Rachael's Ebook Ramble

Another ebook partnership for ANZ libraries....

2011-09-07T09:59:00.001+10:00

....now that we've gotten over the e-ISBN issue!

Today the company I manage publisher relationships for - James Bennett - announced a partnership with ebrary. James Bennett has worked with EBL for seven years and they are a major supplier to the business. And an important one. This new ebrary partnership does not change that. It adds to the James Bennett offer to Australasian libraries. In future, Baker & Taylor's Blio should also be integrated with James Bennett Online (JBO) so libraries can choose their preferred ebook platform. James Bennett also has publisher's own platforms and other digital offerings in there but there's one problem that we're waiting to see how the broader trade copes with - you know, those selling ebooks to consumers, and that is the e-ISBN issue.

We learnt the hard way about the e-ISBN issue. Nine years ago we started working on eTitle, which was launched in January 2003. We asked our publishing partner at the time to create individual - i.e. unique - ISBN for each title on the eTitle platform. They did it for the first 100 or so books they offered us but then it became one of those issues that just got bigger as we started working with digital reference and other ebook providers. Our legacy system, which is highly customised to meet the needs of ANZ libraries, used the ISBN as the PRIMARY IDENTIFIER for the book. As more and more ebooks started coming our way, the system started to fall down as each ISBN was linked to a vendor. But each e-ISBN could appear in multiple platforms. And don't start me on the publishers that used the print ISBN as the reference in their electronic databases. To them, they didn't want to create an e-ISBN as the electronic resources were managed on separate systems within their company. BTW I'm not talking about a small company here. I'm talking about one that had revenues of nearly $3 BILLION last year. But I digress.

James Bennett has taken several years to work through all the system issues associated with the e-ISBN issue. We know publishers didn't want to create multiple ISBNs for an ebook. Some did it by format (PDF, epub etc) but many just created one e-ISBN because they receive REPORTS from their ebook vendors and partners and it's a revenue stream in a separate way. They can search revenue by one e-ISBN and it makes sense from their point of view - but for us - a NIGHTMARE.

Our IT guys have worked on the best way to incorporate e-ISBNs into our system, particularly JBO and our wonderful JBS profiling & selection system, that then shows the right platform depending on the customer. There's nothing worse than sending a publisher an order for an ebook (because they sent us the e-ISBN on a data file first) and then realising it was actually meant for an ebook vendor (the publisher's data meant the ebook vendor's data failed, the record having already been on file, and linked to a publisher). But now, we've managed to set things up so libraries can see the right e-ISBNs for their platform.

Now all we have to work on is short-term loan pricing, rentals, different pricing policies that publisher's insist on for different market segments (academic vs public libraries for example), special pricing, and normal pricing. But that's something for another time and place. And another layer of complexity of course.... But I ramble (afterall, this is called Rachael's Ramble!).

Today it's about the e-ISBN and beating it at it's game. We've gotten around the bibliographic data issues and the library workflows for customers. We've integrated ebrary into our systems. And we're ready to roll with the next cab off the rank - which hopefully should be Baker & Taylor (our parent company) Axis 360 powered by Blio. Great product. We love it because it's a different experience to our current ebook vendors. At the end of the day, we're just glad we can bring multiple vendors to the Australasian library marketplace and give customers the workflows they need - and expect - from their library vendor of choice.

To read the full media release about ebrary and James Bennett please go to The Bennett Blog.

A short essay about what I know about ebooks

2011-08-15T10:17:00.000+10:00

One of my daily work routines is to review the RSS feeds, Google alerts, industry emails and newsletters for news about ebooks. I've done this for years and can't believe some of the articles about ebooks that are now appearing all over the world. Somedays I laugh because many of them have been covered in this blog over the past couple of years, let alone all the established bloggers and writers around the world who are much better at this than me!

Actually if you look at all the articles I've collected or distributed over the eight years we've been working with ebooks some of the information does not change. The stories are essentially the same. An industry update here and there. A new ebook vendor. Different technology. But often it's the same old commentary. Only the date has changed.

And don't start me on the prediction the book is dead. It's not dead. It's just the consumer has a choice of format these days. And publishers, booksellers, library suppliers are all adapting to the digital world. I'm over the naysayers. Preach somewhere else because I'm not listening.

Anyway, I thought today I'd do a thought dump about what I've learned about ebooks. Feel free to comment and tell me what I've missed or what you think I've got horribly wrong.

Ebooks are convenient and immediate. The click of a button and you have something to read. Great for Award Winners, highly publicised books, events and current affairs. Let's not forget the savvy consumer of today who wants something to read and they want it now! And as we've all realised by now, an ereader is great for holidays, no lugging heavy books. Load up the device before you go away. Depending on how you purchase your books, you can buy more ebooks if you run out. We took the laptop to Venice last year when we lived there for a month and even though we know the bookshops, their English selection is extremely limited (and I've read all the books set in Venice already!). Having access to ebooks was great, convenient and easy. A real no-brainer when you're travelling. The downside? Well for one, this is not iTunes. Every click is committing time to read the book. And two, credit cards can easily get a good workout if you're on a roll. Automatic debit can be a killer! And lastly, just how many of your downloads are you now going to read. Think about that when you're clicking away because we're tracking your purchasing choices whether you like it or not.
Simultaneous release anyone? Timing of releases has improved over the years with more publishers doing simultaneous release. Some still use "windows" and while I can understand this some days, on others it is simply a case of not giving the consumer, the reader, the user what they want. "e" is another format. There will still be hardback (perhaps in greatly reduced numbers), paperback, large print, audio, multimedia, apps etc. "e" is another format and over the years publishers will get to know how their content is being used by consumers and make better commercial decisions based on the market, historical data and access to information
Publication dates are not to be trusted. As more publishers digitise their backlist, they put their products into the marketplace with a new publication date. New in "e" is not the same as a new release. Publishers need to spell out this in the descriptions because consumers are being cheated. My blog post from April 2010 discusses this dilemma.
Pricing is a mess. Publishers you let Amazon determine the $9.99 price point and in many ways it's a killer. But it's also worked in the US market. Look at the downloads at that price versus other formats. What does it tell you about your readers and what they are willing to pay? Publishers play with pricing but do the maths and make the appropriate decisions for your content, for your author and the sales channels. As a reader, I've realised my threshold is less than $20.00 so those Australian publishers that are charging the same price for the "e" as the "p" aren't getting my ebook sale. There are so many arguments for pricing - higher, lower, distribution costs, production costs, royalties, margins - and I can listen to these for my "day job" but as a reader, I make very clear distinction about a) what I like to read in "e" and b) what I'm prepared to pay for it.
What you read it on can be irrelevant. You don't need a specific e-reading device. Got a laptop? Got a mobile? Technologies are converging. Devices perform multiple functions. Loyal to your iPad, great. But if you want to use a specific device and have acquired your Kindle, good for you (the brand name is still the most recognisable to your average consumer). Sony? Kobo? Whatever floats your boat. Cloud technology is here and now. Use whatever works best for you. Just do your research and remember not all ebooks can be transported from one device to another.
Technology can still be problematic: for me, it's using an old e-reader! Battery life has improved since the Sony PRS700 and there are multiple devices available today that have a much longer run. But I will still list forgetting to charge a reader as a downfall. Having your battery die in the middle of a good read because you have no opportunity to recharge it is simply awful. There is nothing worse than a device shutting down on you and you have no replacement reading. Think long-haul flight. That's where it's done most damage to me over the years! And don't start me on the turning off the e-reader for take-off and landing. I'm not a good flyer so I like to distract myself. Reading has always been a way to do it, particularly with landing. More and more articles about ebooks reference this, but it's not new. We are reading using technology and our aircraft crew will always ask us to shut it down. And while there are some Kindle and Apple devotees who use plastic covers on their devices while taking a bath, I'm not with you sorry. I don't want to take my e-reader in the bath. I don't want to accidentally drop it - whether in water or on a hard surface. It just does not work for me in this situation no matter what you say.
Rights: one of the biggest issues with ebooks, the reluctance by publishers to give up territorial rights for their ebooks. I can see ebooks going "world rights" and placed with all the vendors. Why not revenue share with your print distributors in each territory to recognise the work they do promoting the author, the content and more. Distributors and publishing partners have a key role with "e". This should be recognised and not have them shut out. Before you know it, there won't be a Frankfurt rights fair. No one will want to engage if there isn't something in it for them.
Formats and layouts are still problematic: Format extensions are confusing for those readers who don't know any better. Readers want to read an ebook but don't know what they are looking for when they move away from one of the more established ebook vendors they've been using and go direct. The download process can be confusing for them. I had a friend trying to purchase some books from a US publisher's site and had no idea whether or not her iPad could read any of the device formats listed. And as for layouts, well I still have ebooks with "dodgy" layouts. This was covered very well in an Open Letter to publishers on the Teleread site a few months ago. While I've adapted to reading that way over the past few years, it still annoys the hell out of me. I don't want text to drop away or a handful of words justified across the page unreasonably. Some of the hypens are poorly done and some text goes a little funny at times. Don't get me wrong. It's improved over the years. But it still needs work.
Get the metadata right: Publishers can't get their print metadata right so how on earth do we expect them to get the ebook metadata perfect? (Of course they will argue this with me but booksellers and bibliographic agencies around the world will back me up on this one) In a world where we need to search and discover our content, we need to have the correct path laid by publishers so we can find it in a click or two. And as for one e-ISBN across multiple platforms. One word - nightmare. If you want to sell ebooks across vendors and you've used the ISBN as your primary identifier in your database, you need to find another solution. And it will cost you. Booksellers and online sites - get ready. It's not pretty.
Profiling & Selection of ebook releases: I'm signed up a few ebook vendors and they send regular newsletters about what's new in "e". I don't want simply what's new in "e". I want to see my favourite authors, my favourite subjects. I don't want to see a new ebook about Donald Rumsfield or travel guides to places I don't have on my wish list. Ebook vendors need to profile my interests. They can see what I download. Now make some recommendations based on that. Ah, you've got my attention at last.
Ebooks are established in academic libraries. Search and discover content through your academic library. Electronic journals lead the way, ebooks followed. Information is at your fingertips. Patron driven demand is exciting. Scholarly and reference works are best served in a digital world. Updates can be better managed electronically. Access, availability, wonderful for research. It all makes sense.
Etextbooks? I'm not yet convinced. Enhanced ebooks for students, now that excites me. Just check out a Wiley textbook demo on Blio if you need convincing. Questions, answers, rich media content. It's all there for the taking. Publishers need to hop on board. It will be an exciting ride for the students of tomorrow.
Consumer choice is important. As I mentioned above, there are some things I like to read in "e" and there's others I enjoy in "p". I can loan the "p". I can show off the "p". The "p" has cover-art, often beautiful at times. My friends know what I'm reading when I'm reading the "p". I will use bookmarks and I will turn pages. And I will enjoy doing that. I will always be loyal to the "p". In fact, after a few years reading ebooks, it's my preference now. But I also get books cheaper through my workplace - sometimes half the price. If I wasn't paying staff rates for my books, I wonder whether I'd have a different point of view. I'm guessing I would but that would be on price, not on format. I want my historical fiction, autobiographies, biographies and history books in print. I want them on my bookshelf. I want to turn the pages and look at the images. I want to share. But I will try new authors in "e" and occasionally, very occasionally, I will treat myself to both formats.
Consider the booksellers - both online and bricks & mortar. These guys have been with you for years and many of your authors would not be where they are today without booksellers promoting their products, having events in-store, and more. There is so much I could write on this point alone. Pros and cons. Politics and issues. Consumer buyer behaviour. Pricing, supply, industry matters and more. For now, I will simply say consider the bookseller.
Consider the libraries, the librarians, the library suppliers. I could get really rough on this one. As you know, I work for the leading library supplier in the Australasian marketplace. We've heard it all before from our publishers and ebook vendors. Librarians want to play in the digital sphere. They are playing. Many have been doing ebooks for a long time. But publishers don't like having something available free through a library at the best of times. Ask Harper Collins about ebooks, libraries and boycotts due to changes in ebook policies and access. There are ways to work through these issues and it seems single use is the way most publishers are comfortable with. But tell the reader they can't borrow an ebook because it's already on loan. It's digital for crying out loud. There are models that can deal with this. Ask EBL. Just don't shut out this part of the market. They are important, they have one hell of a role with reader recommendations, access and information.
And consider the role of the publisher. As a publisher, you will know what I'm saying. There's a lot of articles about this already. What do you bring to the table in a digital world? Authors and agents can deal directly with ebook vendors. They can choose to sell the books direct. They can set the price. They can do the work. And they can make more margin. It's a reality check for all of us. Publishers need to be looking at their strengths and weaknesses too.

When it comes to the digital world, there are still hurdles to face, difficulties to encounter, issues than may remain unresolvable, but we've got one hell of a publishing industry. Whether you are an ebook reader, an author, a publisher, a library, or a reseller, we need to keep engaging, working together and finding a model that's right for us. Those in the industry have a role to play and there may be some that don't want to be involved in the "e" world. We keep saying they have to in order to survive in the digital age, but is that right? It's what we want to believe...

At the end of the day, people have different experiences of reading, loaning and sharing books. There are Luddites and there are those that are already committed to e-reading. Does one format have to win over the other? Consumer choice is important, pricing and availability is important. And whatever you do, publishers need to get their product information and metadata sorted. In an online world, anything sloppy and incorrect will cost you.

The above points are a combination of the professional and the consumer ebook world. I can extend on some points, some are a political minefield, and I've probably missed others. But it's the Ramble for today. And I'm exhausted!

Opinions, experts, formats, ebooks, books and trying not to yawn

2011-05-06T12:05:00.000+10:00

I know I haven't put up a post for ages. That's because why read me when every man and his dog is now an expert on ebooks?! Opinions about ebooks are everywhere - on the online news sites, industry web sites, e-newsletter services. The twitterworld is full of ebook profiles and there are tweets-a-million about all things digital. Whether it's on social networking or media sites, comments about ebooks are everywhere you look. There is no other news in the publishing world anymore. We've lost sight of so many things and I'm seriously wondering if we've forgotten what to say. What else is happening out there? Take away ebooks and digital strategies, there's a long pause. Occasionally someone reverts back to metadata and bibliographic workflows. Perhaps physical distribution. Outsourcing maybe? But where are news stories about service, responsiveness, account management, promotions, content, the people that make this industry (other than the usual suspects). No, it's all ebooks, ebooks, ebooks.

You listen to a podcast or an interview with an author, and it's almost the headline after the story. "Oh, and it's also available as an ebook." Yippee! Congratulations to you, dear author, and wow dear publisher, I'm so impressed! Did you say it like that in the past - oh, and it's also available in trade paperback | audiobook | hardcover. No, you didn't really focus on the format. It was in the marketing blurb and in bibliographic databases. But ebooks are so hip and happening now. But to me, ebook is another format. It's something to respond to consumer demand - give readers the "p" or the "e" - and encourage them to read. Sales patterns will change over time and your business will refocus accordingly. But let's make sure there's lots and bells and whistles now around it. Let's put out media releases and in sales kits to our customers - also available as "e". Yes people rejoice with me. Just remember the story of the publisher who did that, proudly announced ebooks in their promotion and then struggled with all the library calls - having totally forgotten the library market, library ebook vendors, and library suppliers. Ah yes, what works in the consumer space doesn't always work in the library space. Does it Harper Collins?

Yes, you've read this far and I congratulate you. I'm a jaded woman. After eight years speaking digital and fluent "e" for the library market, I'm totally bored by all the stories and tidbits that I see about ebooks. I almost yawn now. Ebooks are finally in the consumer mindset but at the same time it's become boring for me. All industry articles focus on either "e" or POD. Yes, they've fascinated me for years but I'm over it. I'm over ereading devices. Every second person I know has a Kindle. A freakin' Kindle of all things. Another sale to the giant that is Amazon. Why Kindle? I ask. It's the only name they knew. And it's another gadget - one that they'll use a lot, download a heap of books for the device, but in two years time will they still be reading from it?

Maybe that's the thing. I've encouraged, supported and promoted all things "e" for the library market. Great for reference products and scholarly books. Having digital content in an academic library is a no-brainer. And I've helped with content acquisition for our ebook partners in other channels. Naturally I'm eagerly awaiting the Blio product from Baker & Taylor for the library market - and have been involved with Australian publishers on that too. I think it's just the consumer space that's finally caught up. But it didn't just catch up. It's flooded the market. It's all anyone in the industry wants to speak about. There are publishers left, right and centre trying to be digital gurus and show leadership in the industry. There's digital directors on board with the trade houses now but goodness sake, do these people know the ins and outs of all sales channels in the market. Do they truly understand everything from bibliographic workflows through to selling a book. Yes, there are a couple in the ANZ market that do - and they know who they are. As to the rest of you, seriously....? You've hopped on the ebook bandwagon and you are probably really good sales & marketing people but do you have detailed knowledge about what goes on in all the markets in which you operate. Having worked with you all, I don't think you do. YOU think you do. But not all the pieces of the puzzle fit together. We both know it. So don't try and bluff me.

I think I'll just sit back and watch all those downloads, all those zillion articles, all that restructuring, repositioning for the digital world ahead, the names Amazon, Apple, Overdrive, Kobo and others mentioned to the point of adnauseum, and pop on the lounge with a trusty book to escape the same articles that are churned out every day. Did I mention the format I'm reading these days? After two years of my e-reader at a personal level (as opposed to professional) it's more than likely to = shock, horror = be a physical book. The ereader gets a workout for holidays but the rest of the time it's rather dull, lifeless and boring. Yes folks the great novelty has worn off. (After costing me a small fortune in downloads and still dozens and dozens of unread books on the device) I'm now cuddled up with the old-fashioned thing. Remember it? The book. No "e" in front. Ah, those were the days my friends, those were the days.

The full text of my Bookseller & Publisher article on the e-textbook forum

2011-03-11T12:10:00.001+11:00

Bookseller & Publisher kindly asked me to write an article on the e-textbook forum we held at Darling Harbour prior to ALIA Online Conference. Here's the full text version. More information, pictures and contact details are available on the James Bennett blog.

The e-textbook dilemma

Ebooks and libraries. Throw publishers into the mix and it’s a fascinating relationship, particularly when you are on the library supplier side! The rest of the book industry may not be aware that many academic libraries have moved to “e-preferred” or “e-only” over the years and library suppliers like James Bennett have had to rise to the many challenges of supplying ebooks with regards to acquisitions workflows and profiling & selection services. James Bennett partners with EBL for their ebook platform and has done so for the last seven years. As part of the overall product mix available, we’ve often discussed e-textbooks with academic publishers and their resistance to providing them to libraries. Six or seven years ago the answer to our request for e-texts was a resounding “no way” but in this digital age it’s become a case of saying “I hear you, but…”, “when it happens, not if it happens” and more recently “how are we going to make this work?”. As you can appreciate, there are many issues: from the role everyone plays in the traditional book supply chain to multiple user access models in libraries, print sales cannibalisation, piracy, DRM, and most of all pricing models.

