"You will see--very, very soon--authors become publishers. You will see publishers become booksellers. You will see booksellers become publishers, and you will see authors become booksellers." ~ Stephen Riggio
"Unless a very inexpensive reader is developed and becomes universally available, this market (for e-books) cannot evolve." ~ Frank Romano
"With e-books, the creation, storing, uttering and receiving of literary works have been liberated from both the sound of the voice and the print on paper." ~ Terje Hillesund
"The e-book is potentially as big as the invention of the printing press." ~ Jean Naggar
"The publisher is shifting from a deliverer of a static product to a manager of dynamic resources."
"Books have endured because they are remarkably well engineered. They are easy to use, generally portable, relatively cost-effective, and they require no instructions or manuals for their use. Paper and ink have superb characteristics for storing and conveying information. Paper provides a reflective surface conducive to reading in a wide variety of light conditions--from the intense lighting on a sunlit beach to the dim light of the full moon. The ink on paper does not flicker and cause eyestrain, which is a problem with screens." ~ Donald T. Hawkins
"Analysts accustomed to measuring bestsellers on a scale of millions of copies belittle or ignore the pride (and profit) that e-book publishers take in a few hundred downloads of an e-book." ~ Richard Curtis
"It remains an ironic fact that our most durable record of information processes and digital writing are print inscriptions. The deeper we advance into digital technologies, the more apparent it becomes that print is a far superior medium for archival purposes. ~ Katherine Hayles
"There's a bias against e-books in the consumer press, but it's our own fault. A lot of people--and I was one of those people--made a lot of predictions that were baloney." ~ Mike Segroves
"I'm finding that books more and more are snapshots at one moment in time of electronic databases."
"The back list will get a shot in the arm from the digital format, just as the audio compact discs revived older recordings and increased sales overall."
"In 30 years, computers shrank from houses, to cars, to refrigerators, to ovens, to microwave ovens, to record players, to large books, to magazines, to wallets. They have stopped at wallet size only because if they were any smaller humans could not use them."
"Should it bother us that pocket calculators wiped out slide rules?"
"Cliffs Notes are now available online. You can download the Cliffs Notes for the Scarlet Letter instead of trying to find an open bookstore at 1.00 a.m."
"If the e-book industry continues into the next decade as a world of balkanized proprietary systems, it will be a long time before consumers and publishers will be able to reap the benefits of an interoperable world of content, stores, devices, and software." ~ Len Kawell
"Today's media industries want to preserve old business models built on scarcity in a network of abundance." ~ anon
"Finally, the e-book retro-glues to electronic publishing old models of intellectual-property ownership that encourage publishers to lock away content, restrict access, organize marketing and publicity, manage digital rights, sell each bit individually, register users with the proper authorities--in general to treat intellectual property like a commodity. The e-book allows the conglomerates that dominate publishing to further consolidate their control." ~ Michael Jensen
"Making a paper book means killing a tree (in turn reducing
the global ecosystem's capacity to generate oxygen and remove carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere). Warehousing physical books and trucking
them to bookstores uses up additional resources." ~ Wade Roush
"We're focusing on being a farm team for people who want to get
into the publishing industry. We will always produce the books meant
for friends and families. But we're designing books also so they have
more appeal to the traditional channels in the publishing industry." ~
Lynette Petersen [iUniverse]
"Steve Jobs did a great job of getting all the music labels
together and saying, 'Digital distribution is going to happen--let's
get ready.' I don't see that happening with book publishers. They're
more traditional, they're very decentralized and it just takes them
longer to work out issues." ~ Jean Bedford
"Publishing is broken. Sales are low, there's no money, and
deadlines and delays are a headache. You have three months to sell a
book and then it's obsolete. Last year, I realized that the pieces were
there finally for publishing ebooks." ~ Adam Engst
"Gutenberg needs no elegy. He lives on in generations of souls
moved by what he initiated. he is not dead; he has merely moved on. His
was an age of movable type; ours is an age of movable text. Let it
continue to progress." ~ Jane Dorner
"Libraries let readers experiment with books. They don't have
to pay and they see how easy it is. They're educating and building the
ebook marketplace." ~ Steve Potash
"The primary incentive for writing has to be artistic satisfaction, egoboo, and a desire for posterity. Ebooks get you that. Ebooks become a part of the corpus of human knowledge because they get indexed by search engines and replicated by the hundreds, thousands or millions. They can be googled." ~ Cory Doctorow
"Ebooks are not merely an ephemeral rendition of their print predecessors. They are a new medium, an altogether different reading experience. Consider these options: hyper-links within the book to web content and reference tools; embedded instant shopping and ordering; divergent, user-interactive, decision-driven plot lines; interaction with other ebooks using Bluetooth or some other wireless standard; collaborative authoring, gaming, and community activities; automatically or periodically updated content; multimedia capabilities; databases of bookmarks, records of reading habits, shopping habits, interaction with other readers, and plot-related decisions; automatic and embedded audio conversion and translation capabilities, full wireless piconet networking and scatternetworking capabilities; and more." ~ Sam Vaknin
"Luddite printers and publishers resisted -- often violently -- every phase in the evolution of the trade: stereotyping, the iron press, the application of steam power, mechanical typecasting and typesetting, new methods of reproducing illustrations, cloth bindings, machine-made paper, ready-bound books, paperbacks, book clubs, and book tokens." ~ Sam Vaknin
"In several dozen nondescript office buildings around the world, thousands of hourly workers bend over table-top scanners and haul dusty books into high-tech scanning booths. They are assembling the universal library page by page." ~ Kevin Kelly
"It's the iTunes lesson: inexpensive content; flexible DRM that isn't Fort Knox; and customized content. It's like a tunnel right to consumers' desktops for publishers." ~ Frank Daniels
"... the vast shelf space of the Web permits virtually limitless digital content whose variety creates heretofore unexpected demand for relatively obscure or specialized items in a heterogeneous marketplace who aggregate audience with its multiform interests far exceeds that for best sellers, whose current dominance reflects today's highly centralized retail structure dependent on quick turnover of largely undifferentiated items. ~ Jason Epstein
"...about the dog that didn't bark in the nighttime world of publishing -- the coming ebook revolution, which has been coming now for something like 20 years and counting without much sign of actually arriving." ~ Charles Stross
The Institute for the Future of the Book
Ebooks account for about $10 million of the $24 billion publishing industry. While it is not true that ebooks have failed, it is true that they do not yet represent substantial sales beyond the institutional market.
Although much information is limited to members, the Open eBook Forum [now the International Digital Publishing Forum] is the trade association for ebook publishing. The website includes a monthly bestseller list.
The OpenReader organization is devoted to creating an promoting an open source standard format based upon XML and CSS. The Open eBook Publication Structure Container Format [OCF] creates a single digital file that can be read with different reading software. This may be the universal digital publication format that is:
The dotReader is an open source reader with considerable promise.
