You’ve probably heard about the IBM supercomputer that was designed to compete against humans on Jeopardy. Stephen Baker wrote a book about the project, and you can buy the digital version on Amazon right now – except it’s missing a chapter.

The conclusion of the book will not be released until after the episode of Jeopardy featuring the computer airs later this month. Once it does, Amazon will automatically beam the final chapter to those customers who already bought the e-book.

This is a creative way to take advantage of the e-book format, and Amazon seems invested in these types of initiatives - especially given the recent launch of Kindle Singles (short texts that would never be worth publishing in paper form, but are perfect for e-readers). Who knows, maybe this could lead to a reemergence of the serialized novel, where authors release chapters of a book over a spread-out period of time. It worked for Dickens, and hell, he didn’t even have 3G.

(via All Things Digital)