With that in mind, we held our e-textbook forum at Darling Harbour prior to the ALIA Information Online Conference. Around 100 representatives from the publishing and library communities attended.

Our first speaker was Pam Freeland, Manager: Humanities, Creative Arts and Social Sciences at UNSW Library who did an overview of previous e-textbook studies. UNSW has an “e-preferred” policy and they currently have approximately 100,000 ebooks. Some of the drivers for them have been physical – the space required for books. Others include improved access for remote users. The question asked by Pam was “E-book vs. E-textbook: is there a distinction between the two and is that distinction the same for all disciplines? She spoke about the Quloc Study, LaTrobe University Study, JISC (which was referenced multiples times during the two hour meeting), the Horizon Report, and more. (If you haven’t already read it, we would encourage you to review the JISC findings and recommendations at http://www.jiscebooksproject.org) Some of the studies suggested students want access to both print and electronic versions but found DRM confusing. At the user level, there were difficulties accessing the content they need and their overall experience with “e” needed to be improved.

The next speaker was Sue Dowling from Murdoch University Library. Sue’s presentation got everyone thinking, particularly of what academic libraries want – and don’t want - for their ebook collection. Simultaneous print and ebook release was high on the list. In fact, she suggested e first. She spoke about metadata, DOI to chapter level, search and discovery, ebook portability across a range of devices, built-in thesauri and dictionaries, unlimited usage without paying the earth, read-aloud options for those with disabilities, the ability to copy chapters for other libraries, usage stats/COUNTER compliance, perpetual access so the content was preserved, social network links. On the “don’t want” list was of course “plug-ins” and the biggie - DRM. She made the comment that DRM “was an invitation for those who like a challenge but what we really needed was a system that made it inconvenient to pirate but not inconvenient to use”. That was echoed by many around the room. Sue suggested textbooks in “e” is not the overwhelming preference at present so what could make e-textbooks attractive to students? And of course, acquiring these was not solely a library responsibility. The whole institution needs to be involved with all the stakeholders. Who pays for textbooks was a theme throughout the afternoon particularly as some libraries have a strategic alliance with their campus bookshop.

Jinny Jones from the University of Melbourne library then spoke about space constraints and occupational health & safety issues at the Reserve desk. She spoke about contacting EBL to see if 19 economic and commerce titles were available in e-format (for the record, they weren’t). For these 19 titles, some 247 physical copies were being constantly re-shelved. What’s more, they had an incredible 13,000 loans during their lifetime. The physical demands on staff as well as the lack of space were an ongoing concern. It was a plea for someone on the frontline to digitise – there is simply not enough space to keep handling and re-shelving.

After a short break it was the publishers turn to respond and the dialogue started to get really interesting! As I joked with Elizabeth Weiss from Allen & Unwin, no ebook industry discussion is complete without her, and today was no exception. Her first question was "what group of people today are the most highly motivated not to pay for books?" which elicited a few laughs from those present. The answer is, of course, undergraduate students. The second hand textbook market, piracy, stealing, use of a different textbook rather than the set text, were highlighted as some of the strategies students already use to avoid paying for their often expensive texts. Publishers are concerned that students would also go to great lengths to access e-textbooks through their libraries. She spoke about the growing interest in ebooks and the media reporting "ad nauseam" on e-reading devices and the relatively low uptake of e in the Australian retail market so far as opposed to the US. The concern for Allen & Unwin with placing e-textbooks in libraries is the potential loss of sales - a few students not purchasing a textbook here and there all add up for a publisher of their size. In smaller academic disciplines local textbooks might sell 500-700 copies a year. Take away just 5-10 sales at each of a few universities due to the availability of the book in the library, and it hurts the bottom line. There's no way around it unless libraries are prepared to pay enough to cover the lost sales. Furthermore, textbooks are often highly formatted and aren't suitable for delivery in all ebook formats and in a library setting. Research shows resistance from student textbook users to the "e" experience in this case however there are exciting developments with ebook enhancements - multimedia, for example, can enhance the learning experience. Where the library fits into the equation remains to be seen - and of course, what are they prepared to pay to compensate publishers for lost sales?

Maryce Johnstone, Sales Manager for Gale, represented Cengage Learning and spoke about testing e-textbooks in the UK. “A lot of pain, a lot of work, but it was an interesting place to be” The JISC study was invaluable as were developments in the enhanced-ebook market, the “bells and whistles” but much of what was being done was purely experimental. Maryce spoke the business model for higher education in Australia. We need to retain the revenue of print and ensure the sustainability of the local publishing industry otherwise the risk is there will only be US content available.

Lucy Russell, General Manager for Higher Education at Wiley then summarised the local business models for textbooks, particularly the important role of the academic bookseller. Wiley Australia employs some 350 people and 60% of their textbooks are locally published. Development costs for textbooks are high, student motivation to purchase is low, and many resources for the lecturer (and students) to support teaching and learning are given away! People costs are a considerable cost as publishers are required to curate all content, sell it, market it and distribute it. Lucy shared the financials about adoptions in the ANZ market and pricing of textbooks. As she said “we know print will move to digital” but the people costs of developing student and teaching resources remain the same, if not increasing with the requirement for more engaging media. With regards to libraries, publishers were aware of the pressure to provide alternatives to print and they can’t keep their head in the sand - it was time to experiment without risking revenue. The question for everyone was how do you make e-textbooks available in libraries and stay in business?

Needless to say healthy discussion between publishers and librarians resulted! Responses from the forum indicated it was a timely discussion and a good subject to address. All stakeholders know the main areas of concern but also where there are joint interests. What we need to work on now is more “discussion, debate, action” among stakeholders – the academic publishers, library suppliers, ebook vendors, and the libraries themselves.

Where ebooks really work

2011-02-02T18:12:00.000+11:00

When I worked for Pearson, one of our largest group of expenses related to complimentary copies for lecturers at universities and TAFEs. Over the years, "comp" policies were refined and improved in attempt to bring down the cost but they were a necessary evil - you had to give a copy away in order to create the adoption and multiple copy sales. Apart from the marketing and sales reps costs, you had warehousing and distribution to add to the initial print and all associated development costs. So it all added up. It was part of the business model.

Earlier this week the company I work for held a joint forum with EBL on e-textbooks - librarians in one corner, publishers in the other. It was a really good discussion with around 100 participants but I'll keep my notes for that reserved for elsewhere. I only bring it up on my own blog because Wiley spoke about the inspection copy process being an expense but an essential part of the academic publisher's business model. They spoke about using ebooks as comp copies. Regardless of the platform being used, ebook comp copies are quick, efficient, cost effective (ultimately) and more importantly they deliver the content directly to the reader without a strain on the environment. Whether or not ebooks are greener than print I refer to a link from this blog from July 2009 and leave that discussion for those who are more "in the know" about these things than me.

As some of you who live and breathe ebooks will also know, Springer announced more than 10,000 books for review on their website. The online book review copy service is designed for journalists, editors and reviewers, who receive temporary reading access. Ten books are allowed for simultaneous review and access is for 6 months. Books that have not yet been published can be reserved and reviewers are notified by email when they are available. What I like about this is that the reviewers can then upload their published review and once it's date of appearance has been confirmed, they can order a print copy free.

So the ongoing costs of inspection copies for lecturers and review copies for the media is effectively handled by their ebook service. I love this model. It's quick, the content is fully available, and the print copy is still part of the equation. I wonder how much this service cost in terms of development and ongoing maintenance and what the ROI would be. Considering the number of gratis copies that publishers send out, I think this is a brilliant way of working the ebook technology to bring a better result to all involved. The financials would be fascinating to see, wouldn't you agree?

Ebook vendors still have a lot to learn about their customers

2011-01-06T10:34:00.002+11:00

Overseas media has been reporting on the "millions" of iPads, Kindles and other reading devices sold this Christmas. I must admit, it was the first time in years of reading ebooks that family and friends started talking to me about getting an e-reader. At work I'm asked every other day for my opinion on what device someone should buy, but it's such a personal choice. I still use my old Sony ereader but I bought my partner the new Sony Touch and it's being used quite frequently thanks to the take-up of the device while we were on our extended holiday in Venice.

At a certain point, the physical books ran out and it was only a few clicks on a website to download some new and recent releases. The interesting thing, it wasn't an ebook/online vendor that was chosen by my partner - it was the US publisher who sold the content directly from their website. It didn't take long for the words "bookshops are going to die, aren't they" to be uttered as the transaction took place. But here's where I disagree - albeit to a point.

Bookshops and libraries have such an important role to play for book lovers. They recommend, they have the items on their shelves, you can browse and you are not reliant on metadata to make a purchasing decision. There's nothing like picking up the book and flipping through it. As always, the jacket grabs my eye first, the author's name, the title, the picture, and then I read the blurb. I flip through it. I've got an idea of whether or not it's my kind of book.

With ebooks we're reliant on the image and the metadata which can sometimes drive me up the wall. Released this month often means "it's eight years old but like all publishers active in ebooks, we digitised it and released it as a new edition, technically it's available this month so we can say it's new, grab your attention, and you buy it, yeah lucky us, we get the sale and you get an older book. Sorry did we say it was new? Of course we did, it's new in "e"!" Yeah, thanks publishers. As you know from this post in April 2010 - I don't appreciate this. Publishers please put it somewhere in your ebook data the book you are saying is "NEW" is in fact new as an ebook and it was originally published in year x. We don't want dishonesty in our transactions with you and if you want us to engage in reading and support of an author, do the right thing, and put the right information in the metadata.

Speaking of which, I'm now officially jaded with the ebook vendors I choose to buy from. And this is where Amazon could teach them a million lessons. Just because I buy ebooks, doesn't mean your weekly or monthly "new releases" email should be so general it's almost unappealing. Haven't you noticed the sorts of books I read? Build up a profile on me as your customer and start targetting "new" releases better. Apple does it brilliantly. I can't begin to tell you how many songs on iTunes I've downloaded because of their recommendation - whether it's on purchasing information from their other customers or it's on the Genius programming. It's A LOT. And I've enjoyed being introduced to new bands along the way. Of course the difference is it's a 3-4 minute entertainment experience whereas a book can be weeks, but the point needs to be made.

Ebook vendors should be noting that I purchase historical fiction. Let's nut this down a bit more. I read historical fiction set from the Plantagenets through to the Tudors. I read authors who write about Venice between the 15th and 19th centuries. I read most books set in medieval and Renaissance Italy, particularly Tuscany. I read fictionalised accounts of lives of artists, poets and writers. And when the mood takes me, I like to escape to Ancient Greece, Rome or Egypt. So with all the technology you have available, do I want to know about new ebook releases from Jack Higgins and Colm Toibin representing action and mystery? Hello. You've lost me. And no, while there may be romance in the historical fiction I'm reading, that doesn't mean I want every Harlequin release. And no, putting them in a bundle, won't entice me either. I do not want the traditional romance genre. And yes, when you send a "Focus on New Historical Fiction" ebooks, that was fine. But did you need to add all the historical romance books too? Ebook vendors have A LOT TO LEARN about consumer reading behaviour. A new ebook release is just that. But for goodness sake, match it to the reader. It's what booksellers do.

Dialogue with bookseller. So Rachael, how did you like the last Sarah Dunant book? Didn't really work for you? That's a shame. Have you read anything by Marina Fiorato. She's got a new book out "The Botticelli Secret". I'm sure it's right up your alley. In this particular case, I've already got the print book, because yes I do like reading Marina Fiorato and I enjoy having some books in print to share with families and friends who may be interested. Of course, I could have bought the ebook. Afterall, it's Allen & Unwin who has published the title here - a publisher I admire and respect because they lead the way, particularly in "e" - and their website links me to their ebook vendors. If one of the ebook vendors had just thought to alert me to the release of the ebook, I may have considered it. But no, I'm happy to have the print in this case ... BUT as a consumer I would have liked the choice and with so many books published every month, someone needs to help me navigate that. Getting on ebook portals and trying to search for something I'd like to read can be a real drain at times. Their searching abilities are poor. The metadata average. They don't understand the consumer.

The hard part is, there's a MASSIVE wave of consumers now jumping on the ebook bandwagon here in Australia. They have their devices but they haven't really thought about acquiring content for them (the new Sony for example didn't even reference the Sony library because it's only in the UK & US!) Yes, consumers know about getting the public domain classics for free and there will be a zillion downloads for these. For a while they will experiment with ebook portals and click, click, click. But what are they reading and how can their purchases be influenced? Amazon and Apple know how to do it. It's time for the other ebook vendors to lift their game. And for publishers to support them with accurate metadata that educates the consumer, encourages a purchase, and more importantly another one in the future.

The uproar over ebook prices

2010-11-03T12:34:00.001+11:00

Much has been said about ebook pricing, particularly in recent times as Amazon is forced to move to agency pricing. And haven't their customers revolted! Not surprisingly - we've all been getting books at ridiculous prices. Why would we buy hardcovers or paperbacks when they are several times the price of the ebook. Fine, if you are like me and you want the printed work as the PREMIUM product, something to share, something to keep, something to treasure - and not a digital file! But the US 9.99 price point did create demand. Amazing demand. Even at 11.99, 12.99, 14.99 the price points are still good. Where is the balance?

I must say ebook pricing is getting ridiculous. The US Sony Store has Tony Blair's My Journey still available for US 9.99. What is absolutely ridiculous however is local pricing. Local site Readwithoutpaper.com has the book for $35.58 - that's what the local distributor has set the price at. AU $35.58. On the Random House Australia website the Hardback is $59.95. The ebook is also $59.95. Sorry guys, you know I love you but where do you think I ordered the book from? (Yes I know, I usually order from work at staff rates but when it comes to ebooks it's a different kettle of fish).

To make matters even more confusing, ebook vendors aren't familiar with how bibliographic data works. For all of us in the booktrade, we've had to sigh, heave, yell, scream, moan and groan over what the metadata looks like. We've worked through 100s editions and versions of the Harry Potters and Dan Browns of this world. It is confusing. It's awful. And now you're yet another victim of it. On today's Sony newsletter I saw a book entitled Cleopatra. For those of you that know me, I have several grand loves. Tudor History, War of the Roses, lives of famous poets and painters, and Ancient History - particularly Egyptian. The first thing I do is link on the title and what happens when I get into the Sony Reader Store - two different prices for the same bloody ebook. It's an EBOOK people - it's not a hardcover or a paperback. There should be one price UNLESS the book specifically mentions an enhanced edition. And on old Sony readers, an enhanced edition doesn't do anything. It's an electronic reader only.

This is just going to get worse folks. It's bad enough having "e" and "p" prices all over the place, locally and internationally. More mature ebook markets like the US doing crazy things, the UK market having a play, and then us not wanting to cannibilise print in any way. it's going to happen. The consumer will decide how they want to read. We've seen it in the library market for years. Library budgets for print massively cut back so they can purchase more ebooks, online databases and journals. We've HAD to work with ebook vendors to survive. And it does come with a cost. Economically you operate with different margins - or not at all.

When will publishers start looking at price points, look at the readers, look at the business models, and find something that helps SELL the work - regardless of format. Give the reader what they want - at a price suitable for the product offered. Or lose the sale.

In industry alerts today there was an upcry when Amazon started listing the publishers ebook prices in the UK. "Increase in piracy" "people will go elsewhere" "ban the agency publishers". The peasants are revolting folks. But publishers, you've only got yourselves to blame. You got out the content to the market, played with the big boys, let them build up the demand (and where demand had never gone before!) at a price point soo unbelievable it became mainstream, then said sorry and clawed it all back.

Personally I think the price points are way too high locally - but that goes for the printed product too. I've been in this industry a long time and I've seen the picture from all sides. But price it better and sell more. Be prepared to play, be prepared to give up margin, but don't lose the sale. Don't become irrelevant. Adapt or die.

Oh, and try not to piss off the customer. In the digital world, they have more power than you know.

In the year of the ebook, what counts and what doesn't....?

2010-10-09T07:47:00.000+11:00

I'm writing this blog from the Frankfurt Book Fair. If you are keeping up-to-date with the press coverage from Frankfurt, it's the "year of the ebook", it's all about the digital marketplace, ebook here, ebook there, ebook everywhere. Yet for those of us who speak fluent "e" it's quite amusing. We've spoken ebooks for years. But it seems ebook sales in libraries don't count. Ebooks through publisher databases and web portals don't count. Most of my meetings with academic publishers now report on "p" vs "e" sales and the figures are quite interesting, depending on the depth of the "e" range offered to library ebook vendors, how long they've been active players in the ebook market, pricing of the books and simultaneous release. Some STM publishers are sitting above 60% "e" sales, however the majority probably sits around 30% and growing at double - or triple - digit figures. To hear it's the year of the ebook is funny for those of us in library supply. Because we don't count.

On the library front, the major ebook players are well established - EBL, ebrary, Netlibrary, myilibrary. How do they feel when they hear about the year of the ebook? Some of them have played in this ebook domain for over a decade. Their sales are not insignificant. But they don't count. They've worked on content acquisition with academic, professional and scholarly publishers for many years. It must be nice after being in the marketplace for over a decade, in some instances, to hear you are now in the spotlight. But it's not them that are in the spotlight. No, No, No.

You see it's all about the trade. It's about booksellers and how they fit into the equation. Not the giants - like Amazon (with the Kindle) and Barnes & Noble (with the Nook). It's about getting fiction and non-fiction titles to the general consumer through other players. Google Editions will be huge with retailers. Kobo is growing their marketshare here with the Red Group. Blio has launched in the US and will come to ANZ next year. Independent booksellers - large and small - can play in the ebook arena as long as they have a website.

But again, we're forgetting there are other players providing back-end service to booksellers - OverDrive, Ebooks Corporation, Gardners in the UK. The latter advised they have over 100 publishers and 100,000 ebooks in their offer to retailers. They've worked at their strategies for years. Nice to know their time has come! I'm sure they count. Because they supply to the wider book trade.

But let's extend the ramble. There is one really hot topic in all the noise regarding ebooks. And it's also to do with counting. However in this case, it may be counting the loss. TERRITORIAL RIGHTS FOR EBOOKS....

