It was a seemingly innocuous situation… I was sitting in a room filled with publishing types: book publishers, librarians, agents, industry press, metadata specialists, and consultants of varying shapes and sizes. We were there in an advisory role to one of the digital publishing conferences. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: a&c black, acblack, Amazon, Amazon Kindle, App Store, Apple, Barnes & Noble, bloomsbury, Bloomsbury Publishing, Books, Business, continuum, Digital Publishing, DRM, E-book, ebooks, Electronic publishing, Evan Schnittman, Filedby, Google, google ebooks, HarperCollins, idealog, Ingram, iPhone, iTunes, Kindle, mike shatzkin, Peter Balis, publishing, Publishing and Printing, Self-publishing, shatzkin, shatzkin files, walker books, Writers Resources
Last week Amazon announced that the third generation Kindle became the best selling single product in their history! (http://bit.ly/dOL8AQ) Triangulating this news with an insider rumor insider claiming that Amazon sold over 8 million Kindle’s last year puts the Kindle in the same sales range as the iPad. One has to wonder what the reaction in Cupertino to this shocking bit of news. Read the rest of this entry »
eBooks and the Science Community: My ScienceOnline 2011 reading list | Kylemilhoan's Blog
on Jan 14th, 2011
@ 5:05 am:
[...] Amazon’s Newest BFF [...]
Colin Crawford
on Jun 14th, 2011
@ 7:59 am:
It will get very interesting once Amazon releases Android based tablets later this year.
[Reply]
Tags: Amazon, Amazon Kindle, App Store, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Blackberry OS, ebooks, Evan Schnittman, Google, IBook, iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Macintosh, Nook, publishing, Sony Reader, Trade Publishing
Last week in The Bookseller, Philip Jones covered a seminar in the UK by Enders Analysis that presented data done as a part of a Nielsen BookScan report. The article led with the following statement.
“The growth in e-book sales in genres such as romance and science-fiction is leading to a cannibalisation in sales of printed books, according to Nielsen BookScan data.”
This led to the inevitable debate on the Read2.0 listserv (also known as the Brantley List for the devoted followers of Mike Shatzkin). While there was little illumination in the ensuing voluminous discussion, there was an overall consensus that ebooks were indeed cannibalizing print books. Read the rest of this entry »
Eoin Purcell
on Sep 27th, 2010
@ 10:58 am:
Evan,
I don’t see how this makes much difference other than semantics. The two critical facts from the presentation were:
1) Specific genre saw e-sales go up
2) Same specific genre saw p-sales go down
It is thus seems clear that ebook sales were driving down sales pbooks. All of which equalled cannibalization.
Now in the medium to long run you may very well get those ebook buyers to buy more ebooks than they ever did pbooks (and thus increase the overall revenue of the genre), but those sales are definitely affecting pbook sales.
Whether you decide that that’s people’s doing or the fact that ebooks are now available, the result is the same, pbooks sales fall because of ebooks/people who read ebooks.
I remain unconvinced though that this will result in a profitable expansion of the market for current publishers
Eoin
[Reply]
Go Read This | Ebooks Don’t Cannibalize Print, People Do « Black Plastic Glasses | Eoin Purcell's Blog
on Sep 27th, 2010
@ 11:00 am:
[...] via Ebooks Don’t Cannibalize Print, People Do « Black Plastic Glasses. [...]
Scott Walker
on Sep 27th, 2010
@ 11:19 am:
The unbundling of content from medium causes both an evaporation of formerly accessible value and the creation of new value opportunities.
This article highlights the emphasis consumers place on the services wrapped around the content, which is where all of the new value opportunities are emerging.
[Reply]
Moni
on Sep 27th, 2010
@ 2:00 pm:
I have long debated print v ebook and am on the verge of ‘giving’ in to ebook readers. As a librarian, I am somewhat torn. As a systems librarian/webmaster, I keep wondering what my problem is.
But you justified it right here: “Because ever since I started using a dedicated ereading device and platform I have found the convenience of having all the books I am reading and want to read all in one device far more convenient than toting around one print book at a time.”
I bought 5 print books at Borders yesterday, because I had convinced myself that I prefer print! But this morning I noticed, I can’t bring ALL of them to work. But I could if I had an ereader. Although I prefer reading a print book, they are not as “convenient” as an ebook.
Thanks for the article!
[Reply]
Joe Hauer
on Sep 27th, 2010
@ 2:11 pm:
I just bought 2 kindles, one for me, one for my wife.
I have purchased 2 books I already own for the same reasons; adding one reason, for the ability to search the book.
I am actually trying to keep myself from buying another book that I am reading in printed form as an ebook, solely to see if I can keep myself from buying the ebook.
I am trying to convince myself that I will continue to buy printed books, but I am not so sure that will be the case.
