By almost any reckoning, e-books are a fast growing segment of the book publishing industry.  Many self-published authors and traditional publishers who have been reluctant to publish in e-book format are now considering it.  However, because there are many competing standards, navigating the technical / logistical ins and outs of e-book publishing can seem a bit daunting at first. 

We recently had the opportunity to discuss print to e-book conversion and the outlook for e-books with Virginia Thomas, the Business Development Manager at Olive Technology, a leading provider of eBook conversion services. Virginia has lived and worked in Alaska, Argentina, Oregon, California, Texas, Hawaii, India and Colorado and was previously in corporate sales with Paradigm Engineering.  (One of her favorite book genres is confessional memoirs.)

FPP:  What e-book formats should a publisher consider absolutely essential for their titles?

VT:  Since the arrival of ebooks and eReaders, the number of digital content retailers has significantly increased. Each retailer would want to cover most device formats. Since the two most popular readers, the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader use ePub and Mobi, it is recommended that Publishers should at least have these two formats available.EPUB is an open standard created by the IDPF, and is used on numerous devices such as the Sony Reader, the Barnes and Noble Nook, and the Stanza iPhone app. Mobipocket, or .mobi, can be read on the Kindle, but also on a Blackberry, Windows Mobile device, Symbian or Palm device. .azw is Amazon’s proprietary format for the Kindle, for which they provide free conversion when a title is listed in Amazon.com’s eBook store. Like .azw, .mobi can be read on a Kindle, but unlike .azw, it can be sold in a number of distribution channels including Symtio and a publisher’s own website.

FPP:  What steps a publisher should take to prepare for submitting a title for conversion into an e-book?

VT:  Publishers looking at reaching a wide market should first develop a basic idea of planning their marketing and decide on how they would like to take care of the digital rights management. Subsequently, they should identify a reliable technology team that can do a high quality conversion work that can replicate the original book experience into digital format. As they identify the team, the publisher should have their high priority titles organized by the different available format such as hard copy, PDF, Quark Express, InDesign etc. This would allow the conversion team to organize their own conversion steps.

FPP:  What occurs during the process of e-book conversion?

VT:  Depending on the format, the conversion process involves:

1. Converting the original source format (such as PDF) into a editable format, such (MS Word or HTML)
2. Reformatting of the editable format so that it can be seamlessly ported into a conversion tool. Depending on the type of book, this step may involve extensive coding to re-create the formatting from the original book. Aspects such as clickable footnotes, endnotes and images are all taken care of in this phase.
3. The formatted file is then ported into a conversion tool that can then generate the needed extension required. Aspects such as Table of Contents, book details and Metatags are taken into consideration at this phase. (Metatags are information about information—they help identify and position the digital content in order of relevance. For more information see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metatags).
4. An eBook conversion team then takes a thorough line-by-line comparison with the original book to make sure that all the needed formats and expressions have been replicated in the converted book. This is a very important step as it ensures a good reading experience for the reader. Depending on the service provider, a conversion team would have multiple quality checks by different members of the team.

FPP:  What are the most common problems that occur in e-book conversion?

VT:  Formatting errors can come in easily, especially inserting spaces into words. This is why Olive Technology does not rely solely on software for corrections. Olive’s proofreading team pores over every word in the eBooks they convert.

FPP:  What is the typical turnaround time for an e-book conversion?

VT:  Average turnaround time for a 200 page book is 2 working days. However, it may take additional time if there are lots of footnotes and endnotes that require extensive coding of tags or there are lots of images that need to be edited before including in the eBook.

FPP:  How much should a publisher budget for converting a title into the most popular e-book formats?

VT:  This depends on how long the book is, how many titles are being converted in the batch, and how complicated it is to convert. Most conversion companies provide a price per page. The more special formatting, pictures, charts, graphs, sidebars, etc. a work has, the more difficult it is to convert.As for a ballpark, conversion of a 200 page novel with a few illustrations from PDF to EPUB and Mobipocket, Olive Technology would charge $160.

FPP:  What limitations / differences in appearance should a publisher expect when going from print to e-book?

VT:  Because of limitations in the eReaders, it is not possible to enforce the original font types into the eBook formats. However, some eReaders allow the fonts to be changed. Since the reader has options to change the font size to large print or smaller print, there are no set page numbers in an eBook. Also, the style of s Table of Contents is limited to one column. All required images would render as black and white in most eReaders, but in smartphones they can be in color.

FPP:  Do you think we will get to a single e-book standard in the near future?

VT:  That’s the question of the hour. Members of the IDPF would scream “YES! EPUB!,” and the industry has already seen a great adoption of the EPUB format. However, Forrester has said that of the 3 million eBook readers predicted to be sold in 2009, 60% of them are Kindles. While Bbeb may be a dying breed, I think .azw and Mobipocket will be around with EPUB for years to come—especially if Amazon keeps making mobile apps. Unless, that is, Jeff Bezos decides to become an open format fan. That will probably occur the same day Steve Jobs endorses Windows 7.