It came up in many of my meetings with publishers with regards to book distribution - not library ebook vendors. If you are distributing the print product, particularly in the academic and scholarly arena, you have seen library supplier sales change. Library suppliers work with ebook vendors who provide services that work with a library management system. Many sales are the "one-sies and two-sies" across an entire range. Overall it makes an impact to your business. But library supply, at say 10% of sales, is small. It's TRADE distribution that's going to hurt.

Publishers being wowed by ebook vendor arrangements for booksellers - particularly Kobo, Blio and Google Editions - are not always thinking about their agent or distributor on the ground in Australasia. They are not thinking about cannibilisation of print. They aren't thinking about inventory, publicity, sales and marketing. All important roles of the agent. They aren't always thinking about communications to their sales agents and distributors about the possible effects. They are going directly to the retailer via the ebook wholesaler - bypassing the normal and traditional book supply chain.

I've discussed it before on this blog, but in the year of the ebook (in the trade, that is, not libraries!), how are we going to carve up the ebook pie. There isn't enough to go around. The role of the sales agent/distributor is going to change. And substantially change. Wholesale terms cannot be applied to both the distributor AND the ebook wholesaler (the Blio's, Kobos etc). The ebook wholesalers have their terms. For a distributor, a revenue or commission stream is all that one can really hope for. How is the publisher going to account for that, what will the percentage look like, and will it be enough to sustain the supply chain we've known and loved all these years (yes, that was sarcasm in case you missed it).

Publishers are trying to hold onto world ebook rights because carving up the digital world is not what many want to do. Distributor roles are changing and substantially. Publishers need to keep in mind they have a sales and marketing partner in the ANZ region who performs a core role with placement of product, raising profiles of authors, publicity, service etc. There are costs associated with these services. Offer the books on the ebook platforms that bypass that arrangement and don't communicate that to your agent. Priceless. Yes, that will make it the year of the ebook for sure. With consumer demand growing for ebooks and print sales constantly under threat, how many distributors will walk away from the print altogether? Publishers need to think about their established business relationships and partnerships in this territory - and find some way to blend it all together in a way that grows the business and recognises the important role a distributor plays. Because look at the fine print of your contracts - to sign up with all these players selling directly to the retailer is no doubt a contractual breach. Publishers overseas need to take a good hard look at the ebook supply chain, work out how they are going to play with the ebook vendor to retailers, what the role of the sales agent/book distributor is in all of that, and how to carve up that pie. There's a new business model out there. What it looks like I don't know. But I do know: we all need to make it work and it has to count for something.

A fascinating ebook recipe: lessons for the industry as a whole

2010-09-22T13:43:00.000+10:00

Every day I trawl the websites and feeds for ebook information and updates. I've been doing this for a couple of years now so it's pretty much part of my daily process. Even though Kindle, iPad, Blio, Kobo weren't the subject (goodness the iPad wasn't even released!), the concept of digitising content, the role of digital aggregators, the possible cannibilisation of print, the future of the book etc etc etc were all there. Much of the message has remained the same however information flow has intensified. It's everywhere! The book is dead. The book is not dead. Ebook this. Ebook that. This ebook vendor is doing this. This publisher is doing that. War. Peace. Mediation. Control. Loss of control. Concern. Interest. Development. Future. You turn your head one way, then you are tossed upside down the next day, and left shaking your head the next. Everything can change so quickly. It can be hard to keep up (yes even me!)

Sales stats are coming through, new players are in the market, sales patterns are changing. Everyone is now at least talking "e". It's no longer just a game they play in libraries. It's something the general reader is part of and that means everyone in the book chain has their role to play. We're all learning, we are educating each other. But what about those with blinkers on?

I laughed myself stupid when I read this post on the FutureBook site today - because as much as I absorb everything "e", there's so much in this post that is true. Gareth Cuddy has nailed it in many ways. For all the progress, the training, the sharing of information, the digitisation that has been going around us, there's still a black hole.

I loved the way he approached the article: "Recipe taken from the Publishing Almanac 2010; Take a handful of wistful nostalgia and mix with a pinch of regret. Work in a fistful of stubbornness - being careful not to look at the actual mixture. Sprinkle uncertainty and doubt on top. Place in financial constraints and pop it in the oven pre-heated to miltonian temperatures. Close your eyes, wait an indefinite amount of time and hope for the best. When ready, the strategy cake should have a firm but uncertain texture accompanied by that new book smell."

Straight away, I could picture the publisher. I work with many of them day in, day out. As I read the article, I had multiple flashbacks to meetings with the "die-hards". Those with blinkers on..

We can't stop this industry from changing. We live in a digital age. Students of today are nothing like the students of yesterday. Reading patterns have changed. The web changed our life and our expectations. Consumer demand drives organisations yet many publishers still ignore their customers. At their peril.

I'm with Gareth: Open up to change and your authors and readers will embrace it. It is the changes you make now both in practice and philosophy that will determine the future of the industry we all love.

Time to act now people. Give the consumer, the reader, the customer what they want. It doesn't have to be all about the ebook but over time we'll see those sales patterns changing and the traditional business model for a publisher - bookseller, library supplier, wholesaler - moving with it. We all have a role to play in the supply chain. We need to be smart about it. And we need to change the recipe. Now.

Pricing ebooks in the Australian market: what's going on?

2010-09-15T13:56:00.000+10:00

As you know, I spend a lot of time talking "e" - trends, devices, digital content, retail, library and wholesale models - but what I'm really having problems with in the local market is PRICING. Professional seminars often encourage publishers to set the ebook price as the same as the cheapest print edition. So if the first edition is the trade paperback at $32.95, the ebook is the same. When the mass market paperback comes out at say $18.95, lo and behold the ebook price comes down too. Some publishers have said they are bucking this trend and all ebooks will be cheaper - at least 10%. I even hear reports that the ebook will dearer. And others that say the $9.99 price point cracked it so that's what they are looking at.

I remember when we first launched Etitle in 2002 and an academic publisher wanted to get involved but they wanted to set premium prices for the texts they placed. Their model was the price of the book plus $40.00. The next publisher was the price of their book plus 10% minus our trading terms. The next publisher came in at different trading terms altogether. Nothing was easy. And that was THEN! It hasn't improved because each publisher has a different philosophy and a different mindset about the ebook market. Educational publishers look at it one way, reference and professional publishers another. If a publisher primarily released works for library consumption, it was easier to manage the transition (she says with hindsight). They had to provide both formats and give the libraries what they wanted or no sale.

Now I have no problem with an academic or reference book being the same price as the print. There is a lot of development work and the content has educational value. They are also higher priced items and they usually have a three year minimum lifespan. I have issues when publishers price their site licenses out of the market and then wonder why sales drop but that's a discussion for another day...

I fully support publishers charging more for enhanced e-books. If the product has more bells and whistles than a standard ebook (and by default the printed book), then the publisher has produced a superior product. Why should they not recover the costs of multimedia elements - videos, quizzes, links to webs etc.? That sounds perfectly reasonable to me both professionally and privately. Publishers will need to get their pricing right between a normal ebook and an enhanced one, although I'm getting ahead of myself. A lot of Australian publishers are still working on a "normal" ebook. I'll do a Ramble on enhanced books in the future..

Back to pricing. If we take higher priced scholarly, reference and academic works out of the equation, we are left with trade titles. As a consumer what has encouraged me to buy more books (as you know from my last post that doesn't always translate into "read more books"!) is the price point. A price point of US$9.99 to $12.99 for a trade title is a trigger point. If the book sounds interesting and it's a genre I like, there's usually not a lot of time between reading the blurb and pressing the "buy now" or "download now" button. This works really well for authors I don't know. It also works for authors who set their work in a place and time I love e.g. Florence in the 16th Century but I may find the author a little dull (Sarah Dunant comes to mind). At that ebook price point (anywhere under A$15.00) I'll still buy their works and read them, but I don't want to keep the book. It's a read now and throw away item (not that you necessarily do that on an e-reader but you take my point) I believe my price point threshold is A$15.00. Price it under that, make it easy to buy, and voila, it's a sale the publisher wouldn't have had before and one they wouldn't have had in print at the $32.99+ price point.

And as for award-winning, highly regarded books - like Markus Zusak's The Book Thief - I will pay up to AUD $20.00 to read the ebook. However this is where the trend changes. In my case the publisher benefited TWICE - they got the "e" first and then the "p". Why? Because I wanted to read the other anytime and not have to worry about battery life or where my e-reader was at that precise moment in time. It's on the shelf. I grab it. I may want to share it. Recommend it. Read it again (it's an extraordinary book). Somewhere down the line additional sales result - they've got the "e", "p" and hopefully sales from friends who realise what an incredible work it is.

We are already confused with setting the "retail" price of the book. Wholesaler discounts are another kettle of fish altogether. I had a discussion only recently with a publisher who couldn't fathom giving anything more than 40% to a wholesaler of ebooks. Last time I checked, said publisher was offering upwards of 47.5% discount to the chains and grappling with massive returns. (Alas my Ramble is not on the broader book trade here in Australia otherwise this would really open another can of worms!).

Your e-book sale is firm sale. Is it not? I haven't yet heard of someone wanting to return an e-book. And yes, our supply chain for ebooks is a long way from being organised and stable. When it comes to selling ebooks to consumers or via a wholesaler like Kobo or Baker & Taylor for their fabulous Blio product *, there are a lot of costs in the supply chain that need to be factored in. Technology is not cheap, security is a major issue. At the Digital Symposium one publisher leaned over to me and said "did you hear what I just heard? No one is making any money out of ebooks. We're all investing though."

Yes, but sell your content at the right price. Encourage purchases don't divert them elsewhere. Get your ebook rights. Get the supply chain happening and work with those people who know what they are doing. You can't afford not to.

Then again, after reading PubDate Critical recently we may all have second thoughts about this digital revolution? Or that publisher at the Digital Symposium was right. We're not making money out of it. Everyone in the trade is going through this. We've seen the shift to "e" in library supply. And how do we make it work? We are incredibly focused on our customer. At the end of the day, without them we don't exist.

Peter said it beautifully: The central tenet is to be aggressively and remorselessly customer-centric. That is hard for any business, for any industry, but it is the only way to break through into the future.

Just remember there are customers at every step of the supply chain. And get your pricing right.

* I should add I work for a B&T company and I love the Blio product :)

The ebook experience: one woman’s perspective

2010-08-23T08:53:00.000+10:00

How should one interpret ebook sales figures? We're always hearing about growth, growth and growth. Devices are here, there and everywhere. No device? No problem! Here's the software for you, freely available. Go forth and prosper. Yes, we’ve known for years that anyone who has Adobe Reader can read an "ebook". There's also Adobe Digital Editions and in a galaxy not too far away there's Blio. Within ebook library portals you've got the reader that works best for that ebook vendor. Yada Yada. Basically there’s an ebook vendor, reader, system in every corner.

But let us take all of the technology out of the equation. And the library model too. You want to read an ebook. Good for you! You've worked out where you are going to source your titles from, how you're going to read them (yes, I’m speaking about devices not eyes for those of you being smarty pants), but did you ever think about how your buying behaviour was being analysed? Hmmm, ebook sales are growing but are we really surprised?

This blog documents my ebook experience from day one. Not the library portal, industry work I do everyday in my job, but personal reading experiences. Ah yes, I fondly remember loading Adobe Digital Editions and working out ways to download the Sony platform (tricky when it is programmed not to recognise Australia). But we worked it out. The Sony e-reader was sent from the US, other e-readers came my way to assess them for both professional and personal use. It seems like a lifetime ago but it’s only 15 months ago.

This whole blog was about me trying to understand the consumer experience of ebooks. Of course it developed over the time to ebooks in general and my professional experience, but let’s take ourselves back to the beginning of the blog when bestseller lists for ebooks spoke only of Stephenie Meyer. All I knew about her was bestseller, teenage fiction. Should be an easy read, I thought. So Twilight it was. Ah, my first ebook purchase. I remember it fondly. I read on a computer within a few days. It was cheap. It was easy. Click. Download. Read. Next book. Same thing. E-reader arrived. Two more books, click, click, tick, tick. Now, all opinions on my reading tastes aside, I was amazed at how easy it was to read the ebooks. I read both on the laptop and on a device.

I read several ebooks in quick succession. I was eager. I wanted more. I was like a newborn vampire. I needed to feed! So I found myself downloading from every possible site. I used publisher sites, library sites, Gutenberg, Sony. If I saw the words free e-book, I signed up. If I saw e-book bundles or $1.00 books, click click, purchase. I couldn’t help myself.

GOODNESS when I think of what I've done, I just shake my head. Did I ever think about how those purchases would track in figures? No, I just wanted lots of books on my device to read whenever I wanted! So I got to the point of having dozens of physical books in the "to read" pile and dozens more of e-books on the list. Over time I’ve deleted books from the platforms and the Sony e-reader itself but thought I’d take a close look at what’s currently in my Sony portal. Ah yes, my purchases. What have I acquired, predominantly at the US$9.99 or slightly higher price? More importantly what have I actually read?

It didn’t take long to tally up the figures. I read 50% of what I purchased. Was I surprised? No, not really. I now realise the books I’m buying in ebook format are those I don’t wish to keep. They are to read and discard. The books I love I still purchase in print. I can read them in anywhere I go. There aren’t restrictions like the weather, water, aircraft nuances. I can share them with friends. Granted they are much heavier, but the authors or genres I know I’ll love, I read in print. The ones I'm a little more uncertain about, I purchase in “e”. The other interesting point, books I love in print, I also acquired in “e”, usually free. The classics like Wuthering Heights or Pride and Prejudice. That way I can take them with me everywhere.

But what have I actually read? Unfortunately only half of it. It was too easy to acquire but unfortunately not to read. Will I continue to purchase ebooks? Darn right I will! I'm just going to be more careful with the "buy now" button and watch those free ebook offers more closely...

The Andrew Wylie Debate

2010-07-29T20:53:00.007+10:00

I've been reading all the news articles about the Andrew Wylie deal with Amazon and thought I'd throw my two cents into the ring. Firstly, for those of you who aren't up to speed, agent Andrew Wylie has bypassed the traditional supply chain (in this case publishers) and signed over digital rights for some 20 books to a two year EXCLUSIVE deal with Amazon. Authors wrapped up in the arrangement include Salman Rushdie, Martin Amis and John Updike. I understand they are backlist titles but would be happy to be corrected on this.

Random House is furious and other publishers have released statements. According to The Guardian, Random declared Wylie a "direct competitor" and ruled out "entering into any new English-language business agreements with the Wylie Agency until this situation is resolved". The Guardian article is pretty good so here's the link.

Am I surprised? As an observer of the publishing industry: Not at all. Ebook royalty rates have been debated left right and centre. The agency model attributed to Apple is also a hot topic. Everyone's looking at the ebook pie and trying to carve it up. In the digital world, publishers don't have the control they used to. The barriers to entry have come down. With "e" and Print on Demand, the landscape has changed, and publishers have been examining their role and what they bring to the table so closely they must be getting eyestrain.

Of course his Wylie arrangement is all about the dollars. By going with the industry leader (Amazon's Kindle) as the ebook device and vendor of choice (not mine I might add) they believe a direct arrangement with Amazon - bypassing the publisher of the printed work (who has assumed ebook rights)- is going to yield a much better return for the authors.

Am I surprised? As a consumer: bloody oath! Why should I be locked out of purchasing the titles concerned because I don't own a friggin' Kindle!?

When publishers speak about ebooks they speak about non-exclusive arrangements and getting the content into all devices, platforms and work into the ebook supply chain. You give the consumer the choice and the power to choose what works for them. That's the handshake arrangement. The honour system. Who is Andrew Wylie to say I can't have access to these ebooks unless I purchase a Kindle? And Amazon is probably grinning from ear to ear, but I'm not impressed at all. Shame Amazon. You think it's a leadership position but you've just lost my vote. You have championed the consumer in the e and p world. And I don't mind if you get them earlier and have some competitive edge, but I'm disgusted you've done the deal.

I guess it's lucky for all I don't like these authors. Then again, the beauty of ebooks is that I pick books I haven't read previously, give the author or the genre a go. A quick, cost effective read that may turn into a life-long love. Who knows? I guess with Rushdie, Upton et al, it's not going to happen now for their backlist titles. I'm not going to buy a Kindle just to read them electronically. And I can't see me looking out for the print now. Your names will trigger a reaction in future. And it's not a nice one.

The Andrew Wylie/Amazon deal is just another example to highlight everything we thought about the publishing and bookselling supply chain is wrong. This digital world is not straightforward. It's turning everything on it's head. How it will all end up? Who knows. Am I surprised? No. We've seen it coming. Normally I'd say pick yourself up and dust yourself off, get back on that horse. But in this digital, greedy world. I'm not sure what direction we are heading.

A learning curve for many publishers

2010-07-13T19:42:00.003+10:00

How times have changed. I've been having ebook discussions with publishers now for well over seven years. Granted, they are discussions based around the library platform and working with our library customers. Not always a publisher’s favourite type of customer particularly with their requirements. There’s always access issues, pricing models, and various sticking points in any ebook agreement with libraries. What a library wants and what a publisher is willing to offer nearly always varies - and varies dramatically in some instances. As a leading trade publisher said to me, I'm currently selling 30 copies of this book to this library consortium. You think I'm prepared to sell one for the same price but have 30 people access it all at the same time? I don't think so.

But taking libraries out of the equation, ebook discussions with publishers are now very very different to seven years ago. They are listening more. They are engaging more. However if you listen really closely, the verbs they use often sound the same. You get used to listening for the "doing words". When discussing ebooks – whether for direct to consumer, retail or library models – I am still hearing the words like "daunting", "challenging" and phrases like "experimenting with ebooks" or "experimenting with a variety of business models". There’s nothing definite about ebooks. Everyone is looking at this in a slightly different way. The one thing they have in common – is that they are now looking at them. And taking them seriously.

In many ways, Amazon paved the way. Took over the US ebook market and then released The Kindle to the rest of world. There was a surge of interest when the Kindle came to Australia. But I’m putting it down to Apple and the consumer response to the iPad that pushed publishers further. After years and years, ebooks were at the top of their “to do” list. Finally! Everyone’s thinking of them, everyone’s talking about them. The world has gone “e” mad. We’ve got Kindles, Apples, Sonys, Kobo, Blio, Google Books. And no doubt more on the horizon.

We finally have Digital Directors on board with many trade and academic publishers locally. If not, there’s an ebook project manager. When you talk about ebook production, you have people on board who know what you are talking about. If you start talking about DADs, publishers here are aware of their options. There’s only a few names that crop up but I can’t begin to tell you how relieved I am that when you mention DADs to a publisher, they now know what the hell you are talking about (Digital Asset Distributor).

