InterVarsity Press (IVP) has announced the release of its first e-book featuring “tweetable” functionality, wherein a user can quickly tweet out preselected portions of a book with minimal effort, sharing content and ideas with followers.

“We often think of reading as a relatively solitary experience, but in reality—and maybe even increasingly so—it’s fundamentally social,” said David Zimmerman, associate editor at IVP. “People want to know what their friends are reading; they want to process what they’re reading with their friends. This isn’t just speculation; it’s evident in the way books are bought, the way books are publicized and in the rise of book reviewing mechanisms like Goodreads. Books are meant to be shared. With these ‘tweetables,’ we’re shortening the path for people to do so.”

IVP believes this will add much value to the social aspect of reading, allowing readers and authors to connect in a variety of ways around important content. This innovative feature is one that IVP hopes to continue in upcoming projects where readers will benefit by connecting online. The way the technology works within the e-book is through preselected pull quotes in the text that include a “tweet this” button, allowing for single-click sharing through the reader’s Twitter feed. Each tweet includes the text of the selected pull quote, a link to the book’s page on IVP’s website, the author’s Twitter handle and an appropriate hashtag for creating further discussion.

“We believe we may be the first publisher to offer e-book readers the advantage of this Twitter service to share thought- or discussion-provoking quotes from a book quickly and easily to their Twitter feeds, and to engage with the book’s author and other readers on Twitter at the same time,” said Sally Craft, IVP’s director of digital publishing. “We look forward to finding out what readers think about it and how they use it.”

Teach Us to Want , the first e-book from IVP with the enhancement, is now available in a variety of formats, including mobi (Kindle), epub (Nook, iBooks, etc.) and PDF.

“Jen Pollock Michel was the obvious choice for launching this initiative with ‘tweetables,’ ” said Zimmerman, project editor for Teach Us to Want. “Her writing is so elegantly simple—really concise, pregnant sentences that carry meaning on their own, but also convey much more to be discovered. That’s exactly what a tweet should be. She’s also Twitter-native; when we pitched the idea to her she was immediately enthusiastic about it because she understands the potential of social media as extending far beyond the ephemeral stuff that so many people assume to be the norm. I expect that her readers will appreciate this feature of her e-book. It will make it easier for them to do what they are predisposed to do, which is to share what they read with the people they share virtual space with.”

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