The e-book has much to recommend it: "instant" delivery of
purchased books, the ability to carry many books in a convenient
portable reader, the ability to select font size and style, and the
ability to search and navigate easily through text and images.
Depending on the software/hardware, an audio or read-aloud option is
also be available.
With the elimination of manufacturing and distribution costs, book prices could be reduced by at least 10 to 18 percent. Customized books could easily be created. A digital book could be a continuation where authors add new chapters or sections from time to time so that the book, like a serial, has a flexible completion date [or simply continues]. The reader would not have to wait three years to decide what happens in a trilogy. The non-fiction book would be easily revised as new information becomes available.
Book publishing is conservative, with mature markets. Product evolution is slow and publishing is generally slow to change. Technology has typically been used to enhance well-established products and not to move in new directions. Publishing is a low margin business and until recently little money has been available for research and development. Many of those who drawn to book publishing are not enthusiastic about the digital book, especially as a replacement for the hard copy one.
Epublishing has the potential to dramatically change the relationship between author and publisher. Online publishers allow writers to publish their own work to a global audience and retain control over content and format. Richard Curtis, the literary agent, has established e-Rights to help authors gain control of their OP books and e-Reads to make these books available to customers in a digital format. Ingram's Lightning Print produces hard copies from digital masters.
Traditional publishers are partnering with Xerox, Microsoft,
Adobe, Palm, and other technology providers to develop
publishing on demand (POD) solutions resulting in both ebooks and
pbooks which may increase sales and visibility while reducing expenses. On Demand Books
is testing its Espresso Book Machine which can produce a 300 page
paperback with a four color cover and bind it in three minutes. The
firm claims that the machine can produce 15-20 copies per hour and is
designed to be placed in retail outlets. It is now being used by the World Bank and New York Public Library.
While revenues remain small, there has been growth from a
small base in
recent years. At the moment, ebooks tend to be used rather than read.
Collections are more popular than single titles. Institutions represent
the greatest market. Subscription pricing seems to work well for
collections. It may also work for individual titles. Do readers really
need to keep a book once read? How often are books reread?
Doctorow makes a wonderful comparison between ebooks and the
first pbooks. Here are a few of his negative points:
He also makes positive points:
Digital or electronic publishing is sometimes used to mean automated publishing or the use of the computer to make the book creation, manufacturing, and distribution process more efficient. Electronic-aided publishing might be an appropriate label. The final product remains a hard copy book, but the process uses computer hardware and software. Replacing typewriters with word processing on the computer is an example. Automation substantially reduces the time it takes produce a book for sale, especially when the process begins with a digital original. As the book becomes a database, more frequent updates, better indexes, and easier reformatting are possible. Most publishing houses in the U.S. are automated to a substantial degree. While front list books are born digital, many back list titles need to be digitized. Most larger publishers are doing that.
More appropriately, electronic publishing means creating a digital product and not a hard copy one. Such a product might appear on a server to be downloaded or printed on demand. The digital book may be the only edition or it may one of several formats including the traditional book. Although "ebook" is often used, the technology could be called "eprint" or "econtent" since magazines and newspapers are also popular digital products read on some sort of a reader. Edocuments usually means documents rather than publications for an external audience.
There is some disagreement if the "real" ebook is simply a variation of the hard copy edition -- a digital copy -- or a book designed from the beginning to be experienced as a digital work without being a duplicate of an earlier work.
The ideal, long found in science fiction, is a digital book read on a portable, high resolution reader with a flat top screen. Books would be delivered to the reader via a wireless network. Alan Kay's Dynabook was an early (1970s) prototype for what became today's e-book readers. In 1986, Franklin Electronic Publishers issued its "Spelling Ace" which was a hand held, battery operated dictionary. In 1991, Franklin's Digital Book System used interchangeable memory cartridges for reference works. In 1997, NuvoMedia issued the first Rocket e-book. PDA's followed in the late 1990s.
At the moment, the e-book reader appliance has had little impact because of low resolution, lack of standards (the Open E-book standard based on XML may be widely adopted in the future) resulting in different incompatible formats, and publisher concern about copyright violation or piracy has resulted in punitive DRM. Still, the notion of the digital book and the portable reader is appealing. In the future, the portable reader is likely to be a multi-task device rather than just a text reader. For example, a device that plays music, displays still and moving images, and allows text reading seems to be the most likely option. It might even be your cell phone.
Ignoring the difficult issues of digital rights management and copyright enforcement, the ebook provides opportunities for creating communities of books and of readers via links and tags. Goodreads is one example and LibraryThing is another. Links may be used to bring together similar scenes, topics, or arguments. Tagging allows readers to add new and different ways of finding and bringing out aspects of content. The number of links and tags provides an indication of use, interest, and popularity. Virtual collections of books or chunks of book content can be created rather like playlists. For example, readers tag their favorite characters or favorite scenes in a fantasy novel and add a variety of comments, perhaps even bordering on fan fiction.
Wikipedia is an example of a new kind of book-- the networked book. It is continually revised and anyone can contribute. It could also be edited with new content "juried in."It is, in many respects, bottom-up rather than top-down publishing. It may be a model for creating authoritative open source textbooks. However, "without the permanence of print, a work is never really finished. [Ben Vershbow]." Networked books suggest a much more collaborative environment for authors and turn books into "continuing conversations." Scholarpedia is also a free encyclopedia but it is peer reviewed. Pearson is creating a business in partnership with the Wharton and the Sloan Schools of business to create business book content using the wiki model which will then be edited into a book [to achieve the clear, single voice.] The book will be sold conventionally. Wiki contributers will not be paid.
An ebook is a digital publication containing the files for text, images, audio, video and the like. Style sheets, meta data, digital rights management, navigation and other related files may also be included. An ebook may be an exact copy of a pbook with no added features, a copy with added features, or an interactive book designed and born digital. E-book varieties include:
"So 'e' means paper to pixels, plus searchability, richer
design and typography, multimedia, interactivity ..., new organization
possibilities (such as hypertext and pop up windows), easier (and
cheaper) distribution and production, and a host of possibilities we
have yet to discover ( Tim Cooper)."
While ebook is used here, "econtent" may be a better descriptor, especially when speaking of parts of books rather than the whole book. Many nonfiction readers, including scholars, read parts of a book rather than the whole book from cover to cover. Thus, "econtent" may be most appropriate as readers find and read "chunks" within a book.
Awareness of digital books has certainly increased with digital indexing and look inside the book features available via the WWW and your browser. While Amazon's Search Inside the Book feature was the first, Google followed with their much discussed Book Search and now MS with their Live Book Search [in beta].