The publishing environment is learning. We're moving on – still slowly when you’ve been talking “e” as long as I have. But it’s moving, and I’m grateful. And while content has been predominantly backlist, many publishers are working on simultaneous release. Ebooks are becoming part of the production process. Publishers have concentrated on digitising their core content. It's been a learning curve for many publishers. File format has been a subject of interest and everyone is learning as they go along. Publishers are thinking about hardcover, trade paperback, paper and e. They are getting content management systems in place, contract negotiations are moving along, ebook vendors are part of the supply chain, and publishers are looking at the digital world in a different light.

But there are still concerns. Imported titles are top of the list. Where do they stand in the “e” world and how are local publishers being compensated for sales generated in the ANZ market. There are more discussions to be had and much to learn along the way.

Exactly how is this supposed to work?

2010-06-30T11:31:00.009+10:00

In an ever-increasing e-world, what is the role of publisher, distributor, sales agent - when everyone wants a piece of the sale. When you talk to publishers, the industry advice is don't buy the print book without guaranteeing the ebook rights. But Australia's supply chain for ebooks still has a long way to go. We've of course got the ebook vendors - EBL, Ebrary etc - with established distribution models for libraries. And in the case of EBL, Ebooks Corporation provides a wide range of services to publishers as well as fulfilment to individuals wishing to purchase titles. You've got readwithoutpaper.com which is powered by OverDrive, Kobo is making inroads with their exclusive deal to The Red Group, and we've got Blio coming in the months ahead from Baker & Taylor.

At the end of the day, however, the publisher still has to work with multiple vendors to get the digital content out there. So what happens with existing distribution agreements? Traditionally they wouldn't have included any ebook component. It's a physical book, going in and out of a warehouse. Widgets in. Widgets out. But if a press uses a distributor here for their traditional book, and then by-passes them by providing content to the Kobo's, the Blio's, the OverDrive's of this world, what role does the distributor have? Are contracts being updated to get a piece of the ebook pie. Afterall, in many circumstances the distributor or sales agent has done the pre-publication work, the reps have sold into the bricks and mortar stores, there's been marketing, advertising, promotions, publicity. All for the physical book. At the distributor's cost. So if the sale comes through readwithoutpaper, how is the commission or sales percentage being paid to the distributor?

It's a very different scenario if you are a first tier publisher, a local subsidiary, to being a second and third tier distributor. In the case of the latter, your contact in the traditional book supply chain is with the Sales Director, the Operations staff, Service people, marketing people, editorial. Authors. Everyone who's job it is to get the information to you and then the printed book in a timely manner.

But when the publisher or originating source has a Digital Director who's job is to put content in and out of platforms, they don't always have the full picture. They are tasked with the job of ensuring the content goes to as many sources as the company designates are appropriate. I'm assuming they are focusing on just the big guys and it's still a relatively small group. But what's going to happen when it explodes? Will there always be a dozen or so players in the market that has the ebook supply chain sewn up or will every man and his dog get into the act.

At least with book distribution, the supply chain is not very complicated. When you start putting more and more into the ebook mix, the distributor (who has the exclusive rights to all materials published) is not always at the front of their mind. Remember I'm thinking about the second and third tiers here.

What is the model that is working for people? Do the traditional book distributors eventually become just a sales & marketing office for the publishers they represent? Surely when you are speaking "e" that's not going to keep people in business. Everyone wants a cut, and it's the ebook vendors that get the larger slice. If local operators were solely working off a percentage of a percentage, surely that's not a sustainable model. I guess we don't know what percentage will go from p to e - and how soon that will be. And I'm talking the general reader here, not the student. The student expects "e". The library is "e-preferred". And what will happen when the patron driven model in libraries really takes off? What effect will that have on publishers and ebook sales? I'm all for getting collections right and managing budgets, but publishers will want more.

But back to the ebook mix. The existing print distributors want a slice. Ebook Vendors want a bigger slice. Publishers want their mix. And let's not forget the author who created the work. Exactly how profitable do we expect this supply chain to be? A new business model is emerging.

I welcome comments here on the blog as to how this is all working in reality.

Where are all these e-readers?

2010-06-22T08:37:00.007+10:00

OK I'm signed up to dozens and dozens of online newsletters, websites, and read more magazines and industry announcements than I can keep track off. If you believe everything you read, the future is e, the printed book is dead. If it's not dead, it's for special purposes, a gift, a keepsake, a premium product. Don't get me wrong, I quite like the idea of the book being a premium product. I also like that train of thought that says "want a printed book? go to the library!" of course with libraries also offering ebooks, it gives the reader the choice of format. Some publishers have already spoken to me about e being another format not a competing product i.e. you have the hardcover, the paperback, the e. It's so readers can have whatever they want to read in the format they want it in. Now I've subscribed to that theory for years - give the reader what they want. But where are all these e-readers?

Apparently there's zillions in the world now. OK I exaggerate but here I am in New York and for days I've been scouting around for people reading on devices. I've seen the printed book but no Nook (except advertised outside a Barnes & Noble store), no iPad (except in the Apple and tech stores), no Kindle (except for advertising on a subway and even that was for "e-reading accessories"). I've been in airports, on planes, on the subway and in this city of how many million people, not one person has been reading on an e-device. I strolled around parks, university areas (NYU), in and out of cafes, restaurants. Not one e-reading device have I seen. Am I blind? This is starting to get disturbing unless everyone just reads from them at home. Have seen plenty of books but nothing electronic yet.

I have another week in the US and that will include the American Library Association's conference and exhibition in Washington DC. Hopefully I will see a few e-readers around. I thought by now I'd have least seen the iPads around town. But zilch, nothing, na-da.

I'm on the hunt for those e-readers people. At least those that take them out in public. Will keep you in the loop as to what I uncover.

Signing off from the city that has a population of some 19,541,453 (thanks Google) but no e-reader yet seen.

Is there any other news today?

2010-05-28T16:11:00.017+10:00

It's been several weeks since I put up something new on this blog. Back then I was rambling about new ebooks not really being new, but new in e. Today there is no ramble. In fact, there's really no other news today. Other than the one story. Yes folks, it's all about Apple. The iPad finally went on sale here in Australia. At one point today the top 5 stories on the SMH website were all iPad related. Facebook friends are putting news of their iPad purchase in their status for all to see and comment. Industry colleagues have rung today to see if I had one and what did I think. And one of our sales representatives popped into my office and asked "big day today, where is it?". Lo and behold I will disappoint you all. I haven't got one. Mind you, I haven't got one on order either. I'm still reading on the plain old Sony e-reader. How dull it looks now in comparison. Look what else is out there. Colour, magic, Apple. It's a new world. So what's wrong with me? Does this mean I'm an alien? Afterall I'm still reading p-books. Yes, you remember. Books. Printed books. After a year of reading ebooks I've decided I actually prefer to read the physical book. Yes it's heavier, but the batteries don't die out, I can read it in direct sunlight, I can read it for the full time on a domestic flight, and of course I can read it in the bath without fear I'm going to drop it and waste hundreds (if not thousands!) of electronic purchases stored on the device. (OK, they are backed up, but let's not go there today). But then I haven't got an iPad. Would my world change dramatically if I had one? Or would it eventually be treated as yet another device. Another gadget. I don't know. But I do know one thing. Congratulations are in order to Apple for making the iPad a subject on most people's tongues. Regardless of age, just about everyone knows about the brand and their new product. Congrats to Apple for creating such extraordinary demand for their devices. The publicity, the promotion, the marketing, the commentary. Apple didn't really have to put a lot of materials out there. And I had to laugh when my email came through today that had the simple heading of "iPad is here". They really didn't need to do much more than that. So today was iPad day here in Australia. I expect it to dominate conversations for the foreseeable future. And I will think about my alien status and the changed world of today...

A new e-book isn’t always new

2010-04-16T12:52:00.003+10:00

As a library supplier, we have faced this issue since we started selling ebooks years ago. Libraries wanted to know about all new ebooks. But many publishers are digitising the backlist first then releasing as “new” in e-format. It has tricked many of us particularly when the pub date is a current one but the original book was published in 1989. There are a small percentage of publishers that publish e and p simultaneously. They know their market and the preference for libraries to purchase in the format of their choosing. But when we work off publication dates and publisher metadata, when it comes to e - what exactly is a new title?

It’s something that I’ve discussed professionally (a “new release” in ebook format is separate to new in e) but privately I experienced it for the first time recently. I usually scan ebook sites for “new” titles. On the Sony site I sort by date and then pick something that will suit my ebook reading nature. By that I mean, something I can read, hopefully enjoy, satisfied I will only want a digital file (not a “keeper” or an author that I would like to collect their physical works on our wonderful floor to ceiling book case at home) and something that I’m unlikely to want to share with friends – afterall you can’t lend the ebook to someone!

Separate to the explanations to customers over the years as a consumer I must say I felt absolutely ripped off when the new book I purchased on the Sony ebook portal A Favorite of the Queen: The Story of Lord Robert Dudley and Elizabeth I published on 1st March 2010 was most definitely NOT published this year in it’s physical form. The book was originally published under the title Gay Lord Robert (not surprising they changed that title as the word “gay” took on a different meaning over the years!) and the imprint page on the ebook clearly showed the book was published in 1971. That explains the poor editing and uninspiring writing!

Where did it say in any of the metadata, “originally published in X”, “reissued in ebook format”, “introducing this work to today’s e-reading generation”. Something that gave me an indication the book was old. And not one or two years old, but 40 friggin years. Forgive me for never having read Jean Plaidy before but surely publishers and ebook vendors need to take some responsibility here. Perhaps there should be two dates available to ereaders – originally published in and released in ebook format in …

I can’t begin to tell you how disappointed I am. Reissues are not new releases, new in e is not a new title. At least when trade houses release ebooks three months later (for those that believe that is a suitable time frame – I’m most definitely not one of them) the book is still in our minds. It is still the same year. None of this 40 year time span.

Of course my preference would be simultaneous. If I want to collect, share and treasure I will buy the print over e. But for other books I want to read the ebook.

Publishers, ebook vendors, everyone who is interested in the digital world, please note as as a consumer I'M NOT HAPPY – publisher metadata and the blurb itself should have given something away. A trigger point as such. For the record this is what is listed:

Torn between her heart's passion and duty to her kingdom, a young queen makes a dark choice...

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester was the most powerful man in England during the reign of Elizabeth I. Handsome and clever, he drew the interest of many women--but it was Elizabeth herself that loved him best of all. Their relationship could have culminated in marriage but for the existence of Amy Robsart, Robert's tragic young wife, who stood between them and refused to be swept away to satisfy a monarch's desire for a man that was not rightfully her own. But when Amy suddenly dies, under circumstances that many deem to be mysterious at best, the Queen and her lover are placed under a dark cloud of suspicion, and Elizabeth is forced to make a choice that will define her legacy.

The metadata shows:

• Published by: Three Rivers Press
• Publish Date: March 01, 2010
• Print ISBN: 0307346234
• Filesize: 2.60 MB

And the author info (on a separate tab)

JEAN PLAIDY is the pen name of the prolific English author Eleanor Hibbert, also known as Victoria Holt. More than 14 million copies of her books have been sold worldwide. Visit www.CrownHistorical.com to learn about the other Jean Plaidy titles available from Three Rivers Press.

When it comes to Tudor history I’m loyal to Alison Weir, Alison Plowden, Antonia Fraser, Margaret George, Philippa Gregory and if pressed I might just throw David Starkey into the mix. I shouldn't have tried something new. Sorry old. New only in a format. Anyway, I clicked away because I thought it was new, the publisher got the sale. But live and learn folks, live and learn....

The ebook reading experience, Apple, Kindle et al

2010-04-14T12:31:00.012+10:00

I must say I'm enjoying reading all the reviews of the iPad since its U.S. debut on April 3rd. One of the reviews I liked the most was from the LA Times where they spoke about differences between the Kindle (being the market leader) and the Apple ipad (the choice of the next generation) in terms of the book reading experience.

While it might not be on the top of the lists for some people, personally I was really glad to hear about the traditional page designation, that you could view two pages across the screen (if it was your preference), and that Apple has a grasp on what it's like to turn a page. The process of selecting a book, reading it and turning to the next page is part of the established reading experience. At least those of us of a certain age! As those of you who have followed this blog since the early days - particularly my friends and industry colleagues on Facebook (where I have it linked) - you may remember I wasn't a fan of the delay between pages on e-readers, the screen going black or the words fading out and then replaced by new ones. You were conscious you were reading something electronic, something that was processing data, something different…

E-readers also display the number of pages left – which of course vary depending on what font size you were reading with in the first place! The Sony PRS 700 displays the data as your current page number of the total page count. Amazon's Kindle does a percentage bar. To the reviewer in the LA Times, this was “data” but I don’t necessarily agree. You want to know how you are going whether it’s number of pages or percentage read.

Yes it can sometimes be discouraging when reading books like “Pillars of the Earth” – some 1,000 pages in its printed form and much more in its electronic! Luckily I was caught up in Ken Follett’s story otherwise I would have groaned at the thought of another 1,000 pages to go. However I must admit there has been the odd book where I’ve noted what page I’m up to, the number of pages in the ebook, and thought “how am I going to make it!?”. Then again that’s no different to the physical book. But I’m more prone to flip the pages of the printed book and glance across the text to see if I want to continue with it. I’m not particularly good at doing that on the e-reader because I have such concerns about losing my page. I’ve done it countless times. While it remembers where you end off each time – starting up exactly on that page when you switch the device back on - when you start going backwards and forwards through the text it starts to get really annoying if you didn't note where you started. I’ve had to search for text to find my original location - otherwise it could be hundreds of page turns to get back to where I was.

Anyway, I’m rambling.Back to the subject at hand.

Another item that is consistently mentioned with e-readers is the glare. Apparently one of the strengths of the Kindle is its non reflective screen. I don't have a Kindle (never liked the look of it myself) and I don't like the "clunkiness" of some e-readers like the ECO/Hanlin. The touch screen of my Sony is fine (was relatively unique at the time of purchase) but the glare from lights is dreadful.

In comparison to the multi-functional iPad, regardless of glare, touch-screen, weight etc all e-readers on the market have now paled in comparison. They are the beta model. They look boring, dull, and grey. I looked at the e-reader yesterday and the shine had gone. It looked like something that was going to end up in the rubbish heap.

Interesting to read Mike Shatzkin's comments on the iPad, particularly the weight of the device and the whole process of search & discoverability within the various ebook portals. iBook has a long way to go with content and with their data management. Finding what you want to read is half the battle and I can perfectly understand where Laura Dawson comes from every time she mentions metadata. Ebook vendors neeed to understand the reading experience and what a reader is looking for. Help us find what we like! I beg you. In the meantime, Mike doesn't believe the iPad won't put all other e-readers out of business. He believes it will help grow the market but "the makers of lighter and cheaper e-ink devices don’t have to leave the field just yet." Will be interesting to see how it all pans out for those readers of ebooks, their chosen device and the reading experience they prefer.

The impact of the agency model

2010-04-01T08:52:00.006+11:00

Much has been said about Apple's agency model and the impact on ebook pricing. Look at what happened with the Macmillan/Amazon clash a few weeks ago. Macmillan wanted to change it's trading terms with it's largest customer and move towards the so called "agency model" for ebooks. The feud between supplier and customer received an amazing amount of publicity in general, trade and business media. I read much for and against each party in the altercation. Both sides had their supporters. There were Amazon loyalists (and by God they are a loyal bunch!) And there was the publishing and bookselling community who was glad to see someone taking back some of the power they shouldn't have given away to their largest customer in the first place. Granted, ebooks wouldn't be where they are today without Amazon firing up the Kindle. And I shouldn't really think of them as a customer. They play so many roles that my head spins with what Amazon controls - afterall, they are the supply chain leader, printer, publisher, ebook influencer, visionary. I could ramble on but today's blog is actually sharing the letter that Sony e-reader customers received today:

Dear Reader Store Customer,

The publishing industry is turning a page and so are we.

Beginning April 1st some major publishers will be instituting a change in the pricing of eBooks, which puts decisions on eBook pricing firmly in their hands. As a result, prices of bestsellers and new releases from these publishers will be changing on the Reader Store, and during the transition time, some titles may be unavailable. Although most of these eBooks will be priced from about $12.99 to 14.99, there will not be a broad pricing change across the Reader Store. In fact, new releases and bestsellers from other publishers will still be priced at $9.99.

Starting a new chapter can be a good thing. With this change, you may see more of your favorite books available in eBook format at the same time they’re released in print. Book lovers like you are driving a revolution in digital reading and the Reader Store is committed to providing you access to the widest selection of digital reading content. Since its inception in September 2006, Sony’s Reader Store has introduced a wide offering of new releases, bestselling eBook titles and newspapers. Today it features access to more than one million titles and links to borrow eBooks from local libraries nationwide.

Must say, loved the reference to "turning a page"!!!

Will be interesting to see if there is a backlash. I don't think there will be one although the $9.99 price point has been a brilliant introduction to ebooks. Now we're reading them, I doubt a few more dollars will make any difference whatsoever. Your thoughts?

Where do you think Apple will go with the iPad?

2010-03-17T12:10:00.008+11:00

Is it just me or is most of what is being discussed in the digital media world with regards to ebooks purely centred around the iPad? Is there any other device in recent times that has attracted such attention, focus, debate or interest?

Today I read on ChangeWave all the stats from a survey of over 3,000 consumers that shows a huge wave of demand for the iPad. I'm sure we didn't need a survey to know that - I've mentioned the quote from last year's Frankfurt Book Fair's Supply Chain Meeting again and again on this blog ("it will be Apple, it will be cool, and everyone will want one").

It's not surprising to read Amazon, Sony, Barnes & Noble will all take a hit when Apple launches. That's because they went for a device that was predominantly an e-reader with wi-fi (or without for some of the Sony's on the market). The bells and whistles options haven't been great - music for some, notes for others, nothing that really stands out. Which is what Apple has done. They've created something more. Apple has the convergence of technology we've been waiting for. Of course there will be many lookielikies in the coming months. Everyone will want a piece of the ebook pie.

According to the survey, the belief is the iPad will capture an astonishing 40% of the e-reader market in the first 90 days after its launch. The survey further showed demand will continue to strengthen (it will be cool remember!) and once iBook is launched it will further enhance the offering, however from what I can gather Apple will be using the publishers epub files. That means if you receive epub files from your ebook vendor (or directly from the publisher) you don't need to buy from the iBook store. So in my mind iBook has to offer something more. The full multimedia offering.

