How do you turn a print book into an interactive eBook?  For Melville House, it’s called a “HybridBook,” and it’s built on the back of a print book. According to the publisher’s website, “The HybridBook project is an innovative publishing program that takes the concept of the enhanced ebook and imposes it on print media.”

The idea is that users can readers can use their phones to scan QR codes on the back of a print book to access additional material, what Melville House calls “illuminations.” The Illuminations consist of “highly curated text, maps, photographs and illustrations related to the original book.” These additional features are free and automatically come in the eBooks editions of the works.

The publisher is testing out this new format with works by five different classic authors including Joseph Conrad and Anton Chekhov.

Via The New York Observer.