Micro-content is content that is part of a larger work. It might be as large as a chapter or as small as a section, a few pages, or a page. From the beginning of digital content, the possibility of selling micro-content has received considerable attention. In the beginning, lack of an inexpensive payment option was a major problem. While this may still be problematic, eBay and others have created solutions. A publisher fear of content cannibalization or the notion that selling parts of a book will reduce sales of the whole book remains a problem. In fact, its seems more likely that prospective buyers would not purchase the whole book in order to gain access to the micro-content. iTunes is our best example of micro-content since most people buy songs rather than albums. The music producer/distributors are not happy.
While ebook is the key word, the reader could handle a variety of printed products, including newspapers, magazines, and technical reports. The reader is usually hand held and of PDA or small laptop size. In the past, the reader was a dedicated device with a focus on reading digital text. A standard laptop or desktop computer is not considered an ebook reader even though both allow digital book reading.
Dedicated ebook readers currently in the news include the Jinke Hanliln Ebook V2, the Sony Reader, the Bookeen Cybook, the iREx ILiad ER-100,
and the ETI ETI-2.
It's too soon to tell if any will be successful. In
the past, readers have received considerable media attention, but soon
faded from the market. The Sony Reader's use of E Ink has received
considerable notice. It's a dramatic improvement in reader technology
with highly legible dark letters on light gray background and no need
for back lit illumination. The reader's memory holds about 80 books.
The Sony bookstore [hoping to be like iTunes and the iTunes store]
contains more than 10,000 ebooks. Features are limited [no search, no
clickable links] and the price is fairly high.
Software allows a device, either a dedicated or a
multipurpose one, to read digital print in a manner similar to reading
a print document. Adobe's Acrobat E-book Reader, Microsoft's Clear Type
Reader, and the Palm eReader are examples. Adobe has recently issued a beta copy of Adobe Digital Editions
which is a Flash-based Rich Internet Application for managing and
reading PDF and XHTML econtent. It will replace Adobe Reader. Standard
computer word
processing applications are not considered to be ebook software. The
MobiPocket format developed in France is a cross-platform format which
can be read on different devices, but has had only limited success in
the U.S. That may change now that it is owned by Amazon. The fact that different ebooks require different software to
read is the major barrier to wide-spread adoption of the ebook. Until
there is a standard format for "reading" software, the market is likely
to be limited. At the moment, the Adobe Reader is the leader.
Parallel publishing consists of issuing the same work at the
same time in at least two physically different formats. For example,
issuing a book in a trade cloth edition and trade paper edition.
University presses have done this for some time. Here, parallel would
refer to a hard copy and a digital edition being issued at the same
time. Some publishers fear that the two formats would reduce sales if one was notably less expensive than the other.
While broadcasting targets a heterogeneous mass audience, narrowcasting focuses on a relatively narrow and homogeneous one. Narrowcasting was first used in conjunction with cable TV and its ability to offer channels on specialized topics, i.e. the History Channel. Narrowcasting may also be used with digital publishing to reflect the opportunity to publish digital books or periodicals for a smaller but known audience. Reduced costs allow books to be published in small editions. This is the famous "long tail."
CD, and later DVD, publishing had considerable promise, but
has had little success except in reference and children's publishing.
The ability to add sound, graphics, and full-motion video to text is an
appealing one. A CD can hold about 150,000 print pages so it is an
excellent format for a reference work. Today, CDs are easy to create
and manufacture and they are relatively inexpensive. The DVD
disks hold substantially more content and most computers
play them with ease.
Some publishers have had success with children's books. For example, Random House and Broderbund's "Living Books" included interactive story books such as Just Grandma and Me by Mercer Mayer and Arthur's Teacher Trouble by Marc Brown have sold more than 100,000 copies each. The stories are enhanced via animation, music, and interactivity. Multi-lingual editions are also available for those who find English to be a second language or children who are interested in learning a foreign language.
CD publishers began with public domain materials such as classic novels on one CD and then reference works. Microsoft's "Complete Baseball" with its incredible array of statistics and Rand McNally's TripMaker were good examples. The CD/DVD format allows a publisher to include a wide range of complementary or supplementary material with the original work. Few readers, however, enjoyed cover to cover reading of a lengthy book on their computer monitor or TV screen.
Although it did not catch on in the U.S., the Sony Discman was originally promoted as a book reader as well as a music player. Franklin had some success with optical disk based reference books such as the Physician's Desk Reference. Since many book readers also listen to MP3 recordings, it's clear that Sony had a good idea but was ahead of its time. Increasingly, disc based readers were replaced with PDAs holding digital files. These are being replaced by cellphones and MP3. Medical and allied health professionals have been a good market for reference content on small, portable players.
The bloom is off optical disk publishing except for a few reference works. Many experts regarded this format as a transitional one with wired or wireless network access to servers as the replacement. As broadband became widely available, most optical disk publications were abandoned for files mounted on a server and used via the WWW. Most CD-ROM publishers lost money. Even though nearly all computers have CD/DVD drives, most users do not purchase CD book titles beyond those bundled with their software.
With "free" CDs included with the computer system, few users will pay a substantial price for the CD book. However, consumer titles remain available, mostly reference works.
Digital server-based collections are increasingly popular. Libraries and other information agencies are rapidly digitizing special collection content out of copyright. Scholarly publishers such as Oxford University Press and the University of California Press are creating substantial ebook collections for both monographs and reference books.
Large for profit publishers are rapidly digitizing their back list. For example, Springer [scientific and technical books and periodicals] is digitizing all of its books with books available complete or by chapter in HTML and PDF formats. Libraries may purchase these ebooks and archive them locally or use them via renewable subscriptions. Wiley is in the process of digitizing landmark book series via Wiley InterScience. Books are in PDF format with internal and external linking. These may be purchased or used on a subscription basis.
Google, working with Stanford and other
leading universities, is digitizing whole library collections.
All of the
pre-1923 works or public domain works will be made available to the
public without charge. Some are now available. Works under copyright
protection will be
digitized, subject to legal challenge, but only snippets will be made
available to the public. Publishers and some authors argue that such
scanning violates copyright and are litigating. The question is whether
or not the "snippets" are part of fair use. In the mean time, some
preliminary evidence suggests that Google Book Search has increased
book sales for the works involved. Because of publisher concern about
Google Book Search, some, like HarperCollins,
have launched their own browse inside the book features on the
publisher website. While this allows publishers to control the content
viewed, it seems unlikely that prospective buyers would go from
publisher site to publisher site for this information.
