and projects a model of the reader that is immersed in the culture of the social web. To identify the keys that determine this reader, an exploratory study based on content analysis on the characteristics of the book-trailer of illustrated nonfiction books aimed at children was carried out. A sample of 397 book-trailers from 50 publishing houses was selected for the analysis. The results reveal that the promotion of nonfiction books defines a reading model that emphasizes the physical dimension of reading, the artistic proposal, an interactive, fragmented, free reading that is also guided, the solvency provided by the recognition of authorship, and learning linked to the playful and emotional component through hybridization as the axis of construction. It is concluded that the book-trailer of the illustrated nonfiction book corresponds to a curious and reflective implicit reader in line with the needs posed by the digital society of the 21st century in terms of reading.