iPad Developer Sideways to Launch at BEABy Calvin Reid

Sideways is a new multimedia software development company specializing in creating new digital publications for the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and other mobile devices. The firm is launching next week at BookExpo America, offering two experimental digital magazines that will show off the capabilities of its suite of authoring tools.

Founded by Charles Stack, founder of the former Books.com online retailing site acquired by B&N, and Sideways president and COO Eliza Wing, Sideways offers authors and publishers the opportunity to “reinvent the book form,” according to Stack. Sideways, he said, offers a set of authoring tools that can target specific categories to create rich multimedia experiences. Sideways is financed by Stack.

Stack said that Sideways is developing multimedia publications in a range of categories from how-to books and cookbooks to graphic novels and children's literature. Stack pointed to a trademarked Sideways multimedia tool called Anigraphic that the company is marketing to comics artists and cartoonists. Anagraphic, Stack said, will enhance their ability to create “well-scripted comics stories with animation and audio embedded.” The Anagraphic tool allows creators to embed multimedia and interactivity into their publications while “keeping the author's vision intact,” said Stack. Sideways is also focused on creating, “highly graphical,” publications Stack said, the digital equivalent of the old Life magazine. Stack said the firm is in negotiations with a number of publishers to create iPad enhanced versions of of books and magazines.

“Our team has a deep love of books,” said Wing, “and is passionate about bringing them to this new medium. Rather than jettison all that we enjoy about reading, we focus on deepening the experience.”

Sideways is also at working developing an Anagraphic version of Hilaire Belloc's Cautionary Tales for Children and an iPhone camera guide by David Busch. Both Sideways’ publications are still in development, but the firm will be demonstrating its technology at its booth and debuting two experimental publications. Sideways will showoff TapTilt, a digital magazine for the iPhone/iPodTouch available now through the Apple App Store, and Sideways for the iPad, a general interest multimedia publication that will be released on June 1.

“The magazines will give everyone a sense of the capabilities of our technology,” Stack said. “Our goal is to give both publishers and authors the opportunity to make good stories even better.”