If the economy made it as easy for people to buy ereaders as it did during the boom to buy ipods, the transition would be faster.
In any case 100% agreed, it is not cannibalization. Also and aside, I would not stop if the ebook was the same price as print. I do not mind paying for books that are worth the money, whatever format they are in.
[Reply]
Corey Podolsky
on Sep 27th, 2010
@ 3:39 pm:
Great post Evan. Although I think that the debate of digital cannibalizing print misses the overall mark.
Your posts suggest that overall book sales should be rising; a percentage of book buyers no longer buy print, but that segment will purchase more books overall, albeit digitally. This could only be bad for the Industry if ebooks are sold at a substantial discount to Print.
It would be very interesting if Nielsen BookScan (or someone) would do a follow up study on the price elasticity of ebooks relative to print. If ebooks were priced on par with print, would ebooks buyers continue to purchase more books?
I would bet yes, that the convenience would still win out.
Digital cannibalizing Print is too simplistic. The focus should be on convenience, price and the price elasticity of demand of the various formats.
[Reply]
scott
on Sep 27th, 2010
@ 9:11 pm:
Um. With this same argument, digital music didn’t cannabalize CDs people owning ipods did.
I’ve certainly bought more music on my ipod and iphone than I did before, but I’m paying a lot less for it too.
If the music business is any inidication of the future of ebooks… watch out publishers.
[Reply]
John
on Sep 28th, 2010
@ 3:39 pm:
What you’ve said is pretty much the exact same for me too.
Wish more books were available digitally and in Canada.
[Reply]
eBooks provide benefit across the publishing value chain | Michael Gracie
on Sep 29th, 2010
@ 7:46 am:
[...] Evan Schnittman notes, the growing investment in readers makes eBook version availability a must: Ebooks aren’t a [...]
On Publishing Economics & Canabilsm | Eoin Purcell's Blog
on Sep 29th, 2010
@ 8:27 am:
[...] Schnittman has an interesting analysis in which he posits that ebooks are not the issue, it is the changing way people interact with books when they sh… and that it’s not such a problem in the medium to long run: The good news is that the same [...]
Matt
on Sep 29th, 2010
@ 5:31 pm:
Great article. I too, have purchased an ebook while having the print book. I felt stupid doing it, but it’s just too darn convenient. The survey that says 80% would never consider buying an ebook is only because they don’t know any better. They’ll come around.
I really have trouble understanding why textbooks are slow coming around. I understand that it will decimate backpack sales, but that’s not the publishers problem.
[Reply]
Irfon-Kim Ahmad
on Sep 29th, 2010
@ 7:03 pm:
I’ve had an ebook reader for some time, and this is entirely true of me, but I’d say that my case is even more advanced.
By and large, if a book isn’t released as an ebook, I just won’t buy it. I would say that for fiction that’s been 100% true for some time now. And so I do browse for titles to buy on the ebook stores, and ignore what’s not available in the format.
Recently, an instructional book on a very narrow topic came out — it’s a unique book, in fact. As far as I know no other book on this topic exists, worldwide. I knew about its release far in advance because I’m very involved in the small, tightly-knit community from whence it came. As such, I bought the print edition. When it arrived, I started to devour it, and for the first evening was delighted. Since then, I’ve had to force myself to read it one other time but otherwise it’s gathering dust. Recently the ebook edition was announced as forthcoming, and I will almost certainly buy it as soon as it arrives.
However, a bigger demonstration of what you’re talking about comes in other non-fiction books that I’ve been purchasing for work lately. I didn’t even look at Amazon and other sites that specialize in print books, even though the selection is larger. I’ve looked exclusively through ebook sources. And in the case where I couldn’t find one that fit my criteria (in particular, all the ebooks on the subject were out of date), instead of conceding and buying a print book, I decided to find free websites to read up on the subject from instead. So absolutely if there is someone out there who had a more recent book on the subject, by not having it available as an ebook they lost a sale right then an there.
I’ve pretty much learned my lesson now, in fact. I doubt I’ll buy any more print books in the future, no matter how interesting they may look. The reality is that I just don’t read them, and they sit on my bedside table in an ever increasing pile, making me feel guilty. And what’s the point in that, when instead I could buy a good ebook and actually read it?
[Reply]
Three fledglings that really should fly – The Shatzkin Files
on Sep 30th, 2010
@ 6:53 am:
[...] a recent blogosphere conversation sparked by Evan Schnittman’s observation that the impact of the ebook shift could be an expansion of the …, Eoin Purcell wrote about the commercial impact of readers shifting from ebooks to print. Purcell [...]
Jim
on Sep 30th, 2010
@ 11:43 am:
I think it would be helpful if BookScan confirmed that the same retailers reporting in 2009 were also reporting in 2010. If not, then the YOY analysis is distorted.
