Jay Huldeen
on Feb 20th, 2010
@ 12:44 am: 

Gooooogle: what happens when they ‘own’ digital copies of all non-copyrighted books? (or is it all books everywhere that they are trying to grab?) Will the world end? Or will mankind just continue to get stupider, once the original copies have been disposed of and there’s no way to tell what they’ve altered in the digital version?

For example, will 1984’s Winston Smith character one day become a kindly rescuer of lab rats liberated by animal rights activists, whose passion for maltreated rodents is assisted by a certain benevolent Internet company’s search engine features, which allows him to organize the movement much more quickly than if he’d had to rely on word of mouth or even yesterday’s electronic mass media?

Maybe more to your liking: what happens to your business and the business of other actual publishers with a history of making stuff out of paper, ink and leather once Goooooogle digitizes it all? I know there’s not much backlist market, (but then why is Gooooogle so hot to acquire this stuff?!?), but are there implications for the publishing business?

Looking forward to your soon return! Please include some morsels of your travels to exotic and faraway places, whatever you write about. It’s like adding a little garlic pepper sauce to your soup.

[Reply]

Jay Huldeen
on Feb 20th, 2010
@ 9:10 am: 

Evan,

I may be paranoid, but I am no Luddite (obviously). Still, it is disconcerting to see the paradigm shifting so rapidly. I — fear is not the right word — dislike is probably better — that a couple of college geeks who were essentially just bright code-monkeys have figured out, with their Boolean strings and webcrawlers, how to ride on the backs of the thousands of database administrators who built the web — database administrators who are basically people who build electronic library shelves. That’s not bad in itself, but now Gooooogle has transmogrified from this mildly annoying but harmless spinster librarian into a bald guy in an expensive but tasteless suit stroking a purring Angora cat on his lap as he plots world domination from his bunker. (Probably now they’ll publish all my personal information, once their bots find this post.) (Oh wait, they already have, and I didn’t get a dime for it.)

As for Apple, all I have to say is: http://www.cracked.com/article_18377_5-reasons-you-should-be-scared-apple.html

Looking forward to your thoughts on the real threats to publishing, and to news of the current state of Mexico City street tacos, and perhaps some descriptions of authentic curry from Bangalore, or figgy pudding from Warwickshire.

Also, and meaning no disrespect, but what is a ‘publishing ecosystem’ exactly? And where does OUP fit into that? Are you part of the canopy, perhaps?

Jay

[Reply]

Shipping Online
on Jan 14th, 2010
@ 7:31 pm: 

I believe one of the main reasons that publishers don’t want there content test to speech enabled, is due to the fact that more then likely they will end up online as torrents. Freely downloadable by everyone on the net. Its a shame piracy stops dis advantaged people from using certen types of technology!

[Reply]

Gary Arms
on May 11th, 2009
@ 5:43 am: 

As someone who teaches the Online Generation, I think it will happen the way it did with music and the way it is now happening with movies and TV shows. People with no ownership stake will put content on line so that others can “share” it. And so the dike will be breached. I agree completely with Evan’s analysis of the Online Generation and his prediction that they will increasingly ignore anything not in the cloud. Anyone who teaches knows it is increasingly difficult to get students to read books. There is a small but significant young audience for books, but a distressingly large portion of the younger generation will not read entire books unless required to do so by professors. When the online generation does research, they do it almost entirely online. Publishers and authors will continue to squabble. Again, I agree with Evan’s analysis; they will never come to general agreement. Meanwhile, the cloud will expand, gobbling up everything that exists in digital form. In music, it appears that artists will continue to make money but most of their revenue will come from live performance, the sale of tee shirts etc. To a considerable degree, the music industry has lost control of its product. “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” The success of Hulu suggests that TV and movies can make money selling ads on their own site, a site that is easy to use, reliable and free of viruses. A huge amount of print (especially periodicals) is already on line; the magazines sell ad space too. This is the single most important problem facing all content providers. The future will belong to those able to adapt to the new environment.

[Reply]

Another copyright reshuffle that’s in the cards - The Shatzkin Files
on May 12th, 2009
@ 5:11 am: 

[...] Schnittman at Black Plastic Glasses posted the final chunk of a 3-parter yesterday that contained a real shocker (to me) at the end. The 3-part post shows through [...]

Jeroen
on May 6th, 2009
@ 3:04 pm: 

You’re asking two things here:
1) The question is whether we can deliver immersive reading in a manner that is relevant to Generation On-Demand.
2) What will we need to do as an industry to make that happen?

You already gave the answer: put it in the “clouds”. This will automatically lead to a “usage fee” instead of a “buying fee”. For the consumer than it is important to know what they’re paying for. Is it a product I’m paying for or is it the usage of the content? And is the content mine? Can I resell it or lend it to a friend? No, why not? Next to changing the contract structures I think the transition to e-reading involves a lot of communication to the consumer about what is possible and what is not.

[Reply]

Jeff
on May 6th, 2009
@ 8:50 pm: 

Good analysis, though I think issues of reading need separating from issues of access.