Although there are now several noteworthy collections or libraries of books in the public domain (free from copyright restriction), Project Gutenberg, begun in 1978, was the first major attempt to assemble a collection of digital books available to all and available indefinitely. While Hart [the founder], considers the project to be a publisher, it is really a digital archive. The focus is on readable rather than authoritative editions. A large number of texts have been digitized. Scope includes light literature, heavy literature, and reference works. Many of the early books were digitized by volunteers who keyboarded content into ASCII text files which were then made available via disk or the Internet. Quality control problems remain a concern, but Project Gutenberg is a pioneering effort to make important books available at no cost via a digital format that allows reading, searching, and analysis. Gutenberg represents the first stage of the ebook -- a simple, scrolling book with all content on one page. ASCII text required no additional reader software and is not likely to be obsolete in the future. Word processing software allowed searching. Layout was boring and unattractive and many users disliked scrolling. Word processing software also allowed for font changes including changing font size to make text more readable. Manybooks.net builds on the Gutenberg collection, but adds more public domain titles in a variety of formats.
Digital Book IndexIncludes more than 100,000 digitized books and texts from about 2,000 publishers. About two-thirds of the items are fee-based.
Sponsored by Carnegie Mellon University, the project hoped to
digitize a million books by 2005, but has reached about 11,000 titles. The project promotes
"freedom to remember" and "freedom to know." It is an open source
project. A forum is available via RSS. Reviews of some books are
available as is a list of top downloads and staff picks.
Funded by the National Science Foundation and the Institute
for Museum and Library Services, ICDL intends to create a collection of more
than 10,000 titles in at least 100 languages while working with
children to develop interface approaches for children. The focus is on
materials to help children to understand the global village. Children
are defined as aged three to thirteen. The White Raven database
is
a professionally selected annotated bibliography of children's books
from 1993 to 2003. The Project also includes the development of book
readers.
A large collection of "illustrated antique children's books on
line" with a world-wide scope. Includes original books and some
translations. More than 10, 000 pages mounted on the website. Sound
files will be included in the future.
NetLibrary has converted thousands of books into digital form
and provides access via its website. Libraries represent the
market. Books are made more user friendly by adding links from table of
contents to chapters and sections. User annotations are allowed, but these
cannot be printed. Clicking on a reference will open up that text in a
window. Security measures insure the NetLibrary books cannot be
downloaded or copied except one page at a time. Books lent for a time
period are no longer available after the due date has expired. Only one
person may use a book at a time. Strict use requirements are demanded by publishers concerned with protecting their intellectual
property from piracy. Libraries appreciate that these books
cannot be lost, stolen, or mutilated. Just in time selection is
possible to meet sudden demand for a standard title. NetLibrary is
creating subject-based collections of books, business books for
example, to make selection easier for the library.
Since its purchase by OCLC, NetLibrary has substantially added
to the number of books available [recently, Penguin agreed to provide
the Library with more than 1000 front and back list titles] and has
begun to deliver digital audio books [aebooks?] to its subscribers.
These unabridged books will come from Recorded Books, LLC.
Users will be able to preview, charge, and listen to abooks via
Internet or the NetLibrary platform. The new program launched with
500 titles, with some emphasis on best selling fiction. Windows Media
Player is required for playback.
Publishers also create collections of similar works
which can then be made available to libraries or individuals on a
subscription basis or purchase. Oxford University Press is a good example with its
subject-focused reference collections.
Until Gutenberg's marvelous introduction of printing books from movable type, nearly all books were issued on demand because there was no inventory prepared ahead of time. An person of wealth would approach a scribe, select a model from the available books, and the scribe and others would then create the book. It might take a year or longer to produce a high quality illustrated parchment book. Following Gutenberg, printers and publishers issued books on a speculative basis. They would print several hundred copies and hope that they would sell. Although the quantities are much larger, this is still the model followed by most hard copy book publishers. With publishing on demand and/or ultra short-run printing, publishers can once again manufacture a few copies or just one at a time. Publishing on demand and short-run publishing is increasingly inexpensive and fast.
When micro formats became the major form of "publishing" academic dissertations and theses, University Microfilms created what would become a publication on demand business. When someone "published" their dissertation, UMI would make a master (no inventory). With this model, a book may be kept in print forever without any inventory. When someone wants a copy of a book, it is printed out via a high quality photo-duplication machine or downloaded to the customer's computer. Although there is some controversy, advocates argue that publication on demand will dramatically reduce the cost of publishing by eliminating returns and also make available a much wider selection of items. Critics suggest that some manufacturing and much of the distribution costs will be reduced, but that all the costs associated with acquisition, editorial work, and product creation remain so that publication costs will only fall slightly. Sometimes publishing on demand is called custom publishing, but that is usually associated with a book that is assembled from different bits and pieces. Desktop publishing is another phrase sometimes used for publication on demand, but it is easily confused with creating econtent on the computer.
Increasingly, publishers see the book as a database that can
be used to produce a wide variety of content-based products. Publishers
then become content providers and intellectual property
managers. Customized books with content from more than one
source are likely to be an important part of publishing on demand in
the near future. It is also possible to sell chunks of content from
books rather than just the whole work, especially as micro payment
mechanisms become more widely accepted.
Current book production technology allows an author, publisher, vendor, or retail outlet to quickly produce bound (adhesive) books in a few standard sizes printed on both sides of the page using high speed laser printers. With no inventory requirement, a publisher (if the author contract allows) could keep a book in print forever. This is a major issue facing authors: how to determine when a book is really "out of print [OP]." Today, if a traditional book goes OP, rights revert to author after 60 days. With publication on demand, a book will always be "in print" even if the publisher does not promote or actively market it. It is likely that future author contracts will set a minimum annual sales figure to be met to qualify for "in print" status.
Amazon's Back in Print initiative allows a publisher to agree to have Amazon store a digital copy of a book [there is one if you see an active inside the book feature] and then print and ship that title when an order is received [within 24 hours]. Amazon's BookSurge subsidiary eliminates the need for publishers to maintain inventories of backlist titles. Customers who select overnight shipping will receive the OP book within 24 hours. If the contract allows, no book need ever go out of print.
Since Amazon now owns the French Mobipocket firm which produces ebooks for a variety of platforms, they have the potential to be a major ebook publisher. Amazon will no longer use Ingram's Lightning Source as its ebook supplier. Ingram's ebook initiatives have been moved into Ingram Digital Ventures which now includes Vital Source.
Digitization of books not born digital has seen substantial improvements in scanning technology. Besides proprietary systems created by Google and Amazon, two companies, Kirtas Technologies and 4DigitalBooks, sell robotic digitization technology. These scanners include:
Xerox has long had a custom publishing service called "Book in Time." Baker and Taylor and Ingram, the two largest hard copy book wholesalers, also have publishing on demand programs to issue small print runs of soft cover books. Baker and Taylor's "Replica Books" issues licensed editions of out of stock and out of print books from a virtual inventory. Books are reasonably priced and it takes one to two weeks to get the book.
Ingram's "Lightning Source" began with a focus on out of print National Book Award winners and Newbery Award editions. Currently, it has several thousand titles digitized. It is now signing up publishers such as Cambridge University Press, Holtzbrinck, and Simon & Schuster. The scanning costs are reasonable and the duplication/binding costs are modest so per book retail cost would be less than $25.00. Lightning Source will do short-run publishing for publishers and produce single copies. Books going to a retail outlet are combined with the next shipment from Ingram's warehouse which reduces transportation costs. Lightning presently produces about one million books per month.
