Publishers at the FutureBook Conference were urged to strengthen the connection between publisher and reader and respond to the reader's level of digital "literacy" by making reading an activity that can be virtually rewarded.

Curtis Brown m.d. Jonny Geller said there had been a shift in the last two years to the point where it was now assumed that a publisher's "customer" was the reader, rather than the retailer. John Mitchinson, founder of crowd-sourced and crowd-funded publisher Unbound, confirmed: "Readers generally do want to have a bigger voice."

Anobii c.e.o. Matteo Berlucchi said it was important to have a way of reaching readers without relying on the high street: "Most book purchases are mediated through another person. Content is just something people want to talk about, and you need to harness the conversation."

Speaking about gamification, Harvey Elliot, previously at game company EA, said a way of narrowing the gap between reader and story was to make it "into a reward you can share with the world in general", creating virtual rewards for completing a book, for example. He said: "It's important to keep individuals within the content."

Pearson US s.v.p. and publisher Jess Brallier, who runs children's interactive story site Poptropica—which is supported by advertising rather than content sales—said when creating digital content, you have to "make a larger leap to the literacy that the next generation has developed".

He added: "It's a delight to be publishing to up to one million kids a day, and not to be relying on Amazon, Apple and Google . . . I really can imagine the day when someone can publish books and not have to rely on one of those frenemies out there."

Report by Charlotte Williams