The other concern relates to cost - if you can buy your $9.99 epub ebooks from Sony (who matched Amazon's pricing strategy for their lead titles), why would you buy from iBook at a higher price? The Apple agency model has been commented on by industry leaders and insiders for some time. With a 30% cut (assuming the information is correct), Apple might not be able to compete on price unless of course they go the loss-leader route like everyone else.

I'm not privy to digital rights or pricing information but I imagine the last thing Apple will want is readers buying books from other ebook vendors and reading them on the iPad. It defeats the purpose of the iBook.

Then again, I buy all of my digital music from iTunes because it's there and it's at the right price point - I don't need the whole album, I choose the songs I want, and I try out ones I don't really know but has been recommended to me based on a purchase or the Genius app. I listen to music all the time and wish the iPod I got for my birthday a few years back had a lot more memory (it only holds 1600 songs and I have thousands more that aren't coming across to the device). Music and reading are very different pursuits and take up different amounts of time. I go via iTunes because it's what I've done from the start. I didn't know any better and I've been a loyal customer from the beginning. Of course everyone wondered why I was buying music solely from iTunes ("buying" is the verb I'd like to emphasise here. One colleague wondered if I was the only person they knew that actually paid for music but that's a different discussion altogether!). So I linked into iTunes, I love the iPod, and I continue to search the site for new experiences. But with an iPad I already know the ebook vendors, I've purchased from several of them, I know their offering. Would I be loyal to iBook from the beginning if they don't match on price? We have the US$9.99 mentality. It will be interesting to see where Apple goes with their pricing and their digital rights strategies.

And of course Australian publishers won't want to go down that path at all. Their pricing policies have strongly centred around the cheapest print edition. But the consumer expectations for ebooks does centre around price. What will Apple do in this marketplace to meet consumer expectations set by their competitors? And how will publishers respond?

On another matter altogether, I loved reading today on Teleread about Apple iPad accessories and a wishlist. Apparently Jeff Bezos of Amazon reads his Kindle in the bath by sealing the device inside a special Ziplock bag. I've mentioned previously that I love reading in the bath but I'm not going to read an electronic device near water (I have enough problems getting the printed version wet!). If there was an accessory that I knew was safe and secure, would I try it? Will be interesting to see whether Apple comes up with something that can be used around water or food. Some sort of protective device sounds great. Then again, would I still use it in the bath? Hmmm, that's a question that I don't know the answer for.

Struggling with ebook reading

2010-03-15T10:02:00.007+11:00

Battery life on the Sony PRS-700 – particularly when the back light is used – has been flagged as being problematic on this blog before. Together with not being able to read in the bath or reading long enough on domestic flights, it’s one of the Top 3 reasons why NOT to read an ebook. It really is one of the downsides of this whole e-reading experience.

When I think about the downsides there’s more: not being able to promote the book you are reading to strangers (I’m always fascinated with what people are reading and always check out the covers!), you can’t loan an ebook to someone the way you can a physical book (unless you loan the device with it!), and the gift book market really doesn’t offer anything to an e-book reader (here’s a beautiful photographic book on Paris that I’d love to give you to show off on your coffee table, oops, sorry, it’s in electronic form only! Still want it?). You can’t handle the content the same way and it can be pretty bland in black and white. Of course that’s going to change with the plethora of e-reading devices and tablets hitting the market, particularly the iPad, but for now your main e-readers are not offering colour and so you usually use the device to read fiction and suitable non-fiction (like biographies etc).

Of course there is another downside that ebook readers will ‘get’ straight away! I’ve mentioned it before but it’s really problematic purchasing books online – not the process, it’s the ease of which we push the “buy now” button! It’s like being let loose in a candy shop. We are conditioned these days to search and discover what we’d like to buy using the web. A little typing and a few clicks here and there. Shopping experiences vary. The content that we are offered to assist with our purchasing decision varies greatly. We can find what we want from an online vendor - if we don't it’s a couple of clicks of the mouse elsewhere. You are at a competitor in an instant.

We aren’t carrying anything heavy. We don’t have a shopping bag filled with physical books. The file is electronic. It doesn't weigh anything. It’s easy. And we click that button again and again when we find books we want to read. And then when we find them. God help us. Particularly if the magic US$9.99 price is offered. It’s only $11 Australian dollars to read this and that. Better buy now. Good price. Cheaper than physical book. Click click click and the device starts to fill.

When you work for a library supplier you pretty much see most books come through the front door. Trolleys in our Operations area are laden with books – trade books, academic, reference, commercial products and non-commercial (independent publishers, organisations and self-published authors). They move in and out of our building, day in and day out. Masses of books. You see the physical item and you think oh Wolf Hall, that’s one hell of a tome. Will take me a month to read. If you are like me, you purchase it anyway. (Yet again, that involves going into our site and clicking on the order now button – simple, effective, and what’s more the purchase comes straight out of the pay-packet….DEADLY!).

You start to collect unread books. Last count there were 30 books sitting on shelves on my floor to ceiling bookshelf at home (which is magnificent to look at by the way!). However on the e-reader (not so good to look at!) there’s something like 46 books waiting for me to read them. They aren’t in colour. They are just files.

Granted a good number of those were freely available classics from Gutenberg, but they are ones I want to read….one day. I’m starting to collect more and more books and as I’ve mentioned before it’s not like being on iTunes and downloading a song. A song is a few minutes of enjoyment. A book can be days, weeks, months. I’m beginning to struggle with time management and balancing my reading list with the time I actually have to read.

And still I can’t stop myself. My e-book newsletters and new product alerts continue to come through on a regular basis. New books in e-book format, old books now available electronically. A few clicks and that book can be on my device.

I’ve sent a help message through to Mastercard previously via this blog. But as more and more publishers get their digital strategies moving, it will only get worse.

Somebody…..help….me…..soon. I'm....DROWNING!!!!!!!

Is there anything sadder when you want to read?

2010-03-11T08:42:00.005+11:00

One of the problems I'm continually facing with ebook reading activities concerns battery life. When you want to read, there's nothing worse than having a Low Battery! message come up on your device. It's actually quite a design flaw on the Sony PRS-700, particularly if you need to use the backlight. The screen has poor reflection due to the touch screen and lighting element so there are times you need to turn on the lighting to read the content without strain. As soon as you do, the battery reduces quickly. Too quickly! Unlike laptops that indicate how much time you have left, or cars that tell you how many kilometres (or miles for those reading elsewhere!) you have left before you need to refill, the Sony e-reader just shows a battery bar. When the battery bar goes to the last quarter there is no warning, no time message, that instructs you to recharge. You have no idea how much time you have left. You can guess, particularly if you aren't using the light, but when you use the light your number is pretty much up. Sorry folks, I appreciate you can't read particularly well with this lighting, here's a light that helps but did I mention it will prevent you from reading? No? Sorry.

As you know from prior posts, reading on planes isn't as fun with an electronic device, particularly as you have to turn it off for take off and landing. These are the times I WANT to read but I can't. I have to be content with reading the airline's magazine - which usually takes me all of 5 minutes! We're still on the runway and I'm craving something to read. Having the Low Battery message is a KILLER! Yesterday I had 90 minutes at the airport to fill before my flight. I thought I'd have a drink, something to eat, and then get back into the book I started to read on my flight up. There I was in the lounge, and the message appeared. I have no charger, I'm not even on the plane, and I'm prevented from reading!

The device was fully charged when I left Sydney on Monday morning. The total flight time was 90 minutes but of course you have to deduct about 40 minutes that you can't use the e-reader. I read on the flight - when we'd reached cruising altitude and were allowed to switch on electronic devices - and that was it. I should have had PLENTY of charge to get through the book, and perhaps another one. But no, I had to use the light prior to the return flight, and my reading plans were destroyed.

No matter what the marketing says - yes you'll get through 5000 page turns before you need to recharge, yes you'll have at least 24 hours without having to charge, yes yes yes - the reality is very different and disappointing when you use the backlight on the Sony PRS-700.

Trying to get a piece of the ebook pie

2010-03-05T17:49:00.007+11:00

OK. I've worked in this publishing industry for some 20 years now and the past seven years in library supply, I've worked with thousands if not tens of thousands of publishers and suppliers. We have to have a business relationship with every possible vendor as our library customers expect it. We are here to service our customer's needs and meet all their collection development requirements. From new title alerts to promotional material to books on profile to shelf ready services, we have to provide the full mix. The full kit and caboodle as you can imagine.

As the country's leading supplier to academic and public libraries, we are used to working with publishers and suppliers of all different philosophies, business models, customer service principles, business etiquette, professionalism, organisational efficiency. You name it, we know the ins and outs of our purchasing partners. We know what makes them tick. What they do well, what they don't.

Then along comes ebook vendors. A different model. We've worked out the library workflows and watch the dollars transfer from print to e (as you would know if you saw my presentation at the Digital Symposium recently - see last post for full text of my talk). But library ebooks are one channel. Ebook vendors targeting the direct user - either with (or without) a bookselling partner - seem to be coming out the woodwork. Every day there's a new one "getting into" ebooks. Is it my imagination because are they all starting to look and feel the same?! We have Kobo in one corner (great talk at the Symposium BTW Michael!). We've got Blio in another but of course they're not interested in getting content from Ingram Digital because of fierce competition and will go direct where possible to publishers for ebook content. We've got the mighty Amazon, Sony, and of course Google. There's Overdrive who power various booksellers sites as well as the Australian readwithoutpaper.com There's ebooks.com Now O'Reilly is getting in on the act! And so on and so forth.

Ebook vendors launch with all their marketing spin and "bells and whistles". But put them all together, stir them up a bit, and what do they really offer that's different for the end user? With all the larger players, the interface looks pretty similar, the ordering process is usually a few easy clicks, the content isn't remarkable - if it's in ebook format, it's usually there. How do you stand out? If you are an ebook vendor what attracts your customers to you above everyone else?

If you're Amazon, you got in early and got marketshare. You've got millions of loyal customers. Fiercely loyal. You've got the data, the purchasing history, and the clout. And if you're Apple? You've got something everyone has on their wishlist - the iPad. But how are you going to distinguish yourself with ebooks? How are you going to think and act like a bookseller, like a publisher? Amazon's being doing it for years. Apart from already having millions of customers ready and waiting, what are you going to offer that is different to everyone else?

For example, when I think about ebooks, marketing and distribution, I know what I want from my ebook supplier. As an individual who reads ebooks, I can tell you I want a superior browsing service, I want to be able to find titles of interest quickly, clicks to relevant genres, my favourite authors, click click click. I want to see an image, a good description, recommendations, information about the author, and possibly a preview. Has the book won awards? Does the ebook vendor really know books? Can they get the metadata and the target marketing down to a fine art. They have the technology and the customer demand for the e-reading experience. They won't last if they don't get the customer experience right. But when everything starts looking and feeling the same, will we ever get to know them inside out and back to front? I don't think so.... the game has moved on.

My Presentation at the Digital Symposium

2010-02-19T09:22:00.003+11:00

Ebooks and libraries: two subjects that are often discussed separately but when taken together produce such a wide range of reactions from publishers. In many ways, publisher responses to ebooks for libraries actually help define the publisher, their business model, the way they approach their content, and the role they play in the full supply chain. It is easy to identify those that are dynamic and those that are traditional or tied to the “mother ship” overseas as is often the case. Those who are willing to engage with the full spectrum of customers - in our case, libraries - and those that won’t. Those who are preparing for the digital future and those we feel will be left behind.

As many of you know, James Bennett has been supplying public and academic libraries for over 40 years. With digitisation, we’ve seen one of the most challenging periods of our history. If we rewind the clock back only seven years, it was a time when library suppliers were selling dozens of multi volume reference sets to our customer base - encyclopedias with price tags in the thousands. Multi volume reference sales were priority products with targeted marketing campaigns and good margins. Fast forward to today and print reference sales have been cut dramatically as libraries opt for online versions, a site license, perhaps a direct relationship with the content provider, and in some cases no purchase at all because patrons choose to use freely available web content. Trading terms are very different. The goal posts have moved.

Of course it made sense for the reference market to shift to online as the product could be kept up-to-date, thereby making it more valuable to the library patron. Some libraries still order a print version but we’ve seen a massive shift to online reference. One of the leading players in the reference market kindly advised us prior to this Symposium that in Australia a staggering 75% of their sales are now from their online products. The sales channel has evolved.

This discussion is not about digital reference. I use the example merely to highlight what’s happened in the last few years. For library suppliers, it was digital reference that prepared us for the ebook world. It was a sign of things to come…

James Bennett entered the digital world in 2003 with our own ebook platform – Etitle. Allen & Unwin was the major publishing partner and a handful of other publishers supported the product in its early days. Targeting university libraries – a small market in terms of numbers but large in annual dollar spend – we offered only Australian scholarly and academic titles. Back then, publishers were concerned about their existing contracts and ebook rights, they cited lack of resources and time to review, there were issues with conversion costs, return on investment in such a small market, when to issue the ebook, pricing models, file security and of course the cannibalisation of the printed work.

These issues haven’t changed. The marketplace did. Etitle became superseded as bigger players entered the academic library market. Being solely Australian, Etitle could not compete with the larger players who had the breadth of product libraries wanted – US, UK, European published materials as well as Australian content where it was available. Ebook vendors with hundreds of thousands of ebooks on offer – as opposed to our hundreds. In the past five years, the major ebook players have become well and truly established in the academic library supply chain. EBL – Ebooks Library from Ebooks Corporation based in Perth, Netlibrary, Ebrary, Myilibrary from Ingram, Dawsons in the UK and Blackwell Book Services came up with their own products. Publishers too created their own platforms, investing money in digitisation even when their ebooks were already in the portals of the ebook vendors, but it was about controlling the content and having direct access to the end user.

We supported ebook platforms where available however this was complicated with the single e-ISBN issue that we now needed to address. Yes, silly us! We used the ISBN as the primary identifier in our database! Despite recommendations from the international ISBN agency, not all publishers created a separate ISBN for their ebook vendors and this created more than a headache or two for us as an onseller of these products across multiple platforms. We entered a whole new bibliographic world, one that was slightly more complicated when we started selling both publisher portals and via ebook vendors. Which platform did the customer have? Where was the order to go? With so many technical workflows and with limited time today, we’ll save the e-ISBN issue for another day, another soapbox.

The academic publishers in the room would know that James Bennett has been an agent for EBL for several years now. A few years ago EBL sat comfortably in our Top 30 suppliers, then the Top 20, the Top 10. Astounding growth figures – from 2008 to 2009 270% growth in dollar value, 578% in units. This year ebook sales continue to track between 100-200% growth on previous periods. They have become a major supplier to our business and to our libraries.

If we go back a few years, ebook sales were a little hit and miss. We’d get a six figure sale one month and then nothing for months. Academic libraries were moving more slowly than we originally anticipated to “e” – often using special budgets - and we were all navigating the ebook waters together.

As we worked our way through bibliographic data issues we also had to come to grips with different margins and different workflows. Receiving and invoicing processes had to be totally reworked for ebooks, afterall you aren’t physically handling anything! New title workflows, promoting through our kit service for example, the role of the sales representative, all had to be reviewed. And of course, over time, ebook sales started coming out of the library monograph budget. Sales patterns were changing.

Ebooks are now part of our daily workflows for our customer base. These days, academic libraries are very experienced with ebooks and ebook selection. They understand digital reference and ebook requirements for their patrons. Some like Charles Sturt University prefer to order “e” over the “dead tree”. Many are talking about simultaneous release and ordering “e” only. YBP Library Services now offers ebooks on their approval plans and believe around 10% of publishers are actively pushing simultaneous release. The delay in providing both formats is being noticed by key libraries and library vendors. Libraries ask us to put pressure on publishers to bring both to market at the same time particularly with overseas based university presses. Once they know about the “p”, students, academics and researchers are searching the library catalogue for the “e”. Their expectation is that it will be available. But publishers delay – and hope to get two bites of the cherry. This is not going to last. The larger libraries will continue moving to “e” in line with demands of their patrons. It’s their level of expectation that is pushing us all forward and publishers will have to address it sooner rather than later.

In addition to reading ebooks via the nominated ebook platform, academic libraries are also looking at the handheld devices. QUT for example is looking at trialling ebook readers this year. The library currently offers 60,000 ebooks across most subject areas. An additional 10,000 titles will be made available to patrons in 2010. While their policy has been formed around ebooks being available on their network they are now looking at the next stage of development and take a leadership position with students and staff.

As the academic library market matures with regard to ebooks, the public libraries start experimenting. In many instances they have been slower to adapt, with the exception of larger libraries – Gold Coast, Brisbane, Yarra Plenty, Sutherland. Those that service a wider demographic and have the book budget available for print, ebook and audio.

As Australian publishers stalled on making ebooks available to libraries, players like OverDrive in the US have done quite the job sewing up the larger library accounts here thank you very much. When we speak to OverDrive’s customers, they advise us the audio downloads are currently the most popular of the products offered. Nevertheless we know OverDrive is now engaging Australian publishers in discussions about content and paying more attention to rights. They got into the market first and like the other ebook vendors have an extensive range to offer their client base. We are seeing the pattern repeated in the public library sphere, albeit some six or seven years later than the academic.

Ebook interest – mainly due to the content that has been available and the slow take-up of e-readers – has been small but that will change as more content is made available and the level of reader interest picks up. And of course the launch of the iPad changes the landscape yet again. At the supply chain meeting at the Frankfurt Book Fair last year one of the most senior representatives said the ebook world will change with the entry of another player and in his words “It will be Apple, it will be cool, and everyone will want one”.

Nevertheless where libraries are concerned, e-reading devices are not essential. For those who don’t know how it works now, a reader taps into the library’s website, searches through the catalogue, selects the relevant title and checks out their ebook. Using the freely available Adobe Digital Editions Reader, the content is downloaded within seconds to the patron’s computer. They can then transfer it to an e-reader, if they have one, or can read on screen. Say the book you wanted to read was The Slap. When the book is downloaded, your computer and your e-reading device clearly shows the time remaining for the loan. At the end of the period, the book expires and is no longer accessible either on the computer or on the device. It’s accessible, convenient, easy, quick and what’s more, to the library patron it’s free. For libraries, it’s already the digital reality.

While the user doesn’t pay, it’s worth mentioning the EBL model (as referenced with this example) is not a free for all. Each copy of a title comes with a restricted number of access days per year. If a title is extremely popular with students, the library’s access runs out and that library needs to purchase an additional copy of the ebook. Translating that same arrangement to the public library market, a large public library such as Yarra Plenty in Melbourne or Sutherland in Sydney would need to purchase multiple copies of an ebook version of a Matthew Riley title, just as those same libraries now purchase multiple copies of print editions.