Besides the larger firms, several smaller ones provide
print on demand service for authors. The book may be "reasonably
designed" or it may be printed "as is," each will be assigned
an ISBN and authors will be provided a small number of copies or [newer
model] each copy will be manufactured when an order is received with
the firm mailing the book to the buyer. This is somewhat like the
vanity presses except that the costs are lower and no promises are
made about marketing or sales. However, this is not an easy route.
"Think about how difficult it is to be successful when your book is
distributed by a mainstream publisher, multiply that by 10, and that's
what you're up against when you do the POD route ( John Feldcamp). On
the positive side, Frank Cost says that easy and relatively inexpensive
POD, "might just foster a market for book-writing in the same way Kodak
first opened up photography to amateur picture takes nearly a century
ago." The downside is that POD firms have produced many books that
cannot be absorbed by the existing wholesale and retail network. Most
POD books are non-returnable and have short discounts so it's difficult
to get them into retail outlets.
What happens to your ebooks with the software or hardware becomes obsolete? This is a standards issue since obsolescence is less likely to be a problem with open standard formats. Since several of the firms providing dedicated ebook readers have gone out of business as have some computer operating systems, this is a real concern.
Without widely adopted standards for creation, transmission,
display, storage, and retrieval, the sale of digital books is likely to
be limited. The current state of ebook software with its varying
"standards" and incompatibilities is a good example. Consumers are
unlikely to purchase digital books when software varies from reader to
reader so that a book can only be read on a particular device or with
one particular software application. Publishers are unlikely to
participate when they must prepare and issue several different digital
editions. At present, HTML/XML is the most popular format for e-books
and PDF is second. PDF files are slow to download, require considerable
storage capacity and limit the viewing experience. The Open e-book
standard most likely to be widely adopted is based on XML and CSS.
Although the digital format allows for new and different
formats, most readers prefer the traditional book format with a table
of contents, index, turnable pages, and traditional navigation aids.
The ability to bookmark and highlight passages of interest is a high
priority. Being able to go from one link to another is an important asset for many readers as is easy search.
Since digital files are easily modified, authors, publishers, and some readers are concerned about authentication. How do you know that you are getting a true, complete and current copy? Several software solutions have been available for the last year or so, but none have been widely adopted. More progress needs to be made in "certifying" true copies.
Often part of the authenticity issue, is how intellectual property, especially the true copy, will be protected against duplication and wide-spread distribution without royalties being paid to the copyright holder. Again, several hardware and software solutions have been proposed and the DRM technology seems to be moving swiftly. However, lack of a widely adopted "standard" inhibits mainstream publishers. Much DRM technology is quite restrictive and creates a "pay for view" situation for readers with no opportunity to copy content or share it. It will be interesting to see how prospective buyers react to the elimination of "First Sale" and "Fair Use" rights.
As with software, it is likely that most digital books will be licensed products with limited rights for the purchaser. At the moment, the several different DRM schemes have been heavy handed and create a bad experience for customers who wish or need to do more than read once on one machine. Fearful publishers favor rigorous DRM that inhibit ebook use. The most serious concerns are those of textbook publishers with review questions and answers [often available only for the teacher].
Contrary to the mainstream publisher opinion, some smaller
publishers argue that free readable or even downloadable copies on the web create word
of mouth and eventually result in more sold copies. It will be
interested to see if this view becomes more widespread. As Lee Hadden
said, "I think that if they had concentrated on stimulating demand
rather than immediate profits, they would have gotten further along in
the business. Instead, they were so intent upon not losing money that
they didn't develop the market."
Here is the permissions statement from the Adobe Glassbook
edition of Alice in Wonderland: "No text
selections can be copied from this book to the clipboard. No printing
is permitted on this book. This book cannot be lent or given to someone
else. This book cannot be given to someone else. This book cannot be
read aloud (audio rights were sold to another so computer cannot read
aloud)." And this is for a book in the public domain.
Although there are several substantial collections of
ebooks in the public domain, often older trade books, there is no single central
resource for free ebooks, especially one that would include those in
languages other than English. Too, many governmental agencies issue
ebooks of various kinds via websites and these normally escape any sort
of ebook specific bibliographic control. Control of commercial ebooks is also inadequate,
especially with so many self-published works. Digital Book Index
is presently the single best catalog of commercial and non-commercial
ebooks. Its database includes more than 100,000 titles with a reasonable
proportion of those being free.
The books printed by Gutenberg in the 1450s are still useful
today. Digital files created just a few years ago are often unreadable
today because the software and hardware needed for playback is no
longer available. Without constant refreshing,
digital books are likely to become unusable in the future. Ironically,
Project Gutenberg's early ascii text books are likely to survive the
longest. Few
publishers are concerned about preserving the intellectual content
they sell once it ceases to sell. There may be a role for research
libraries in preserving the digital book, but that may exclude many
trade and popular niche audience titles. Without clear-cut
responsibility by those involved, the literature of the future may
simply disappear -- a new "dark ages."
Price setting for digital books is complicated by at least six factors:
Once the price is set, the publisher must deal with payment issues. With no clear standard, the publisher must select a particular option. Micropayment or the ability of the buyer to pay small sums for small amounts of content such as a few pages from a book may provide new revenue streams. PayPal is the best known provider of this service, but there are others.
While books have historically been sold on an ownership model, digital books may also be sold on a subscription model [rather like a standing order] where for a monthly or annual fee readers may download a certain number of books. Baen Books allows members to download three or four forthcoming books on a three-month installment plan that concludes before the hard copy is released. The cost is reasonable and the program has been quite successful. Sample chapters are also available without charge. In both cases, the digital titles have stimulated hard copy sales. At the same time, quite a few complete older titles are available for free download.
Although limited in operation, WOWIO
has created a model where ebooks are free but include an advertisement
for every three book pages. Oxford University Press has agreed to
participate with 100 titles as have a few other publishers. Books are
"watermarked" to identify individual users. It will be interesting to
see how successful this will be and if others follow.
Digital books may be distributed from servers directly to the
buyer's computer via FTP. They may also be distributed to vendors and
retail outlets who will then make them available to the buyer as a download or even in a
tangible format such as a disk or in a hard copy printout.
Adobe has an online
bookstore to promote ebooks using the Adobe Reader format.
The store includes more than 30,000 titles with some periodical and other
formats as well. Ebooklocator.com
does a reasonable job with ebooks issued by more than 400 commercial
publishers.