[Reply]
Paco Prieto » La servilleta dominical, edición 03.10.01
on Oct 3rd, 2010
@ 10:21 am:
[...] (localizado a través de @javigoto). Y en la otra mano un recordatorio sobre el hecho de que No és el ebook quien “canibaliza” el libro impreso. Son las personas, los usuarios quienes responden a un mercado, a una industria, a unas tendencias,… si éstas [...]
Michael Allen
on Oct 4th, 2010
@ 2:24 am:
Yes, owners of Kindles etc *do* buy — when we can get it. Often, I find that I can’t. Case in point: today, found reference to David Sedaris’s Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk. This is available in Kindle in the US, but not in the UK. Am I going to buy paper version? No. Am I going to look up my local library? Maybe. But the most likely result is that I shall just read something else on my Kindle. As far as I am concerned, and I may be an odd type of reader, publishers are losing potential purchases from me on a daily basis. Most common reason: ebook price is absurdly high, causing me to mutter two words. Second reason: they haven’t even had the wit to publish a Kindle version at all. Which, come to think of it, is par for the course from our forward-thinking, innovative IK publishers.
[Reply]
MRW
on Oct 4th, 2010
@ 8:18 am:
“I really have trouble understanding why textbooks are slow coming around. ”
For most books, simply transferring the text while maintaining paragraph structure is enough. Textbook publishers are used to paying attention to graphics and page layout. Few e-book readers can display color graphics (some don’t even do a good job with grayscale). Few e-book readers have sufficient screen size to display the same page layout as a textbook – and even if they did most e-book formats wouldn’t preserve the layout anyway.
Additionally, the markets are very different. Assuming comparable profits per book (flawed, but bear with me), publisher benefit if the total sales increase, even if the print book sales decrease. In the fiction market, the existence of e-books increases total sales even as it decreases print sales. In the textbook market, I doubt this will be true.
[Reply]
Kindle, eBooks continue to take over book sales « Kindle Review – Kindle 3 Review, iPad Review
on Oct 13th, 2010
@ 5:22 am:
[...] Schnittman writes that eBooks don’t cannibalize Print, People do - I posit a slightly more nuanced definition of what is [...]
Alison
on Oct 15th, 2010
@ 12:30 pm:
I have hardly bought a printed book in a year, and I used to be a big consumer (witness my dusty bookcases.) I now either buy the book as an ebook, or get it from the library. With the Amazon Kindle samples I can try out a book. If I like it a lot I buy it. If I think it’s ok, I check it out from the library. The big exception is knitting books. I still buy those in print.
[Reply]
Why we should get ready for a plunge in print book sales, by Peter Ginna « Readersforum's Blog
on Dec 18th, 2010
@ 4:19 am:
[...] p-book sales on a one to one basis, as my colleague Evan Schnittman points out in his post “E-Books Don’t Cannibalize Print, People Do.” Evan argues that once you have adopted an e-reader–whether it’s Kindle, Nook, or your [...]
Tags: Amazon, Amazon Kindle, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Books, Business, Cambridge University, Digital Publishing, E-book, ebooks, Evan Schnittman, Hachette, iPhone, Kindle, MacBook Pro, publishing, Publishing and Printing, Trade Publishing
The history of digital reading in a fascinating one and I believe exploring its development arc helps predict the trends that may lie ahead. Thinking about what worked early on – meaning what was read in digital form – use cases where search, find, and quick read were the primary means of interacting with the content, such as encyclopedias and reference works, directories and other data driven compendia.
Mike Shatzkin
on Mar 23rd, 2010
@ 6:08 am:
Very thoughtful and original post. You make a critical point that textbooks matched the ecosystem of learning: one class moving at a constant speed from a common starting point to a common ending point. And clearly, digital change enables our learning materials, at least, to be much more nuanced than that.
[Reply]
Chris Cosner
on Mar 24th, 2010
@ 12:38 pm:
Thank you for this post.
Re: “The basic assumption of each text is that students all come in at or near the same level and leave at or near the same level.”
Having taught a foreign language from various textbooks, I can say that there is no class in which everyone is assumed to be at exactly the same level, though it is perhaps always a quixotic hope. The teacher inevitably makes adjustments for as many students as possible. FL textbooks are designed to be used in precisely this way. Many include sets of questions in the introduction to help the student determine what to work on, as well as tests at the end of chapters. Students naturally learn to work with the textbook at their own pace. A good teacher expects more from advanced students and recognizes real progress in the less advanced students.
I’m not sure there is anything earth-shattering a digital book can bring to *this aspect* of the textbook. It is up to the author to create a pedagogically sound design, and up to the teacher to coach the students on how to use the textbook.