Access models vary. Some ebook portals don’t let you “borrow” the title if it’s already out i.e. a single user model. Others allow multiple concurrent access depending on loan periods purchased by the library or the original pricing. Some ebook portals allow short-term loans, rentals even. There are many considerations from printing, downloading to computers and devices, the whole DRM spectrum that ebook vendors must take into account based on the publisher’s requirements. One of the popular offerings from EBL is the demand driven model i.e. automatic or mediated purchase based purely on patron demand. We know only too well that what libraries often want and what publishers are prepared to give will naturally vary. But when hasn’t it? There is a lot of work in developing a successful ebook model that pleases all but it can be done.

Another plus for ebooks is that patrons no longer have to wait for the physical book to be returned to the library, no more holds. A popular author can be accessible to readers without these delays. But it’s more than timing, it’s about providing library readers with the content they require. It’s about servicing additional markets. A library in Queensland told me a few months ago they are responsible for some islands off the coast and on one of those islands is a disabled man. He finds it very inconvenient to come ashore as he is in a wheelchair. He has asked the library about ebooks and is currently reading them from a variety of sources. An avid reader and supporter of his library, he wants them to provide him with an ebook service. Some public libraries also mentioned keeping their readers longer. Young adults, particularly females, give up on the library in their teens and don’t come back until they are parents with their own children. Libraries want to keep these people reading and if reading ebooks on computers, hand-held devices, mobiles are the way to do it, then that’s what they want us to consider. Libraries, like their suppliers, are looking at their role in the wider book supply chain and the services they can offer their community.

Ebooks get a lot of column space as we all know. Meetings we have with publishers are totally devoted to ebooks at times. But they are still not mainstream in public libraries. We’ve done a lot of research and we can see why this is. Expectations differ across the board. Some libraries want to engage, others don’t want to consider ebooks, devoted to the printed word as they are. For many there are budget restraints.

With regard to content there is no common ground – well apart from all wanting Twilight! If it wasn’t Stephenie Meyer, it was whatever the book of the moment was. Last year libraries wanted The Slap. A lot is author driven. Tim Winton was a popular request. When you start breaking it down further, there isn’t a lot of common ground. Movie adaptations and classics were popular but libraries were divided when it came to popular science, computing, cooking, foreign language, childrens, reference so on and so forth.

Some public libraries were very uncertain about the role of ebooks, some are preparing for ebooks, some are buying e-readers with little understanding about acquiring content, some don’t want to think about it. And then there are those that do – they want to provide patrons with ebook content and as the leading library supplier in this country, we are who they come to for answers and solutions. Whether it’s “p” or “e”, libraries generally work with only a few chosen vendors. It is the library supplier who must be able to provide the library with what they require for their collection development needs. It’s about consolidation and supply chain efficiencies, regardless of format. We offer them more than supplying a product. We must provide the service, the workflow, the access to content, and competitive and efficient distribution for “p” and “e”. Not every library can afford the outlay for EBL or OverDrive. So library suppliers need to look at how content can be sourced and priced for libraries factoring all of the publishers issues in terms of availability, accessibility, security, and sales models – to name but a few. These are challenging and interesting times for all of us.

Libraries are generally early adopters and we’ve seen this in the academic market. The public market will catch up in the years ahead. Publishers should remember libraries are one of the most important ebook markets at present to consider as part of their ebook strategy. The role of the library supplier or vendor in that market is another piece of the puzzle. Talk to us about libraries – we know our customers, we’re visiting them constantly. And please please please if you haven’t already, get your digital strategies underway. Content is king. It’s what libraries and their readers want. Your competitors will take advantage of the growing ebook market in the trade, direct, and library markets. Are you prepared to be left behind?

So Apple FINALLY released it!

2010-01-28T08:08:00.007+11:00

Yes folks, Apple has FINALLY launched their tablet device. And what a launch. Did anyone NOT hear about it I ask you? Talk about hype! And when the moment arrived, the device wasn't called the iTablet or iSlate as rumoured. Instead they opted for the iPad.

The marketing of the iPad is now in full swing. Just hop onto the Apple (US) website for demos. (The Australian site didn't even have the product listed when I checked earlier...)

It seems we've been waiting for this for some time. A thin tablet that appears to have it all - web, email, photos, video - with the touch of a finger. 10 hour battery life, wireless etc. Tick Tick Tick. And then there's the apps. 140,000 of them. It will even run the apps you've already downloaded to your iPhone or iPod touch. I must admit the price surprised me - I did think it was going to be much more expensive - so I'm glad they've kept it reasonable.

With the launch of the iPad, Apple entered the digital publishing world in a big way and announced the iBook portal. It wasn't a surprise they created their own. We have iTunes for music so naturally iBook was next.

We know the ebook market has taken off in the U.S. and to a certain degree in the U.K. Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs said Amazon had done a great job with the Kindle and ebook focus but “We’re going to stand on their shoulders and go a bit further,” he said.

Five of the world’s leading publisher including Penguin and HarperCollins have already signed up to supply content. I suspect they will all follow. They'd be crazy not to! I keep hearing the comment from the Frankfurt Supply Chain meeting last October: "It will be Apple, it will be cool, and everyone will want it".

Anyway, I've yet to hear from Australian publishers what they think about the launch of the iPad and what it means locally for ebooks. Another sale going offshore I suspect? I'm not privy to rights discussions on this one but from what I gather most of the management of ebooks has been done at Head Offices overseas and the local offices get "compensated" accordingly.

I will catch up with many publishers in the coming weeks for general business meetings. Ebooks are always on the agenda even though many local publishers don't control their ebook offer. I also expect there will be some lively discussions at the APA's Digital Symposium. I've been asked to speak at the Melbourne one -- for all of 10 minutes! -- on ebooks for libraries so it should be a very interesting day!! :-)

Bring on the Blio

2010-01-13T08:47:00.008+11:00

So Baker & Taylor has the next big thing in ebooks according to some industry experts. Blio was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas and what's special about this e-reading platform is its "true-to-print display". The software is free and will be out in February to most internet-enabled devices. At this stage we don't know about rights restrictions or territorial issues. When Sony updated their portal recently you had to state your country and there were only a couple of choices... as we know, Australia did not rate a mention as technically it's not on offer here. But I digress...

Blio is a software platform designed for computers, laptops, tablets, and mobiles. It displays books as PDFs in exactly the same layout and design as they appear in print. Because color is preserved, the software may be an especially good choice for illustrated books. This will be nice! Other features include:

* Open your book in 3D “book view” for realistic page turning
* “Text-only” mode for optimal display on small screens
* Display dual pages, or tile multiple pages
* Enlarge text without distortion
* Enjoy a full color, high-resolution display

Blio is a partnership with Baker & Taylor (yes, for those of you who know where I work, that's our new owners folks!). I'll start working my way through the B&T ebook world and see what I can find out. I'm particularly interested to see about library licensing but from the looks of the blio website it's not a library model...at this stage. I still have the words of the CEO of one of the world's largest trade houses ringing in my ear that he is anti-libraries having ebook access to any of his titles but last time I checked, he had them listed with Overdrive which has been already integrated into major libraries here including Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sutherland, Yarra Plenty etc. But yes, I digress yet again.

The Blio platform will have some 50,000 titles available when the product is launched. B&T has suggested they will contribute some 180,000 titles in due course.

Will be interesting to see where the Blio takes us....!!!

The rise and rise of Amazon: prepare for the battle

2009-12-14T16:08:00.008+11:00

In the past few days several US publishers have announced they will be delaying the release of e-book versions of major releases. So what does Amazon do? Well, instead of selling for the already loss-leading price of US$9.99, let's take it even lower to $7.99!!! Let's show the publishers exactly who is in charge of this ebook market. Let's offer Under the Dome by Stephen King and Going Rogue by Sarah Palin for $7.99. The hardcover for the latter is listed on Amazon as US$28.99 slashed 50% to US$14.50. Slash it by half again if you want the ebook. Bestsellers are being slashed - Stephenie Meyer's first two Twilight books for US$4.25, Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Played with Fire at US$7.99. Slash Slash and Slash again.

What happens next? Well surprise surprise, Barnes and Noble cut their ebook prices to match. I'm now waiting to see what Sony does. They've already admitted the US$9.99 price is NOT PROFITABLE. You can read the full article here. Yet I'm taking bets as to when they'll slash their prices! Any takers?

But back to the giant that is Amazon. I know some publishers are trying to wrestle control away from them so they can control their own ebook destinies. Can't everyone see these price points are DEVALUING the product and the whole reading experience? And what about profitability folks? It's already fragile in the bookselling and publishing industry.

It's no use discussing what percentage Amazon, Sony, Scribd etc take on ebook sales. We already know Amazon is using their pricing strategies to make the Kindle the ereader of choice, to build market share and customer loyalty. Sony has pretty much admited the same. They invest in the technology, they need people to buy it.

While publishers benefit from the lower ebook prices in the short term (through higher sales), according to Mike Shatzkin they "don't trust Amazon to keep things that way. From their perspective, Amazon is building a consumer expectation of an under-$10 price point while they are building up their audience of captive Kindle consumers. How long can it be, publishers figure, before Amazon says 'sorry, now you have to sell me these for under ten dollars?'" Mike also shared his thoughts on the possible war over the issue, including publishers not supplying or selling e-books through Amazon, Amazon suppressing the sale of their printed books, and more.

So when and where will the battle lines be drawn? It's a'comin, folks. Wait and see...

The Apple iTablet: should we believe the media?

2009-12-10T21:32:00.007+11:00

It's been coming for years (apparently!) but according to today's Sydney Morning Herald, Apple is preparing to launch a tablet personal computer in late March or April 2010. It will be their launch into the digital book market which is controlled by Amazon's Kindle at present. The article said "Apple declined to comment". Is anyone surprised by that? Has anyone from Apple ever confirmed there is a tablet coming?! I'd have to dig around the web to find out the answer to that one....

Anyway, according to the "analyst" the tablet will have a 10.1-inch multi-touch LCD screen similar to that of Apple's iPhone. The books will sold on a non-exclusive basis and it seems they've requested only a 30% discount from the publishers as opposed to Amazon's 50% (which is pretty much the ballpark for the ebook vendors).

Interestingly, the SMH article didn't mention price. It was the cnet news that mentioned the $1000 price tag. (I'm assuming US dollars) OK, if it does lots of whizz bang things, including a fabulous experience with ebooks, would we be happy carrying around a device at that price tag day in, day out....?

Also, there is a big take-up of ebooks using the iPhone now. The head of one of the largest ebook vendors said to me recently that he reads everything now on the iPhone through the Stanza app. Absolutely addicted! I don't have an iPhone and while the screen is clean and it's easy to use, having the look and the feel of the traditional book is my preference. The larger screen works better for me. But he loved sharing his experience with me and I'm always open to everyone's reading experience whether it's e or p.

As I've said time and time again, consumers will read whatever way they want. Print, an e-reader, on their laptop, on their iPhone. And I still believe e and p can live in harmony. There will be a percentage of cannibilisation but I think it won't be anywhere near as high as 50%. And I still feel ebooks and ereaders will bring new readers into the book loving community. Anything that encourages people to read is surely a good thing?

But back to Apple, is it coming or isn't it? I can't help but think of those supply chain gurus at Frankfurt and the line they left us all with "It will be Apple, it will be cool, and everyone will want it". I wait for further news...

Read Without Paper

2009-12-03T11:01:00.010+11:00

Yes folks, DA has finally launched their ebook website - www.readwithoutpaper.com - partnering with OverDrive in the US. I was already aware OverDrive had approached Australian publishers for content but there's only a handful who are in a position to provide at present - but it's a-changing world as we know.

I've gone into the Read Without Paper site to assess their offer and structure. Lots of foreign language, PDFs and audio downloads. I just want to see the EPUB titles available. (PDFs are crap to read on the Sony e-reader.) And I really don't want to see all the foreign language materials. There should be a view you select up front so you can see the titles that are relevant to you.

In many ways I'm disappointed this isn't a uniquely Australian venture and wonder how local publishers feel about overseas original publications being sold now as ebooks. Yes that might sound hypocritical as I've been getting my ebook content elsewhere but I genuinely want to see a truly local offer - even if it is through someone like DA! :)

Some major publishers here have told me they don't believe there is an ebook market. Some of these discussions have taken place in the last six months so I'm not talking about two or three years ago. We are talking major trade houses here and while the e-readers aren't yet taking off in this market, the day will come where people want more choice and read on whatever device takes their fancy. Many people are waiting for that rumoured iTablet from Apple. That's if they aren't already reading on their iPhone or some other device.

Don't get me wrong - I'm all for the book. The old fashioned one that is. But I read on an e-reader as well. All fiction titles. I pick them up cheaply or free from Gutenberg. I'm more than happy to pay US 9.99 through Sony for a latest release in certain genres but I'm still buying most books in the traditional format. I like to collect and I like to share. There's something personal about the book and flicking through the pages, dog-eared and all.

But back to the Australian ebook market where rumours and confusion reign supreme. Start-up companies are approaching publishers left right and centre. All after the ebook dollar. I feel a little sorry for the local publishers that are only now looking at their digital strategies, having left them to US and UK head offices.

Read Without Paper is a start but I wish it was a truly Australian venture. Will I order ebooks through them? So far, they haven't got anything that I want but I will keep you posted on anything I order through them and how the process goes.

A day in the life of an ebook reader

2009-11-29T18:10:00.006+11:00

I've just finished an ebook (purchased locally surprise surprise) of The Book Thief. What a remarkable book. Will go down as one of the best I've ever read.

I've been laughing at myself lately because I either forget to charge the Sony ereader, or I don't turn it off properly, and then of course there are the problems with the device when I use the backlight (which chews up the battery). Trust me, I made sure I kept the battery strong for this book as I didn't want to get to a critical point and have a battery warning! There's nothing worse than wanting to read and not having the battery charge to do so...

It made me think about school students. I've heard many stories about (mainly private) schools wanting to have content on ereaders for their students but being rejected by publishers who either don't have the content digitised, don't want to participate, or just don't want to provide it for other reasons (piracy? who knows...). Anyway, I don't know about you, but my experience with teenagers in particular suggests they will lose their ereader, misplace it, forget to charge it etc. I can just imagine the teacher saying everyone turn to page 10 and some people have it on large font, some on small, so the page number is irrelevant. Then hearing cries from several students "miss, my battery is dead, I can't read it". Hysterical!

Of course they could always lose the print copy but you don't have battery issues with the traditional format. You don't risk damaging the whole device if you spill liquid on it. You can take it in the bath. You can read it throughout the flight (there's no "switching off all electronic devices" for the takeoff and landing period). The beauty of an ereader is storage and taking choice with you wherever you go.

Oh and further to my previous post, I had the ereader out and about with me yesterday - in a cafe and in a hairdresser. Only men asked me whether it was a Kindle. All older men - as previously identified - and all had lots of questions about it. Most women glance at it and it really does challenge their opinions. I think there's been half for and half against todate. Most add "I really hope the printed book doesn't die though". Me too folks, me too.

A Supply Chain Perspective on ebooks

2009-11-11T21:39:00.006+11:00

For the last five years or so, I've attended the International Supply Chain Meeting at the Frankfurt Book Fair. I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation from Peter Kilborn (BIC: Book Industry Communication) on "The Limits of Technology".

Here's just some of the highlights:

"E-book readers will be introduced in the UK later this year, and have already proved popular with American users. From the Barnes & Noble web site, user comments include: ‘I don’t know how I got along without it’, ‘I will never go back to paper again; the future has arrived and it’s great.’"
(The Bookseller, June 2000)

"Simon & Schuster US has unveiled its first ebooks list. It is the latest in a tide of publishers to enter the US e-book market, which is believed to be on the point of explosion"
(The Bookseller, December 2000)

Yes those dates are not a misprint. He was speaking about how slow the industry is to react and how we respond to change overall. We all know e-books are getting A LOT of coverage, but let's try and keep a few things in perspective.

Kelly Gallagher from Bowker also did an interesting presentation on e-book sales. I'm assuming his figures were for the US but in 2008 e-books accounted for 1.5% of all book sales. In the first half of 2009, this went up to 2.2%. Another interesting stat was that for buyers over 50 years of age, e-books are growing at 183%. Sony e-book readers have an average age of 49.8, Kindle 48.9, PDAs 28.0 and the iPhone 37.9. Device presentation was also interesting - 40% were pure downloads to computer. 26.8% were via the Kindle, 13% from iPhone, 6.4% from the Sony e-reader. So beyond computer downloads, Kindle has the market share.

Thought the feedback from the meeting would enhance this blog and will continue to monitor industry alerts for interesting stats and quotes about this growing - and fascinating - market segment.

Roadtesting the Sony ereader

2009-11-02T18:22:00.008+11:00

As many of you know, I took the Sony ereader to Frankfurt this year for the Book Fair. It was an interesting experiment, particularly as it was the longest trip to date and I must admit I was a little anxious as I love to read on longer flights and train rides. My luggage to previous international Book Fairs has included at least 3 books and I must admit, I did take a paperback as insurance!

The Sony ereader was fully charged when I left Sydney airport and there were 45 ebooks on the device including the new one from Audrey Niffenegger, Her Fearful Symmetry. I purposely didn't take the charger on board and regretted this half way when the battery started dying in Singapore! As I've flagged previously on this blog, when the back light is used on the Sony, the battery dies quickly. Knowing this flaw, I use it sparingly but needed to because the light in the business lounge at Singapore airport was not good. I continued reading while I waited for my connecting flight and realised the battery was depleting right in front of my eyes! I wasn't happy about it and ended up putting the reader away.

It might interest you to know that most of the marketing material previously stated the battery lasted around 7000 page turns. If that's the case, I should be getting through 4-5 ebooks with no problem. This is not happening and I must admit, it cheeses me off somewhat.

Apart from the battery, the other problem was not being able to use an electronic device for take off and landing. Of course, on an international flight that can mean the last 30 minutes is without reading material. I was grateful for the paperback I threw into my handbag at the last minute, even if it meant my reading was somewhat interrupted.

Oh and I may have flagged this previously when discussing pros and cons of ereaders, but I enjoy soaking in a tub at the end of a long day and getting stuck into a good book while I bathe. Not having a bath at home, I always look forward to one when I travel. I managed to enjoy the experience only once during the whole Book Fair - on my last night. Of course, it's not wise to take the ereader in the bath (!) and again glad to have the paperback on hand.

But back to the story: The reader charged without difficulty once in Frankfurt, and again when I travelled to Regensburg for some personal time. The time off was particularly interesting as I had to field multiple questions about the ereader, all from German locals. Whether it was someone politely interrupting me on the train "Was IST das?!" to people in cafes or restaurants wanting to know more about it, I was fielding questions left, right and centre. Most of the time I handed over the device and let people use the touchscreen to navigate. It was met with a lot of approval, a lot of nods, a lot of sighs, and A LOT of interest overall.