A continuing problem for all publishers is connecting the book
with the potential reader. Most books published in the U.S. remain
invisible after publication. It is often difficult to find books in
retail outlets and in large databases. As publication becomes easier
and the number of new publishers increase, the problem has become more
acute. The publisher of the digital book must be able to identify
likely readers and let them know that the book is available. There are
a variety of ways to do this and some are relatively inexpensive and
easy if reaching a particular narrow audience. Still, gaining
visibility for a particular audience or in the marketplace will be a
challenge unless ebooks are readily visible to prospective customers.
Amazon with its reader's advisory service is an excellent model. Author
websites work well for for visible authors as do author blogs.
The legibility of monitors or screens on e-book devices remains considerably inferior to that of the printed book. Eye strain remains a notable problem when reading the ebook. However, E-Ink is as legible as a hard copy newspaper.
The ability to quickly produce and distribute an ebook is
especially useful for books where information can become
obsolete quickly. Too, a website can be used to provide relatively
convenient updated content as the book is revised.
Most potential buyers want to
read an ebook on a multifunction device, from an iPod to a tablet
computer. PDAs or cell phones are popular because they allow reading in
chunks while the reader is waiting on someone or something. Palm
software created the first reasonable market for this sort of reading.
This really isn't book reading as much as it is chapter reading.
Besides the book publishers (content providers), whose role in providing attractive content is key, digital book success depends on:
This is a highly charged political environment. Technological progress may come quickly, but wide-spread adoption is much slower and involves a rich variety of political and economic issues. At the moment, the content providers appear to have won in Congress, but that could change as the impact of rights management becomes more obvious. Without equitable rights, the e-book market is likely to be limited.
Note too that compared with several Asian and European countries, Internet access in the U.S. is slow and expensive.
It is easy and inexpensive to create and make available an e-book. The Internet facilitates marketing and sales as well as straight-forward distribution. The ease of searching and updating digital files encourages digital reference works and makes them more productive than hard copy ones. With WWW pages, discussion lists, and newsgroups, there are many opportunities for feedback for the author and publisher. Community building [social networking] becomes much easier. As a database, the digital book is easy to change, keep current, and customize. It is also relatively easy to take parts from several works to create a new, individualized one. Suggestions and corrections can often be made in a few minutes or a few hours.
Conversion software, although not
perfect, makes it easy to convert a manuscript created with a standard
word processing package into HTML, XML or PDF formats. In most
situations, tag by tag fiddling of content is no longer required. One
recent estimate was that the cost of converting a born digital
manuscript or book to an ebook would be about $500.00 for a 400 page
book plus a bit more for proofing.
A few school districts are now using digital editions of
textbooks installed on student laptops. This lowers textbook
purchasing costs, allows each student to have access to a text book,
and solves the too heavy backpack problem.
Technology plus access to the Internet, allows multimedia and
interactive books, hyper-links to references, sophisticated search
capabilities, easy copying and note-taking, easy content updating, as
well as 24/7 access to books held in a library collection and the fact
that ebooks require minimal storage space . With wireless networks,
physicians [for example] may access reference books on PDAs while
making their rounds [point-of-care information].
Reference publishers create databases that contain hundreds of
reference books that may easily be searched collectively or
individually. Book and periodical content may be included in the same
"library" or database.
Almost anyone with a computer, Internet access (plus space on a server), and determination can create a digital book and make it available to an audience. The lack of manufacturing and distribution costs means that little capital is required. Niches abound and there are many enthusiast communities who will purchase good digital books that fill a gap. There are many gaps, i.e. there is no collection of color photographs of the xyz railroad.
As enthusiast communities continually splinter into smaller, more narrowly focused groups, hard copy book production is less and less economical. However, the POD model can be economical and allow hard copy creation.
Those who have uncensored Internet access can select and purchase books from publishers throughout the world. At the same time, publishers have a substantially expanded global audience
Most hard copy publishers have slow selling back list titles that are ideal candidates for publishing on demand in a digital edition. Many of the costs associated with this edition have already been made and conversion costs are relatively inexpensive. It is much easier and less expensive to reformat a published book than to develop one from scratch to take advantage of the digital medium.
Most of the important inhibiting variables have been mentioned. For new or less visible publishers, the major problem is gaining the attention of the prospective buyer. As one critic noted, "Information is plentiful. Trust and attention are scarce." To some degree, the trust problem may be solved with sample chapters and sections which give the buyer the opportunity to preview before making a purchase. Shareware and freeware models also may minimize the trust concern. Still, informing the likely buyer of the good news that "their" book is now available remains a challenge.
Branding is especially important in an environment where there are a large number of content providers. Those publishers [and authors] with a recognized brand or those who can soon develop one are likely to succeed. The less visible or largely unknown brands will struggle.
Although changing dramatically in the last two years, a large number of Americans, including some book buyers, lack access to the hardware, software, and connectivity needed to take full advantage of the digital book.
Screen resolutions are only now good enough for extended screen
reading. At least 200 dp is needed and today's readers are
substantially less than that. Without good back lighting, screens may
not be readable in many environments. e-ink requires external
illumination to be read [just like the hard copy]. Studies suggest that
reading is
25 to 40 percent slower on screen compared to the printed page. Screen
reading typically involves more browsing and skimming. Most users print
screen
content of more than a few
pages.
Although growing in number, relatively few titles are available on particular subjects or genres. Purchase/rental is not always easy. Preservation remains a notable problem. The fact that there are at least twenty different formats and many are tied to a particular hardware device is a major disincentive.
Ebooks are relatively expensive and dedicated readers are too expensive to appeal to the typical reader. Critics suggest that the ebook should be priced as a mass market paperback, especially if it is really leased rather than purchased.
Copyright issues continue to trouble many traditional publishers. Secure usage rights management software or digital rights software coupled with encryption would allow the publisher to control use of a purchased item, including prohibiting sharing, downloading, copying, saving and the like. Several software houses have now developed such software. Le Grand Secret is a good example of what publishers fear. This expose of Francois Mitterrand and his health was banned by a French judge because of privacy violations and could not legally be sold in France. However, it soon appeared on websites throughout the world. The fear of piracy still looms large to many publishers. At present, there is no fool proof way to prevent unauthorized distribution of the content of a book. The Association of American Publishers is developing a permanent copyright marker for digital content. This digital object identifier [DOI] is a digital license plate, similar to ISBN. The DOI could be used to sell digital books or their parts. With the DOI appearing on each page of a book, a publisher would be able to identify and then begin legal action against an unauthorized edition. However, that could take considerable time and might not be effective if the unauthorized edition is on a server abroad. Unhappily for publishers and distributors, hackers often break or "crack" DRM schemes fairly quickly.
Publishers argue that the right to issue the print version of the book includes the right to issue a digital version. Authors and the courts believe that the digital edition is a separate right and must be specified in the contract. Publishers will be unlikely to invest in digital book publishing if they must renegotiate the rights. Similarly, authors are concerned that publishers may have the right to issue the digital edition, but fail to do so. There is concern about the degree to which ebook sales will reduce "pbook" sales.
