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The Day Digital Died

Evan — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:12:31 +0000

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. Things started innocently enough – the usual suspects began to chime in (I am shamelessly unable NOT to talk in a group). As I spoke I began to feel a strong sense of familiarity. And that feeling grew and grew as the conversation rolled forward until I felt I was having a deja vu on steroids moment. It dawned on me that I was in the exact same discussion about the exact same conference in the...

Amazon’s Newest BFF

Evan — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 13:18:40 +0000

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. This is important for a few reasons; first it demonstrates that there isn’t just one company out there able to launch and sell an entertainment device. In fact, it demonstrates that there is an incredible appetite in the reading world for a single use device. Giving customers the right business model and device/platform...

The iPad: Gateway Drug to Digital Learning?

Evan — Wed, 05 May 2010 10:46:40 +0000

In my last post, What's Next in Digital Reading I explored my notion that there are three kinds of reading; extractive: immersive, and pedagogic. Extractive reading works in digital form as finding and extracting data and information is optimized by the power of digital. Immersive reading struggled to flourish in digital form until the e-ink screen went mainstream with the release of the Kindle. Pedagogic reading, the kind done when learning from a textbook, has yet to take hold as there hasn’t been a device and/or business model for delivering lesson-based reading that has gained any traction. However, this is all about to change dramatically because of the iPad. The iPad has been the...

What’s Next in Digital Reading?

Evan — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 11:15:02 +0000

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. This was brilliantly summarized in 2003 by Niko Pfund, OUP’s VP of Academic and Trade Publishing, when he referred to this kind of reading as “extractive, as opposed to immersive.” Extractive reading is an extension of search – its primarily purpose is to “extract” information from searched databases. Extractive reading is easily done...

The Powerlessness of Print Advertising

Evan — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:03:06 +0000

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing two of the most influential forces in publishing today: Cathie Black of Hearst and Jane Friedman of Open Road Integrated Media at the Publishing Business Expo. We spent an hour talking about the impact of digital on the book and magazine industries and both Cathie and Jane were immensely impressive. To open our session entitled Reinventing Today's Publishing Company, Cathie and Jane each spent 10 minutes in their opening remarks. Jane presented the 4-layered “cake” that is the structure of Open Road, and Cathie played a video and followed it up with an overview of the goal behind the massive effort that will...

I’m Coming Back!

Evan — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 07:36:48 +0000

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!

Quo Vadis, Amazon?

Evan — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:20:51 +0000

Reading Nicholson Baker's long piece in the August 3^rd New Yorker while on the beach last week, got me thinking about the role of Amazon in the future of print book publishing. Mr. Baker, a novelist, is coming to terms with his new Kindle - its benefits and as well as its drawbacks. While I don't get a few of his observations (especially his preference to read on the much smaller and much harder-on-the-eyes LCD screen of the iPhone), one comment made about the Kindle struck me as particularly eye opening.

“If I looked up a particular writer on Amazon—Mary Higgins Clark, say—and then reached the page for her knuckle-gnawer of a novel “Moonlight Becomes You,” the top...

Demand Pricing for Ebooks

Evan — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:18:25 +0000

A stir was created recently when Sourcebooks announced the delay of the ebook version of a brand new title for fear of cannibalizing print sales. CEO Dominique Raccah said, "Hardcover books have an audience, and we shouldn't cannibalize it," adding, "It doesn't make sense for a new book to be valued at $9.99." Is Dominique Raccah making a smart decision? There are a lot of factors to consider. Amazon has claims that sales of ebooks are 35% of the same print titles on Amazon.com. If the hardcover is priced at $25 and the ebook $10, then one can see Dominique’s point quite clearly – delaying the ebook version could mean that demand for 35% of the...

Nuthin’ but Net

Evan — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:07:21 +0000

One of the truly inspiring thing about ebooks is that they offer endless opportunity to iterate and morph selling and access models. Technology drives change and innovation, which in turn allows for all kinds of new and interesting features. All kinds of selling and access models are floating around out there, some that allow extension of purchase rights beyond a single user. There are models that offer no specific items to download and hold on any device, models that offer real-time content updates, models that offer print plus ebooks, ebooks plus TTS audio, subscriptions to ebooks, and on and on and on. Innovation is not exactly something the book-publishing world is known for, so ebooks are a breath of fresh air...

Best of…

Evan — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:31:28 +0000

While I am finishing up the next piece for this blog, I thought it might be a good time to do a "best of my blogging" redux. By a "good time" I of course mean "I am not ready to post again and shouldn't go more than 7 days between posts." That said, I hope you enjoy some of the fruits of past labors: The following are what I consider the top 5 posts I have done on BlackPlastcGlass and OUPblog.

Number 5, on my list of top posts, was done for OUP's OUPblog: Do I Believe In Ebooks? Part one and Part Two . This series posited that the key to the ebook reader device market will...