The demographic was interesting - all enquiries were from men! Several were older, one I would hazard a guess would have been retired, and only a couple were from late teens to university students. I've been talking ebooks for years professionally (mainly for libraries) and having to do show and tell at a more personal level has been a lot of fun too.

On the way home, the ereader was fully charged yet again and I did NOT use the backlight at any stage of the journey. The trip home was longer as I had a 4 hour layover in Singapore. By the time we were preparing to land in Sydney, I had one battery cell left on the ereader. I had read two new books, re-read/scanned through another four, and answered about a dozen questions on the ereader from the general (German) public.

And here comes The Kindle

2009-10-07T17:24:00.007+11:00

Amazon has finally announced its Kindle ereader is available to customers outside the US including Australia. For US$279 you can order your Kindle and they'll ship it to you from 19 October. I imagine there won't be a lot of Australian content available for us, as local publishers have been relatively slow to get behind ebooks. Allen & Unwin and Pan Macmillan are two notable exceptions thanks to Elizabeth Weiss and Victoria Nash respectively. These two publishing leaders continue to promote the digital agenda and I don't know what the local industry would do without them!

Mind you, I had to laugh when I read that Don Grover, CEO of Dymocks, spoke about the take-up of devices being driven by content. They were the first retailer to get on the ebook bandwagon (we library suppliers having gotten on it some years back...). But now the ebook kiosk at Dymocks tells a sad, sorry tale. Dismantled and hidden away at the back of the store, it failed to attract a wider audience. Of course it would! If you want to buy an ebook you don't need to go into a bricks and mortar bookshop. That's the beauty of it! Hop online and a few clicks of the button later you have your content. Also, apparently Dymocks sold thousands of Iliads. Ahem. Thousands? A contact at the distributor advised the real figure was much less but don't let us stop you upselling the demand and promoting the uptake of ereaders! We all know it's the future so get your e-reader today folks. Of course you can't get much content but hey, here's a device that you'll enjoy carrying around with you!

And then, of course, there was this beauty from Don: ‘We're finding consumers like the wide screen of a laptop computer instead', he said. No kidding! Didn't we see that all along? Ereaders are great but at the end of the day readers will read on whatever device they use the most - their phone, their laptop, their ereader. Dymocks started the ball rolling but I really do hate to see them drop it.

And for those who have been following this blog: for the record, I'm still reading printed books! However I've got plenty of content (mainly US sourced) on the Sony e-reader. This is the first year I will be taking the device with me to the Frankfurt Book Fair and I must say I'm excited and nervous at the same time. Excited because there's around 46 books currently on the reader, including Audrey Niffenegger's new one Her Fearful Symmetry and nervous in case I have trouble charging the bugger and find I have nothing to read but German magazines I'll pick up while I'm there. My German's good, but not that good!

Oh, and before I sign off this post - perhaps in the months ahead people will stop asking me "oh is that a Kindle" every time I take out the e-reader. No it's bloody not a Kindle. It's a SONY!

Sony Sony Sony

2009-08-05T17:41:00.007+10:00

Well, it's in cyberspace. Sony has two new e-readers ready to launch in the US market. The PRS 300 ebook reader will sell for $199. That undercuts Amazon by $100. The larger PRS 600 will have the touchscreen and will sell for $299. I still think it's hysterical that documents relating to the manufacturing of the e-readers were available on the internet prior to the announcement! It was a terrible secret really. Unfortunately the forthcoming e-readers still don't have wireless capability, so Amazon's Kindle still has that key selling point.

From what I can gather, the PRS 300"pocket" version has a five-inch (12.7cm) screen which is smaller than Kindle and other competitors. This smaller version won't play mp3 files, there is no slot for a memory card. I believe it's designed to hold 350 books.

The PRS-700 will be replaced by the PRS-600. The 600 will have the same six-inch screen as but not the built-in light. As you know from my previous review of the PRS-700, the light chews up battery. Steve Haber, president of Sony's Digital Reading Business Division, has confirmed that removing the light will also correct some screen clarity problems it has caused.

The second bit of news was the repricing of their ebook content to $9.99 to match Amazon. Personally, I didn't care about the $11.99 price point - or even dearer - because if I want the content I will pay for it. (The only thing I have to consider is the price conversion to Australian dollars!) I don't have a Kindle, I rarely use Amazon (afterall I have access to an extensive book database day in and day out with my job), and I'm interested in what is available in ebook format through the Sony ebook site. To me, the difference of $2.00 was irrelevant. And I definitely don't give a rat's arse about 4cents, which I believe is the difference between Amazon's Kindle books and Barnes & Nobles new ebooks. Everyone is trying to outdo everyone else!

On the local front I keep hearing mixed messages from Sony re releasing them here. A Marketing Director for a major trade publisher advised they were planning to launch them in September, albeit a soft launch due to the lack of content available in ebook format from local trade publishers at present. I'd assume they'd be looking at the new e-readers? Who knows...

My own enquiries to Sony have received somewhat automoted and impersonal responses. When I responded to the initial correspondence, I received "We have not been updated on any future release dates. This is why we cannot supply you with any particular information. To be honest, we are unsure as to whether the e-book reader will be released in Australia, simply because our head office has not informed us of this." Ah customer service vs customer demand.

It will be interesting to see whether Sony makes any waves in Australia. There are quite a number of ebook readers available now. We hear about a new device every other day and of course everyone always mentions iTunes and the Stanza application as being the focus. Alternatively I hear publishers discuss smart laptops and the Apple iTablet. Who knows where this market will go? It's a moving target in many ways and that also makes it exciting.

The long-awaited Hanlin Review

2009-07-23T15:43:00.004+10:00

The poor Hanlin e-reader hasn't been used much in recent times. Once the Sony PRS-700 arrived, it was dropped like a hot potato! I'm finding the Hanlin very difficult to pick up again after the touchscreen experience of the Sony - I keep hitting the screen only to remember I have to ENTER the number of the book I want! Having to enter a number to either bring up a book or even perform a function is a little out-dated I must say. In addition, the menu structure needed work. The ebooks menu, for example, would take you to another menu that appeared by format of the book. I don't recall whether a book is in mobipocket, EPUB or pdf format so I found this functionality useless. Once connected to the laptop, I reworked all the files so it came down to two basic structures - audio and ebook - and I filed everything in alphabetical order. That way when I wanted to read Bram Stoker's Dracula (yes I loaded the file on this device as well) I didn't have to remember what menu it was in. Drove me nuts one day trying to find an ebook I was reading because I didn't know what the original format was nor what menu it was hiding in! In addition, the User Manual on the device and the one that was in the box were poorly written. The translation to English really hasn't worked and you are often left to figure it out for yourself! Some of the other problems with the Hanlin include the blank pages between page changes - they are more obvious/longer than the Sony, the Go to Page function is very poor, as is searching across an ebook. God forbid you lose your page! If it doesn't open at the page you left it at, trying to find your position is a nightmare. You can't scan across like the Sony or do a text search. It doesn't have a keyboard to search on! On a positive note, one of the features I like is the ability to actually change the font. On other devices you can change the size, but the Hanlin lets you choose most times between an Arial or a Times face. The crispness of the text on the screen is better than the Sony. It's stronger. Both of the devices have a long battery life - except the Sony if you use the backlight. Don't use it folks! It drains really fast. The Hanlin doesn't have one, and that's probably a good thing. All in all, the Hanlin reads ok as a basic device, the functionality is no frills, very simple and outdated in many respects. I link it to the Mobipocket ebook portal and I think that works well when reading on the computer as well. It has a lot more functionality than the Sony portal. If only the content was better I'd be a little happier. To compare content go to mobipocket (and check out the Best of on the RHS) and then go to Sony - do you see what I mean???!!!!

Getting inspiration from an industry man I admire

2009-07-22T09:07:00.007+10:00

I was happy to pick up this comment from Mike Shatzkin on the Idea Logical blog. He was referring to an article in the Wall Street Journal regarding Sourcebooks and delaying ebook releases:

"My quote, by the way, was to the effect that ebook readers and print book readers are increasingly separate markets, which I believe to be true but cannot prove. A C-level friend at a large house disagrees with me, as I’m sure many others do, and my evidence on this is highly anecdotal (including myself: I have read one printed book of the 50 or so I’ve read in the past 18 months.) But my friend would have no more evidence than I to support his contrary position, so publishers will have to make decisions without really knowing, for now, whether they can push a Kindle or Shortcovers or Ereader consumer back to paper by denying or delaying a book."

Mike is a man I admire. I've heard him speak several times and he makes unbelievable sense! The more I read and breathe ebooks, the more I believe they will be separate markets for publishers. Some readers will definitely migrate to a new way of reading and storing content, whether it be on the iPhone, the laptop, an e-reader - the format is for the consumer to decide. And by opening up technology, a new generation is likely to appear. Whether it's the print or the electronic, there are limitations with all formats. The reading experiences will vary. I believe many people true to the printed book will stay that way. And I think the e-reader invites a new reader onboard.

Personally I see the ebook reader as being a wonderful companion when travelling - airports, planes, hotel rooms. Lots of choice at my finger tips (and hopefully the ability to recharge the battery when I need to!) However I don't see it as a wonderful companion when I'm soaking in the tub after a long day travelling and the thought of having the battery run out along the way would be awful. It's my mobile phone and digital camera nightmares all over again!

For the rest of the world, I'm excited for students, for busy professionals, the publishing industry. In many ways e-readers present solutions. But for others, they may be just another gadget that gets used in the early days and put aside later. Who knows? Maybe it will come full circle...

A ramble on the EPUB format

2009-07-18T13:03:00.011+10:00

As you know from my recent post regarding Random House Australia and their free Wil Anderson ebook offer, I'm a fan of standards for ebooks. Having sat in Supply Chain meetings at Frankfurt and London Book Fairs for the past few years, I'm all for reducing confusion in the marketplace, working to industry standards, and keeping costs of conversions down for publishers. The EPUB format is the one preferred by industry representatives, as it's a natural progression from the PDF - already core to the publishing process. Adobe Digital Editions, the home of EPUB files, is also Sony friendly. Or so I thought....

On the Adobe Digital Editions site, they also offer a few free ebooks to download. Now a few of you may laugh after my recent Twilight ramblings, but I thought I'd return to the classics and Bram Stoker's Dracula was there for the taking. I had already picked it up on the free Mobipocket portal as it is one of the classics readily available through Project Gutenberg. Unfortunately Mobipocket isn't Sony friendly - I can read books stored there on the Hanlin, but not on my preferred Sony e-reader.

Getting Dracula into Adobe Digital Editions was easy peasy (click click) and once I'd hooked up the e-reader to the computer, getting it downloaded to the reader itself was a piece of cake (drop drag). So far so good, but then the read commenced and once again the format distorted on the e-reader. I understand that is one of the challenges of ebooks so I simply tried to change font size and view. In the end I went back to my standard view. The reading experience has been okay to date but every couple of page turns, the text disappears and I have to skip through a blank page. Alternatively half way down the page the text distorts. You get used to it. But it really isn't ideal. It makes you understand why the proprietary formats exist and that unfortunately one size does not fit all.

What's wrong with ebook readers

2009-07-16T15:12:00.007+10:00

Where do I begin? Yes, I'm a newcomer to this area and this blog is all about sharing my opinion on ebooks and the like, but there's something wrong when you have to RESET an e-reader so you can continue the reading experience. There's also the slight problem of RECHARGING the e-reader and when you are busy, you don't really notice that battery button going down. I haven't received any WARNINGS that I've got 10 minutes left or something and don't start me on the POWER the Sony PRS-700 consumes if you use the backlight! The REFLECTION can be problematic and the FILE FORMATS distort. I had a business e-book on project management. Picked it up free somewhere on the net. The format was in PDF and was so incredibly small that when I enlarged the font size on the Sony, the entire thing became UNREADABLE. Then there's ebooks I've purchased in proprietary formats like mobipocket that are NOT TRANSFERABLE. The ebook portals are still in their infancy and NEED BETTER SEARCH FUNCTIONALITY. The content can be LIMITED or DELAYED so as a consumer I don't have the choice I would like to have. Very frustrating people!!!!

That's the ramble for today but keep in mind, I'm READING on an e-reader and on the computer. I'm discovering new works and old ones, and LOVING IT! I'll do what's right with ebook readers another day. :-)

The ipod moment is already here

2009-07-12T11:20:00.008+10:00

Ebook articles often refer to the iPod moment. Is it just around the corner? There is much debate on the subject and the comparison is inevitable.

Ebook readers aren't mainstream here in Australia. They are still way too expensive and a luxury item (The Iliad sells for $1299 with the 'cheaper' version at $1099 and prices generally start from $500). Sourcing content can be problematic, particularly for new releases and don't even start me on the various ebook formats out there! It's bloody confusing.

As you know, I've been playing with ebooks for this blog - I have Mobipocket Reader and the Sony ebook portal loaded on the computer. Through Mobipocket you have access to Fictionwise and 13 odd ebook vendors. Sony just links to Sony but they did partner with Google to load 500,000 public domain books for free. You can access that content as well through Project Gutenberg. It's there for the taking.

Anyway, I have to laugh whenever I read about the iPod moment. I've only had an iPod for 15 months and promptly loaded iTunes onto the laptop, copying favourites songs from my extensive CD collection and spending a small fortune on new and old songs (especially those classics in my extensive tape collection!). The good thing about iTunes is you can listen to a song for 20 seconds or so and download it. Click, Click, Click it's all easy and accessible. The Genius application is a killer but at the same time it's introduced me to other music, which I've enjoyed. It's also cost a small fortune over time but as a music lover, it gets used frequently. As does the Mastercard.

Ebook portals offer pretty much the same process, but their preview functionality still needs work. US$11.99 for this book, specials, collections, free books. It's click, click and click and all that content is downloaded. Just like iTunes. Only dearer!

There's another problem. The average song time is 4 minutes. You can download 15 songs and have an hours entertainment. Books take time to read, particularly when you are a busy professional. So I have the dilemma, a few easy clicks, and I have the content (and an ever increasing Mastercard bill!). I already have more than a dozen printed books waiting to be read. I now have the same on the e-reader or in the ebook portals on the laptop (for those that won't transfer to the e-reader). I don't need more content. I need a time management system! NOW!

Oh, and if you can have a word in the ears of the nice people at Mastercard, I'd be most grateful....

Random House Ebook Promotion

2009-07-10T22:46:00.014+10:00

What a great promotion this week from Random House. Nice to see Brett Osmond and the team there moving on the ebook front (even if it's a title published a couple of years ago!) For those of you who don't know, they offered Wil Anderson's book "Survival of the Dumbest" absolutely free - as an ebook, as long as you sign up to the Random House newsletter. (See the Random House Australia website for details)

There are several smart strategies employed here by RH. The first is to have the right author. Wil is a popular comedian and television host and people find him funny. He is also active on Twitter and other online social networks, so that makes him accessible and hip. And while he was known to many viewers as one of the hosts from "The Glass House", I think he raised his public profile further with the success of "The Gruen Transfer" on the ABC. Some people may have recently discovered him and may not be aware of his published work. So what better promotion than to offer it absolutely FREE as an ebook. Just having the word FREE will no doubt have lots of people signing up! We're a funny lot.

However, the strategy I think works best is promoting the EPUB format via Adobe Digital Editions. Publishers would like to see one standard ebook format and various Standards Committees have put forward the EPUB version as their preferred option, rather than having to convert to proprietary formats like the Amazon Kindle, mobipocket etc. I will eagerly be waiting to hear back as to how many people installed Adobe Digital Editions and downloaded the book. Of course, the magic number will be how many people actually READ IT as an ebook. And the Holy Grail, whether RH sees an increase in the print sales as a result of the free ebook offer and/or a better sell-thru for Wil's next book which I believe will be released in November 2009.

Either way, it's a wonderful brand promotion - Wil Anderson himself, Random House, and Adobe Digital Editions. Can't wait to hear more about the results....!

Ebooks and the green movement

2009-07-09T08:38:00.005+10:00

In a recent Forrester Research report, the following timeline was outlined for the e-reader market:

2007-2009 Early adopters
2009-2011 More mainstream consumers buy e-readers as features like animation, content ports to other wireless devices become a reality. The US$199 price point is breached
2011 and beyond: video and colour make their appearance and the much anticipated US$99 price point becomes a reality
2013-2020 The green movement drives e-reader usage.

This last point was an interesting one and when I mentioned it to a colleague, the first word out of his mouth was "bollocks". How much recycling is happening with old computer and other technological devices now? A book left on a street will eventually break down. Books can be pulped. Etc Etc.

The most recent Frankfurt Book Fair newsletter had a special link: how green are e-books really? They noted one catchy slogan being used by a manufacturer is "Easy on the eyes, easy on the environment". The newsletter goes on to say "One thing is obvious: no forests have to be cut down for the production of electronic books and the e-readers to go with them - which is an important factor. The American book industry alone consumes 1.5 million tonnes of paper annually. Around 70 per cent of CO2 emissions caused by the industry come from paper production: the production of one book involves the emission of around four kilos of CO2. This was discovered by a study whose results were issued last year by the Green Press Initiative (GPI) and The Book Industry Study Group (BISG)."

They then go on to advise no official studies have been done to compare the ecobalance between electronic and printed books. "Focusing on the paper problem alone means forgetting that a great deal of energy is also needed for the production of e-book readers - the manufacture of a PC, for example, produces approx. 1,850 kilos of CO2. In addition, dubious materials such as mercury and bromine are also used."

I'll keep my eye out on further environmental studies but I'd be interested in other people's thoughts on this. Will the green movement drive e-reader usage or not?

Is there any good news out there

2009-07-08T15:13:00.003+10:00

Headlines from this week's Bookseller & Publisher:

Among the many stories added to our around the world blog in the past week:

For details on all these stories and more, see www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/blogentries/

So my question for today: Is there any friggin good news in this industry?

Oh, and don't think I didn't notice the Meyer entry (for those following my ebook past activities). I see Meyer went digital in the UK via the ScrollMotion Iceberg e-reader for the iPhone. Yep, like I'm going to read a book on an iPhone. If anyone IS reading books on an iPhone, please explain it to me. What's the reading pleasure because I don't get it one iota!

Exactly when should I jump?

