I was at a Peter Norvig lecture recently and he talked about ideas for his next book, to have it interactive with videos and such. He said that this would be a

I was at a Peter Norvig lecture recently and he talked about ideas for his next book, to have it interactive with videos and such. He said that this would be a great way for authors to get implicit feedback from readers and see which sections they're reading and what they're not. (Analytics for book authors!) Imagine having a lisp shell right next to the exercise so that you edit the program, execute it and see the output! The possibilities are endless---it just has to be done right. EDIT: One of the main reasons authors stick with publishers is that they cannot handle mass printing. It becomes just too difficult. With this model, it would be easier to distribute the content directly to the user, rather than dealing with a (possibly grumpy) publisher.