The digital book is fragile and can easily be destroyed. Publishers lose interest in preserving master copies of the digital book when sales disappear. Refreshing is required and it can be problematic.
As publishers continue to digitize their back lists and as new books are born digital, publishers are placing more emphasis on expanding their ebook lists and protecting their investment. Sample pages and the Amazon "look inside" feature help to sell traditional hard copies. At the same time, the "Search Inside" feature has resulted in digital full-text versions of about one-half of the books Amazon sells. Amazon is in the process of creating a substantially expanded online sales program for digital books. Purchasers may select the hard copy plus online access or online access to part or all of a digital book. Amazon is gradually moving into publishing as well. Unlike the IPod model, publisher's terms, conditions, and prices vary from title to title and publisher to publisher.
Since some publishers like Macmillan, Random House, and Simon & Schuster are suspicious of Google and Amazon, they are creating their own digital repositories to sell ebooks from their own website. One wonders if prospective buyers would not prefer access to a larger number of books from many publishers from a single source.
Random negotiates with vendors so that its books will be available for full indexing, search, and display, but no downloading, printing, or copying. Free sample pages may be no more than five percent of the content. Vendors will pay Random four cents per page for each page beyond what is allowed. Vendors may charge what they wish.
Vendors, like ebrary, have been quite successful in creating collections of digital books for public and academic libraries. Typically, the content is leased on a subscription basis rather than purchased although some vendors allow purchase. Ebrary is somewhat unique in that there is no added cost to view text. You pay only to print and copy. NetLibrary, Books24x7 and Safari Tech books provide similar services. Safari Books Online is a subscription service with a Library Service that provides access to the Safari books and Rough Cut Service mentioned below.
The number of titles in these collections is quite large. NetLibrary has more than 100,000 titles.
Safari Books Online's "Rough Cuts Service" provides access to pamphlet length documents on cutting edge technology as they are created. The content is updated when the author and editor make changes. Short Cuts are edited and reviewed in-house before being released.Readers may send feedback, bug fixes, suggestions, and comments directly to the author and editor.
Publishing traditional books on the Internet began with works in the public domain. Unhappily, recent changes in copyright law mean that few items will be added to this pool in the future. With a substantial number of good items in the public domain, a variety of individuals and organizations began to place full text of many standard works on gopher and WWW servers where they could be read or downloaded. The best known of the early pioneers is the Gutenberg Project which began in 1971 with a goal of placing 10,000 books on-line by 2001. A wide range of titles have been made available. Since this has been an effort by many volunteers, there have been some quality control concerns. Persuasion by Jane Austin is an example of a Project Gutenberg title. Project Gutenberg notes that it does not digitize books. Rather it digitizes the texts and makes those available online. An interesting distinction. Other projects do digitize books. Ebooks rather than etexts include page numbers, ability to navigate to particular parts, book fonts, foot and end notes, decoration and images. Free-New Books.com is a current awareness source for free new ebooks. ManyBooks plays a similar role. The Digital Book Index provides access to about 130,000 bibliographic records from commercial and non-commercial publishers.
Other book or text archives on the WWW include:
There are many on-line books pages. The Internet Public Library provides access to some of the major collections. Note that none of these collections represent current book publishing.
In the past two years, much larger collections have begun. For example, the Library of Congress has begun the World Digital Library with funding from Google. Building on the American Memory project, this focuses on unique collections from around the world. Other digital collections include Google Library & Google Book Search for pre-1923 content. The Open Content Alliance , an open access database, led by the Internet Archive, Yahoo, and Microsoft now includes, Adobe Systems, Hewlett Packard Labs, the UK National Archives, O'Reilly Media, and the University of California system. Yahoo will index all content. The European Union has begun a continent-wide program. And Google is beginning to provide full free access to the public domain titles in its Google Library program.
In the last few years, many trade publishers have begun to include sample chapters of new books on their websites. The ability to sample a new book, especially by an unfamiliar author, often increases sales and may increase word of mouthvisibility. Publisher websites also allow readers to meet and chat with the author or discuss the author's work. These "virtual reading communities" create a strong link between reader, publisher, and author.
The National Academy Press publishes monographic works of the National Academy of Sciences. They have had considerable success with placing the entire text of new works on-line. This provides potential buyers with an opportunity for a more extensive preview. Sample pages may be copied and printed a few at a time. Since few potential buyers will want to read the entire work on-line or print it out, this full text display has resulted in an increase in sales via secure on-line ordering. For some works, the buyer may purchase the whole book or particular pages. Printing and binding is done on demand. Several other scientific and technical publishers, especially of more reference oriented works, have had success with full text display of selected new works.
Textbooks provide interesting opportunities. Interactive, supplementary material may easily be added to the material in the standard printed edition. Digital textbooks can easily be revised and updated. Being able to hear the text read aloud will help some students.
McGraw-Hill's academic and professional publishing units have done well with ebooks. For example, Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine sold well for years at $149. McGraw-Hill created a subscription-based web site and continuously updates that searchable edition. The subscription price was $89 per year. About 2,000 other titles are available for purchase with the PDF and Peanut [for Palm] formats being the most popular. The ability to create individualized texts by using parts of existing works is attractive to users.
John Wiley & Sons offers all of its front list books in an Adobe PDF e-book format. Some trade titles are available in Palm Reader and MS Reader formats.
Many reference works have been available in digital format for some years with encyclopedias being the best known example. Gale is in the process of digitizing a large number of its reference works which will be placed in NetLibrary for library use. More reference publishers are doing the same. "Imagine a book that is partly a movie, partly a collection of primary source documents, partly a directory of hyper-links to external web resources, partly a reference companion to itself, and partly a set of tools that anticipate a researcher's needs. [Gail Golderman & Bruce Connolly]. This notion of resource collections has become notably popular in full-text reference publishing. EBSCO's Book Source Non-Fiction is one example.
Harlequin has created a growing list of ebook romance novels in their ebook boutique. At the same time, "Harlequin Minis" are 10,000 word short stories that can be downloaded for 99 cents each. Centaurgirl.com provides access to graphic novels to be read on PDAs, cell phones and the like.
Given the ease with which most computers read text aloud, digital books are also audio books. Audio book publishers issue audio books in the MP3-CD format which allows up to 17 hours of narration on a single disc. Audio files are available as a shipped disk or as a downloadable digital file. IPODs and podcasting have substantially expanded the market for digital audio books. Most MP3 and similar music players have or will soon have screens large enough to allow both listening to and viewing a digital book or article.
The Library of Congress, through its National Library Service for
the Blind and Physically Handicapped, is in the process of replacing
its current stock with digital content and players. All books will be
.wav files placed on flash memory cards. Playback equipment will have
no moving parts.
Electronic Books is a reasonably comprehensive site for finding e-books. Created by a public librarian.
EBookLocator is a much more commercial site.