2009-07-07T17:15:00.007+10:00

For today's blog, I'm going to give you a quick rundown on industry headlines from some of the articles that are currently flooding my desk. All associated with ebooks, e-readers, and the like. In no particular order (and apologies in advance to those I've left off the list):

Springer Leaps Ahead in Academic E-book Market (FT) - about how ereaders like Amazon's Kindle are transforming academic publishing much faster than the consumer market
Borders kick-starts UK reluctant e-book revolution (Times Online) - BTW the picture of the e-reader looks awful, very basic and unappealing. What were they thinking?
Copyright, cost, content - so many barriers between Australians and ebooks (Special report in the Australian Library News)
Ebooks: is this their ipod moment? (ALN again)
Is Amazon taking over the book business? (Time Online) granted this was more about the Amazon business model but The Kindle featured prominently as did the comment"When it comes to ebooks, Amazon doesn't just sell them; it practically owns the entire medium". Ahem.
Amazon vs Google (cut & paste from the web so did not note source) loved the opening line "Amazon's Kindle is not so shiny and new anymore and it was Google that made the biggest ebook splash"
Stay Ahead of the Shift: What Publishers Can do to Flourish in a Community-Centric Web World (Online Presentation by Mike Shatzkin, a man I admire for his vision of the publishing industry)
The E-book Pricing Conundrum (Publishers Weekly)
Kindle DX: Bigger Screen, Higher Price, Many Questions (Publishers Weekly)
The Lonely Stand of Print Reference (Publishers Weekly): mentioned purely because the the article has to mention the internet and Google's role in diminishing/changing print reference
Commercial eBook Conversion Utilities (post from the web that is in double dutch - how to covert all different files and the software required, I think I'll wait for the Dummies Guide to...)
More and More Books Digitally Published (AOL news): this was more about POD (of which I'm a big fan) but it has implications for e, particularly when another article refers to the restructure of Ingram (also a big fan) and the role of content in their future
The Random House Group Launches Ebook Reader Apps on Apple App Store (that's nice, anyone using it in Australia? Contact me if you are please!!!!)
Reading Mobipocket ebooks on a Blackberry (ditto)
Google Books now available through Sony
Analyst sees Amazon's Kindle Generating $2B in Sales (Streetinsider.com)
Indie Booksellers Debate the E-book Conundrum (Publishers Weekly)
Whither interior Book Design: ReadSmart re-creates publishers' book designs on iPhone (Publishers Weekly)
So is $9.99 the ebook price point? (Brave New World blog: excellent blog from the UK Bookseller Association)
Preparing to sell e-books, Google Takes on Amazon (New York Times): another good opening line "Google appears to be throwing down the gauntlet in the ebook market"

Glancing across my desk it's all e-focused. Is the death of the book finally around the corner? After 20 years in publishing, what do I do next? Exactly when should I jump? The questions start pouring out of me and my heart rate rises. Beyond my desk, I look at the noticeboard in my office where I've been storing these sort of articles for years. I glance for a headline that will restore my confidence in the industry I've chosen to work in all these years and the one I would prefer to stay in. Searching... searching... searching... Yep, there it is one entitled "Why e-book readers don't stand a chance". I breathe again. I start to relax. Then I remember I'm reading e-books onscreen and off a reader. Argh! My eyes focus on another article "How the E-book will Change the Way we Read and Write" a wonderful item from the Wall Street Journal. And I ponder the future silently....

The curious reader

2009-07-03T20:25:00.033+10:00

What an interesting week it’s been. The Sony e-reader has created such curiosity whenever I’ve taken it out of the handbag and started reading. Last Saturday I took the e-reader to the hairdressers. I’m usually there around 2 hours while I have my hair cut and coloured. My hairdresser and colourist are used to me bringing a book and reading while I wait. They usually ask questions about what I’m reading and whether I would recommend it. They both nearly fell over when I showed them the handheld device!

Located in the swish Chatswood Chase complex, the salon had around 30 customers and several began talking to me about the e-reader. A few were noticeably horrified but one lady in particular spoke about The Kindle and the impact it’s made in the U.S. Why didn’t buy that? I explained it wasn’t available in Australia. What made me buy the device I was reading on? I had to explain I work in the book industry and had two e-readers for a project. The Sony e-reader wasn’t available here either but I’ve heard rumours it may be towards the end of the year. A few customers wanted to know what was available and the price of them. I answered all the questions that were fired at me however no one had a burning desire to run out and buy one there and then. But those who were asking the questions were obviously interested – or overly concerned, I couldn’t really tell. Was it because it was a new gadget? Something to admire, to be envious of, to be interested in.. Who knows, but inevitably the conversation would take one of two directions. Either “not sure I like it”, “can’t see me reading from it”, “I’m sorry I just love a book”, “the book is really dead then” OR “it will be great for travelling!” and “that will solve my [book] storage problems!!”

At the beautician a few days later, the young 18 year old behind the counter couldn’t contain her interest and was by my side in two seconds! “Oh MY GOD! Is that an ebook!? Where did you get it? Do you think it will eventually replace the book? AWESOME!” There was a different awe right up until I told her the price of e-readers in Australia. She just sighed.

Then today while waiting at Pattisons in St Ives for a coffee before work (I mention Pattisons purely because if you know it, you’ll know the queue that forms each morning for coffee!) my docket number was 100. They had just called 86. So what does a girl do while she waits? Well she pulls out an e-reader that's what! I could feel eyes looking over my shoulder and while I read Michael J Fox share his thoughts about politics, stem cell research and Parkinsons in his book Always Looking Up, I heard two women next me talk about reading and how kids don’t like to read anymore. They discussed the books they were currently reading. They said loudly how much they love a book. I hid my grin because they were so obvious! I was a traitor. How could I?! I should be shot. What they didn’t know was that I work in the book industry, I’ve worked in it for nearly 20 years, and I wanted to shout at the top of my lungs “hey I love a real book too but give me a chance, I’m trying to understand the appeal of an e-reader and is it really the future?”

I can’t deny there is an appeal but will it cannibalise print sales or bring in new readers? The more I live and breathe ebooks the more I think a percentage of readers will move over to electronic devices – e-readers, mobile phones, whatever takes their fancy – but ebooks will appeal to a new audience, another layer of reader. The critical factor will be what content will actually be available, the price, the release date, and whether it’s in the format you – as the customer – prefers to read from.

Sony e-reader review

2009-06-29T18:50:00.011+10:00

I'm currently trialling the HanLin and the Sony PRS-700 e-reader for an ebook project at work. When I started this blog I thought I'd review the HanLin e-reader first, but it's actually the Sony one that I'm reading more from at present, so it's going to end up reviewed first.

So my first thoughts about the Sony? Easier to use and more modern than the HanLin. Unfortunately the screen isn't as clear and the reflection from lights is annoying. You can't change the font - only the font size. The touch screen is good, I like it a lot. The main menu has the Continued Reading button, Your books, Your notes, Collections, Audio, Pictures and Settings (see image). I think the picture option is stupid, as the e-reader doesn't come in colour. Why would I want to look at a black & white picture? Not sure what Sony was thinking here! Once a title is selected, it's easy to set up how to turn the page. You can use the buttons or the touch screen. I'm actually using the stylus that came with it and you can set up what direction you'd prefer when turning the page. Once reading you can increase the size of the font to suit your needs and if it's your cup of tea, you can change to landscape. I'm finding the search function works well as does the Go To page. I haven't really used the Notes component but I played around with it, and no issues there. The synching from the Sony ebook portal isn't as good as I would expect and they have a bit more work to do until it has the same functionality as iTunes, for example. My main concern relates to the downloading of ebooks to the reader and for me, it's not as obvious as I would like as to whether the books have successfully loaded onto the e-reader. I need to keep playing with the type of books placed on the reader and moving content on and off the device so I am more familiar with the process. Lastly, the battery life is not as good as I would expect. The website says it lets you turn up to 7,500 continuous pages (or up to 2 weeks reading) on a single charge.. However if you use the built-in light, it chews up the battery very quickly. I would not recommend using it unless absolutely essential.

The Sony e-reader was sourced through our office in Portland Oregon. I believe it cost around $350 U.S. from the Sony website exclusive of shipping and extras like the charger (although you can charge by connecting via USB to your computer). The U.S. website advises the eBook Store is limited to U.S. and Canadian residents so my address is c/o our Head Office and I used my hotmail address so it would not impact on my project. I hear rumours Sony Australia may be launching towards the end of the year but have concerns about what product will be able to be sourced from them. Will they be creating a Sony Australia ebook store? I haven't heard from any publishers about being asked to provide Australian content. I DO know some trade publishers have made the Sony e-reader available to their publishing and senior sales/marketing staff. I can imagine how brilliant it would be when assessing manuscripts - no more paper, just the electronic file downloaded to the reader. Portable, paper-saving, easy access. Makes sense. And it also helps publishing staff become familiar with the device and thinking about the reading experience overall. So far, I've only heard a few publishing contacts mention they may move to reading all their books electronically but most in the publishing industry love the look and feel of a book. I'll continue this train of thought somewhere in future..... that, and a review of the HanLin. The one I thought I'd review first!

The fourth Twilight Book

2009-06-15T13:33:00.010+10:00

I still can't quite believe I read 4 Stephenie Meyer e-books. In the end I read them all within a week, with Breaking Dawn finished late Thursday night the 4th June.

This was an interesting experiment with ebooks. I picked Twilight purely from the bestseller list. As far as I knew, it was a novel for teenage girls. There was very little chance I would read the bugger! Even when I started reading I thought the writing was poor, basic, unimaginative but I kept going. What "got me" was the Bella & Edward story. Yes hidden beneath this tough (cough cough) exterior is a soft mushy romantic. And of course let's pretend for a minute we aren't talking a vampire love story! I'm still trying to come to terms with all of this!! Somehow I just got sucked in (yes, couldn't resist the pun)....and really enjoyed it.

So to sum up my first ebook experience: Interesting choice. Resulted in 3 additional sales (4 if you count the Twilight DVD, 5 if you count the movie soundtrack, 6 if you count the piano score....). Yes, tragic isn't it. Consumerism gone mad.

But back to ebooks. The purchasing process was just like Apple's iTunes portal. You choose your ebook and purchase with a simple click or two. The site uses the credit card details stored from the previous purchase as per your profile. On completion of the sale, an email notification is sent but not an invoice like Apple's iTunes. I would have preferred the formal invoice but that's a personal choice.

Another downside is that you can't view before you purchase on the Sony ebook site. We are all used to sampling music tracks, why not sample ebooks in the same vein? Not having the preview functionality is a shame and I would have thought Sony had enough negotiating power with publishers - plus the technology - to do this effectively. Afterall Mobipocket's ebook site allows a demo to be viewed, stored, downloaded to your portable device - why hasn't Sony offered the same? Browsing is an important part of the ebook purchasing process and I trust they will add that to the portal in the near future.

STOP THE PRESS! I've just gone back into the Sony ebook portal and good news! They have "excerpts" as Coming Soon. They already have 20, 18, and 12 books featured for June, July and August respectively. At this stage they don't appear to be incorporated into the main functionality, but as a side bar. Hopefully the preview button will be part of the purchasing process in the coming months rather than having to navigate separately through the portal...

The last downside was reading on a computer. We spend all day on the blasted contraptions - email, websites, databases, spreadsheets, documents etc. Why on earth would we read a complete ebook as well? Well I have and I will again! I just have to position my body appropriately with better lighting. That may stop the headaches. I haven't had them since I stopped reading from the laptop, so I'm assuming the two are linked.

As to the handheld e-readers, I'm not liking the HanLin but will review that separately. The Sony ebook reader is enroute from our head office in the U.S. and I'm getting very excited about seeing it. (Particularly when my colleagues from the U.S. sent this email:

We have your Sony reader. If you ever want to see it again, place $10,000 in unmarked bills behind a certain convenience market in NW Portland ....!

I will post again once it's arrived and I've successfully downloaded the other ebooks I plan to read on the device. Stay tuned folks.

The third ebook this week

2009-06-04T13:08:00.011+10:00

Let's try and overlook the fact that I'm reading Stephenie Meyer. I can't quite get over it myself. On a positive note I've read my third ebook this week - Eclipse - and I'm onto my fourth and final in the Twilight Series. I expect I will have finished Breaking Dawn by tomorrow.

My Sony e-reader is yet to arrive from the U.S. (and when I say "my" Sony e-reader, it will be a work one that I'm using for research purposes, hence the reason for this blog) so I'm reading using the Sony ebook portal. 2 pages at a time, so the ebooks are like 1300 pages long, but I'm getting through them with a simple page down.

Taking my laptop to lunch has been an interesting experiment this week. Let's say it's causing quite the stir in the lunchroom, particularly since we are in the business of selling books - mainly the tangible product you can hold in your hands, write in, bend, throw around. Shouts of "traitor" have been heard already!

I haven't warmed to the HanLin yet (the black screen and delay when turning pages is off-putting) but let's get the distraction of Stephenie Meyer out of the way first and I'll then see how the reading experience goes on the e-reader and the other ebook platforms. I have several books lined up waiting to be read on both so I'll look at them over the next few days.

Oh before I forget, I should note the headaches that started earlier this week. Several days in a row. Linked to reading on the computer? Who knows. Anyone care to start taking bets?

Two ebooks within 24 hours: is this a miracle?!

2009-05-31T22:35:00.007+10:00

OK, is this due to Stephenie Meyer and me getting sucked in big time (gotta love the pun) or is it something else? I don't think I've ever read two books in one weekend before (not including holidays...) and yet here we are 48 hours into my ebook experiment, and I've read two friggin books ON THE COMPUTER (hello? what's happening to me???). Granted, not great works by a long shot, but I'm getting through them at a rate of knots. This is a strange experience and at this point I'm not sure what to make of it. Here I am READING..! I'm not watching television, I'm not playing games, wasting time on Facebook or my Flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachaelmc/ in case you're interested), I'm reading an ebook. Wonders will never cease.

My first ebook experience

2009-05-30T23:20:00.003+10:00

OMG I don't believe it. I read a whole book on the computer. From start to finish. Started last night and finished up 24 hours later. What's more, that book was Twilight. So here I was thinking a) I'm not the demographic for the book and b) I'm not the demographic for ebooks read on screen. Think again Rachael! I'll be ordering the other Meyer ebooks tomorrow.

Ah somedays I surprise even myself... :)

Part One: The ebook blog begins

2009-05-30T17:13:00.012+10:00

Hi. I'm completely new to this. Never thought I'd contemplate a blog. Then again I also said to everyone that would listen that I would NEVER ... EVER purchase a digital camera (I spent a small fortune on my first one, loved it, and spent even more money September last year on a DSLR). And here I am again saying who really reads e-books, particularly on a computer? I spend all friggin day - and most of the evening - on a computer, so why would I want to read a book there.

You see, I work in the book industry and have done so for nearly 20 years. The last six years I've worked on "the dark side" as I call it. When my resignation from publishing was announced to my colleagues, there was a sigh of relief I wasn't going to the competition. I wasn't even going into bookselling. I was going into the depths of library supply. Yes we call ourselves booksellers but what we do, day in and day out, goes beyond that. Those in publishing will never understand library supply. They try. But it's not until you go to "TDS" that you realise it's another world.

Speaking of other worlds, after years of reading articles about ebooks and talking to publishers about digitisation, I've actually made the decision to start exploring the ebook market further on the personal front. Professionally, we have sold ebooks to academic libraries for several years and I am absolutely 100% committed to ebooks for this market: all that content at your fingertips, Search and Discovery, patron driven demand models. Good stuff! But what about fiction. Would you read the latest novel on your computer or a hand-held device?

That's the test and what I'm going to be blogging about. You see, I'm not the demographic for this stuff but I have to understand it. Are ebooks the future? I read dozens of articles every week that say the end of the book is nigh. Good Lord! The end of the book has been coming for years and since the Internet the noise keeps getting louder and louder. Lots of column space. But really people! Think about it. It's about READING. For pleasure, for education, for work. Look at Generation Y and what we are competing with. There are way too many distractions. When I find a teenager who actually LIKES to read, I want to kiss their feet. In fact, as my godson Jack will tell you, I BEG him to read so I will remain in a job until retirement age. (Heartbreak: he HATES reading. I told him that needs to change otherwise I'll write him out of my will, but it doesn't change anything! It's about mobile phones that do 100 things, computer games, sport, anything BUT reading...I still live in hope....sigh)

But back to the ebooks (see this is my first blog, I'm easily distracted LOL) would I read MORE if I utilised ebook portals and mastered the handheld device? Would I LIKE the experience? What will work better for me - content read for work purposes and professional development, or books for pleasure. What about my commitment to the local book industry, to publishers, to booksellers. Will I discover new authors? Will I read things I wouldn't normally do. And exactly how bloody hard will it be for me, here in Sydney, to actually access the books.

Amazon's Kindle is not available here. Nor the Sony e-reader. We have The Iliad sold through DA in Melbourne. A whopping $1299 for an e-reader ($1099 for another version). There are watered down ones like the HanLin (which I have on loan for work purposes at present. An industry colleague there reckons I'll be a convert in no time!) You read the spin about each device every day, OMG stop the press Oprah recommended The Kindle. Yes, it's called marketing and giving one to everyone in her audience (which seems to be the done thing on American chat shows now - so boring!). Great promotion for Amazon. It's the winner. Next day you'll read about another new device and how Sony's e-reader is taking on the world. Then there's the latest product release. The COOL-ER for example. Looks ipod-y. Got my attention I must say but let me guess, it won't be available in Australia? The good ones never are....

So not only do we have the problem with the actual e-readers, I'm sceptical about what content I can get (afterall the Sony ebook website doesn't even RECOGNISE you if you are in Australia!). And as a layperson am I really supposed to know the difference between EPUB files and PDFs on an e-reader? I'm not the most tech savvy person, but I'll press the buttons, I'll read about devices, and in the end I'll figure it out!

So it's Saturday 30th May here in Sydney and it's time for a status update. I've got the Mobipocket and Sony ebooks library installed on my computer (thanks to a U.S. work address) I've got a Sony e-reader about to be ordered and sent to me from a colleague in Oregon and I've got this HanLin to assess for possible reselling opportunities through work. I ordered The Alchemist using Mobipocket to trial and downloaded more than a dozen classic works for free (Austen, Bronte, Byron etc). And I ordered the book (and movie) of the moment, Twilight, using the Sony store.

At this stage I'm not looking at reading on mobiles (yes, I hear you, the Stanza application is soooo popular on the iphone, I get it I get it!, but I'm not going to even attempt reading on a small device like a mobile so consider it as out of scope for this project for now)

So ebooks, reading on a computer, reading on a dedicated e-reader. Hmmmm. Will I convert? Will I enjoy? And will it have it's ipod moment for me. Stay tuned and let's discover this together.