Immersive reading might be slippery to define. Those of us who value long-form prose have always been in the minority throughout history. We just hate to confront that reality for fears of being called elitist. As far as “immersive reading” in digital media goes, everyone should look more towards documentary films than print as a content model though there’s obviously not much of a revenue model there. Intellectual property constraints will do more to limit creativity or new forms of “writing” in digital media than on reading and distribution.

I think you’re absolutely right in that the future is about on demand access to material. And that can be in the format of one’s preference (be it digital or print via print-on-demand or even traditional bookstores).

[Reply]

Jenny Ruhl
on Apr 15th, 2009
@ 9:04 am: 

Unless publishers confront head on the monopolistic nature of the ebook market–B&N’s Fictionwise vs Amazon and not much else, you’ll have no choice of models. And as Amazon has shown, they can and in the future will determine at their owner’s command what books should be sold and how.

Isn’t it time to fund a nonprofit organization to create a mega site that would provide open access download sales? Open it to all publishers. Put in a better review/rank algorithm than Amazon’s very flawed version to allow readers to find books they’d want to read. Offer multiple discounts to publishers of the type you’ve suggested here.

Right now you have as much ability to negotiate discounts with Amazon as you did with Ma Bell in the 1970s.

[Reply]

Mike Violano
on Apr 15th, 2009
@ 12:40 pm: 

Evan,
I think you’re actually raising the bigger issue of publishing business models. Reseller discounts in the print book world have evolved and increased based on multiple factors such as returns, volume purchasing…and “risk” and have actually contributed to rising cover prices to accommodate both higher discounts and lower net unit sales.

Ebook pricing, reseller discounts, author royalty share and publisher profit is a very perplexing equation; traditional book selling models are not an effective guide. Most trade publishers do not yet embrace ebooks as an intrinsic part of their business…they continue to consider ebook sales as incremental to “core” (hardcover, paperback, audio) formats.
eBook sales are growing but not as fast from trade publishers points of view to cause an extreme makeover of business models, discounts, author agreements or even book production processes. Until ebooks make a greater contribution to revenues most publishers will continue to apply or tweak the old print rules to handle ebook sales, reseller discounts, and authors royalties.

[Reply]

Why Ebooks Must Fail « Black Plastic Glasses
on Apr 18th, 2009
@ 6:09 am: 

[...] inflammatory title, but this article, especially when taken in context with the follow up piece Discounts Must Align to Risks, is about supporting growth in the ebook market, not predicting its demise. Ebooks are the future [...]

Anita Pyke
on Apr 22nd, 2009
@ 6:39 am: 

Evan, how do you see new discount models possibly rolling out in practice? Would publishers band together to negotiate with Amazon and other retailers?
What incentive would there be for ebook retails to renegotiate the current discount structure?
I still feel strongly for revision of advances. Big authors should take their cue from the players in Hollywood – the real money is in profit share.

[Reply]

Evan Reply:
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:47 pm

Thanks for the comment.

Publishers cannot band together to negotiate with resellers as that would be collusion. Each publisher must negotiate on their own and set their own rates.

The big question is why would retailers accept this change? My answer is that it will take some work, some cooperation, and some experimentation. I am not sure the specific plan outlined here will work – though I am convinced that publishers and resellers need to find smarter ways to work out risk management in publishing. Payment terms and discounts are one obvious place to start – but there are others – profit sharing by authors is certainly one route, as you mention.

[Reply]

J.
on May 3rd, 2009
@ 3:48 pm: 

Hey Evan,

First of all, thanks for posting all these interesting perspectives on the publishing industry. As a student I started a project about ebooks and I need to do some research for it. So I contacted several publishers but nobody gave me clear answers or possible solutions on how to (r)evolutionize the industry for the new way of reading. But your blog is very helpfull and I’m really looking forward for your other posts. There’s only one big question that rose when I read all your posts: what about the educational market? In your posts you’re only talking about the trade book market… I guess there is a big difference in the educational segment because of lower risks in that segment.

What do you think?

[Reply]

Evan Reply:
May 5th, 2009 at 8:15 am

J:

Yes, education is quite different as nothing, to date in the world of ebooks or electronic content delivery has come close to being successful. Textbooks still reign as there isn’t a direct to consumer pathway as is found in consumer (trade) oriented publishing. Textbooks are selected (adopted) by faculty and/or administrators who in turn require the purchase by students or local schools. There are too many competing interests for this to work now – but watch Amazon as they will supposedly be announcing a unique experiment in Higher Education for a new Kindle.

[Reply]

Jeroen Reply:
May 5th, 2009 at 3:07 pm

Thanks for replying! So a good way to get the educational market into e-reading would be to team up with universities and decide on which books need to be transformed into e-content? By teaming up with the universities an e-book distributor knows, by estimation how many students are going to buy the books so a model of Advance Purchases should be applicable. I think for the educational market this is the way to go… Or is this just to shortsighted? What about the competing interests? I dont understand that part.

[Reply]

Times Book Review on advances, and related thoughts - The Shatzkin Files
on Apr 11th, 2009
@ 11:45 am: 

[...] have different takes. His is publisher-centric. Hey! He’s a publisher! Enjoy it. Bookmark [...]