Electronic Book Web includes news and resources.
Electronic Literature Directory is created by a non-profit organization.
eBooks.com is another commercial site.
futureofthebook.com is a commercial site focused on the preservation and persistence of the changing book.
World eBook Library claims to have the largest selection of PDF ebooks and eDocuments.
So far, portable e-books have been more successful technologically than in the marketplace. The lack of standards and product, plus stringent digital rights management and incompatible formats have hampered widespread interest and sales. The ebook requires a reader with these attributes:
The ebook reader, varying in size from that of a cell phone or PDA to that of a clip board has been a science fiction prop since the 1940s. The "Star Trek" series has show us a variety of prototypes.
Traditional readers have included desktop and laptop computers and tablet computers [not yet really popular]. Multifunction devices include PDAs, smart cell phones, IPODs and MP3 players with windows for text, and portable gaming devices such as Sony's PlayStation Portable and Nintendo's DS Lite. Nokia already has a cell phone with the Mobipocket ebook reader and a download agreement with eBooks.com.To some degree, each of these claims and hopes to be single communication and entertainment center. Vocel, a cell phone applications publisher, has software available to make it easy to download book content for "nominal" monthly fees. Both Random House and Harlequin are participating. One estimate is that at least 17,000 book titles are now available for cell phone download.
Franklin's eBookMan is a good example of an ebook reader that also plays music and may serve as a PDA.
Finally, there are dedicated ebook readers. Ideally, these would be no larger than a mass market or trade paper edition. They would allow text content to be read easily in varying light conditions, on-line or off-line, with easy downloading from the Internet or a host work station. They would handle a variety of open source or proprietary formats. This is crucial. Essential features frequently mentioned include:
Many e-book devices have been essentially repackaged downsized laptops or PDAs with enhanced screens [allowing landscape viewing] and a minimized feature set since reading requires relatively little computing power. Books are downloaded from servers on the Internet. Books are encrypted to prevent duplication. The most likely audiences have been students and professionals who would read chunks of content from reference and textbooks. One economic model would be for the retailer to sell the reader for a minimal price and to make money on book sales.
The audiences most often mentioned for the e-book reader are students (several textbooks on one reader) and travelers (customized, current travel guides as well as leisure reading). Business people are also mentioned, especially in conjunction with newspaper and magazine reading as well as being able to refer to read while on the train or bus.
The 21 ounce RocketBook (about $200) and hand held readers by NuvoMedia received considerable media attention as did a reader by made by Softbook. Both were purchased by Gemstar, a provider of TV program guides. Gemstar hoped to make the e-book a much more visible and viable consumer good and was also interested in supplying content for the readers. Both Bertelsmann and Barnes and Noble had some interest in RocketBook, with the latter providing intellectual content via its website and retail outlets. The RocketBook had a black and white screen and lasted about 20 hours on one charge of batteries. Text could be viewed in portrait or landscape mode. There was a cradle to connect the reader to your Wintel or Mac computer for book downloading. The reader held about ten books at a time. Book text was standard HTML. Both Softbook and RocketBook had limited sales. Other promised e-book readers have been canceled before being marketed. Gemstar had financial difficulties and abandoned its e-book assets. A limited market means that hardware prices are high and that available content is limited. Without a reasonable market, content will be limited. Without content, there will be a limited market.
A variety of ereaders have appeared, received media attention, and then quietly disappeared. At the moment, the ereader in the news is the Sony LIBRIe. Soon to be available in the U.S., the reader costs about $400.00, weighs about nine ounces and is about the size of a mass-market paperback. Using e-ink/e-paper display technology, there is good contrast in sunlight. Screen resolution is 170 dpi, more than twice that of most text on the monitor. Limited memory. Includes QUERTY keyboard, speakers, headphone jack. Stringent DRM scheme and proprietary format. Ebooks will be sold on the Sony Connect online service where music is now sold.
The liquid crystal displays seen in computer monitors and laptops are fairly heavy, and require a backlight to be read. Screens are difficult to read in full light. E-paper and other LCD alternatives are reflective so they can be read in bright light just like paper. Contrast is substantially greater and from different viewing angles. As these new display technologies are incorporated, portable book reading will be easier and better.
E-paper is as thin as regular paper. Within ten years roll-up portable displays should be available.
E-ink uses charged microcapsules to generate text and image. Power is needed only when the page is changed.
Although ebooks and epublishing are still more promise than reality, a variety of movers and shakers are involved. Most have relatively modest goals and efforts after earlier initiatives lost money and failed to develop a reasonable market. Barnes and Noble has been substantially involved, especially with print on demand.
In fact, e-book publishing could dramatically alter the landscape. Authors could connect directly with readers, eliminating publishers and bookstores. Publishers could avoid the book manufacturers. They could also bypass the increasingly powerful chains and sell directly to the customer. Bookstores could publish and sell their own books to a large and diverse audience. Book buying might be replaced by book subscription services where, for example, one could pay a monthly fee and be able to download and read a variety of SF novels. Many readers want the reading experience and not necessarily ownership of the book [consider how many purchased books are read but once]. Services will involve greater commitment to the customer because a continuing relationship is needed. Customers could rent or purchase books or book parts that include only the content they are interested in (individualized creation) from publisher databases. The nightmare would be that the e-book would become, like digital music, a product easily downloaded without payment from some computer somewhere.
Stephen King received about $500,000 on the six installments
of his online serial novel, The Plant. As
a brand name author, he is certainly able to eliminate the publisher
and sell his work directly to his public. I suspect that this is an
atypical example of the success of digital publishing. Some claim that
this was not successful since so many duplicated copies were available
on the Internet.
The Frankfurt eBook Award was discontinued after less than two years because the market had not developed for e-books.
There is no question that digital books have considerable potential, but outside the reference/library realm, they are not likely to have a substantial impact on contemporary book publishing in the next few years.
The segregation of books by format -- audio, digital, hard copy, pdf, html -- is frustrating for some. The Caravan Project suggests that it would be better to have books at one site with potential buyers able to select the format and the whole book or chapters. With POD gaining in visibility, it should also be possible to include a large print format as well.What is it about the traditional ink on paper books that is most likely to make it survive in the future?
List the most important functions found in a typical publishing house. Discuss the degree to which these functions can and should be automated.
Optical disk publishing had considerable promise, but an uncertain performance. Briefly discuss the assets and liabilities of book publishing using this format? Likely role in the future?
Publishing on demand has become increasingly popular now that most books are born digital. Discuss the assets and liabilities of this form of publishing. Give some consideration to whether this means that no book will ever go "out of print."
E-books and e-readers have received considerable attention in the media, but little success in the marketplace. Is this form of digital book likely to take off? Preconditions for success? When would you buy one?
The cell phone is being hyped as the ebook reader of the future. Does this make sense? Would you read a book on a cell phone? If?
