OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
There is an experiment being done right now with Doris Lessing's book “The Golden Notebook”.
7 women will comment on the text online and have a social media conversation on the book. There is a blog and forum where other readers can also comment. This has only just started so we'll see how people like this approach of commenting in the margins.
If: Book, a think tank in London investigating the move of the book from printed page to networked screen. It will explore the potential of new media for authors which can only be exciting for us all! They also have software (Sophie) available to download for reading media documents in a networked environment. They are attempting to redefine the notion of a book or academic paper to allow for dynamic interaction in the margins. Here are some examples of Sophie in action – it will be interesting to see how this works in the academic and peer review environment in particular.