One way a digital approach might address the problem of different levels of ability is a kind of rental or buy-in to a whole set of textbooks, so the student is free to move forwards and backwards through the material preceding and subsequent to the class.
But even this may be resisted by educators. After all, the student is always free to go to the library for more material, or to work with a tutor if they are behind. The whole point of a class is to be working together on a subject, to be on the same page. That motivates less advanced students to catch up, and it helps the ‘advanced’ students to solidify material of which they may not yet have a perfect grasp.
[Reply]
The iPad: Gateway Drug to Digital Learning? « Black Plastic Glasses
on May 5th, 2010
@ 3:46 am:
[...] my last post, What’s Next in Digital Reading I explored my notion that there are three kinds of reading; extractive: immersive, and pedagogic. [...]
How do you read? :: Work+Place Discussing Workplace Trends
on May 14th, 2010
@ 1:57 pm:
[...] an ardent reader I was interested in the three kinds of reading described in What’s Next in Digital Reading? (found via Interstitial [...]
Collection Development Blog » Interstitial reading
on Sep 12th, 2010
@ 6:14 pm:
[...] Schnittman of OUP has an interesting post in which he discusses three types of digital reading: extractive, immersive and pedagogic. It is [...]
Tags: Amazon, Amazon Kindle, App Store, Apple, Authors Guild, Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble, Books, Cengage, Digital Publishing, Digital Reading, DRM, e-ink, ebooks, econtent, Entourage eDGe, Evan Schnittman, Extractive Reading, Filedby, Follett, Google, Higher Education, Houghton Mifflin, ibookstore, Immersive Reading, Ingram, iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Liquid crystal display, McGraw-Hill, Niko Pfund, Pearson, publishing, Textbooks, XML
Watch this space in early March for my return to blogging.
I am taking suggestions here for topics you want to see me cover. I will be checking the comments section daily and take on all serious ideas.
See you all soon!
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=7f294007-58de-47c9-874c-bde45df918d3)
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]
Evan
on Feb 20th, 2010
@ 5:06 am:
Jay:
Nice to see you read my blog! I also see you are as creative and paranoid as ever!
I dont fear the Goog nor do I fear Apple as a publisher as I find them to be dangerous and powerful giants focused on other goals and businesses – in the case of Google its Search and Advertising in the case of Apple its Hardware and Software. Creating content is in their core missions nor do they see themselves as core to the publishing ecosystem.
There are far greater threats to book publishers that Google/Apple can help to neutralize if we work with them wisely. This will be the theme of BPG for the foreseeable future – but a bit of travelogue might not be a bad idea! I am thinking of starting with street tacos in Mexico City…
Evan
[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]
Tags: Amazon, Apple, Authors Guild, Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble, Books, CoreSource, Digital Publishing, ebooks, econtent, epub, Evan Schnittman, Fictionwise, Filedby, Google, Hachette, HarperCollins, Hodder, IDPF, Ingram, iPhone, iRex, Kindle, Libre Digital, Overdrive, Oxford University Press, Pearson, Penguin, Plastic Logic, publishing, Random House, Simon & Schuster, Sony Reader, Taylor & Francis, Technology, Trade Publishing, Waterstones, XML
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meg white
on Aug 1st, 2011
@ 7:33 am:
you may be going mainstream, but you’ll never be ordinary.
[Reply]
Martyn Daniels
on Aug 1st, 2011
@ 8:06 am:
Evan probably one step behind you for different but silimliar reasons
Still have a lot to say and input but it like watching the children grow up – sometimes you have to let go
Martyn
[Reply]
Jack W Perry
on Aug 1st, 2011
@ 9:39 am:
I am sure we will hear many of your thoughts in the various other venues. Good luck and look forward to you r next blog.
[Reply]
David Worlock
on Aug 1st, 2011
@ 11:48 am:
Evan Well , I have loved your work on this site , and I think your new glasses are an improvement . But as to your point ? Well , I have known that we were living in a digital first world since 1985 and the revolution in science and professional publishing . The frustration has been that general consumer entertainment publishing workflow and marketplaces took so long to catch on – and always assumed that they were somehow ” publishing ” in essence . So lets drop digital – and lets drop “publishing ” with it !
Thanks for great arguments sustained over the years ! David
[Reply]
Jay Huldeen
on Aug 11th, 2011
@ 8:15 am:
Evan, my dear friend, you went corporate back in 1986. I’m glad you have finally realized it.
It would be interesting to hear your musings on the how the effective transfer of control of ‘content’ (what a dreary word when the emphasis is on the first syllable!) from the old order to the digerati will affect our culture generally. Do you think we will continue to get stupider, or are you hopeful that somehow there will be a recovery of real literacy? Or am I simply wrong in my premises?
The new glasses are very corporate, and a good look for you. Please let us know where to find your new blog.
[Reply]