FPP:  Does having a title in XML format simplify e-book conversion?

VT:  Not necessarily. In fact in our experience the reformatting of DocBookXML can be even more challenging and costly. However, the use of XML allows quicker conversion to any future formats that would be made available.

FPP:  How important are mobile phones in the e-book market now?

VT:  According to research done by Nielsen in 2008, younger people favor the idea of books downloadable to mobile phones or iPods over eReaders or PCs (A third of 16-30 year olds compared to 23% of over 30s). The mobile phone market share is relatively small, but growing. The most popular mobile phone for eBook reading now is the iPhone, which only had 6.5% of the eBook downloads in the first two quarters of 2009. However, in a November 1 report the research firm Flurry predicted that with thousands of eBook apps being produced, the iPhone will be in a serious position to steal market share from the Kindle in reading the way it stole from the Nintendo DS in gaming.F

PP:  How do you see the e-book market evolving in the next 3-5 years?

VT:  With the fast adoption rate and decrease in price of eReaders, the only certainties I see are growth, increasing involvement of Google, and device convergence. According to Association of American Publishers, eBook sales have grown by more than 300% in last 2 years. While eBooks are still a small portion of book sales, they more than tripled from the second quarter of 2008 to the second quarter of 2009, and the exponential growth is predicted to continue.

Also, I think it’s a matter of time before foldable/flexible mobile devices cause device convergence to occur. The problem now is that eBook readers are too big to be phones, and phones are too small to read on without a whole lot of scrolling. However, when mobile phone manufacturers roll out devices that can be folded or unfolded to the size of a phone or eReader, consumers will probably opt for the convenience of only carrying around one device. Motorola is said to be hard at work on their line of flexible devices.

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The Espresso Book Machine, manufactured and distributed by On Demand Books,  has created quite a stir since it was launched a few years ago.  The book printing system has been compared to a “book ATM.”  It can print books, stored in a digital repository, in a matter of minutes.  Essentially, the system provides the capability to produce books at the point of purchase. 

Version 2.0, a smaller and more efficient version of the Espresso Book Machine is now available and is helping drive sale at On Demand Books.  In addition, the company has recently announced deals with Lightning Source and Google which give it access to a greater catalog of books.  The video below demonstrates how the Espresso Book Machine produces a book it has retrieved from a digital repository.

Google Books: Classic Books Available via the Espresso Book Machine

Dane Neller is the CEO of On Demand Books LLC, which he co-founded with publishing legend Jason Epstein.  He has extensive operating experience in the retail sector as former President and CEO of Dean & Deluca for over 8 years.formerly.  Future Perfect Publishing interviewed him a couple of years ago, and he recently updated us on the company’s progress since that time and the outlook for the Espresso Book Machine.

FPP - Originally, mostly libraries were purchasing the EBM. Now it seems that more bookstores are acquiring the EBM. What do you think has caused the shift?

DN – Our primary market continues to be the University Setting both campus bookstores and research libraries. Independent Trade Bookstores also are buying as they recognize the value of localized self publishing programs being able to respond immediately to their customers.

Bookstores benefit as well from an increase in their sales per square foot, increase inventory turnover, derive new customer traffic to the machine, eliminate out-of-stocks and free up shelf space for faster moving, higher-margin inventory. For libraries, the machine enhances the academic experience for students/faculty and makes more books available to more patrons. By allowing the library to acquire a title for its collection on demand when requested by the patron, the EBM helps make the library’s acquisition strategy more efficient. Our technology also enables the library to reproduce rare books in physical form, provides a vehicle for University Press titles, and improves the inter-library loans process.

FPP- Have you begun to see interest from non-bookstore retailers?

DN – Yes, as they see the Espresso Book Machine enables them to add books as a new product line.

FPP - What’s the easiest way for publishers to make their titles available through the EBM?

DN – We are committed to adding content to our network and will accommodate whatever method is preferred by the publisher. There are three methods for publishers to make their titles available to us:

(1) Through our partner Lightning Source. This is our preferred way – publishers add their content to Lightning’s POD repository, and it becomes available through the EBM at the identical pricing offered by Lightning.

(2) By providing us with an API that allows our network to access the publisher’s digital repository – in effect, we “pull” the file from the publisher any time a book is purchased on one of the machines.

(3) By the publisher “pushing” their digital repository to us and allowing our servers to host their files. In this case, we host the publisher’s digital files and perform a regular reconciliation to keep the titles and their associated metadata up to date.

FPP - What does an EBM cost? Are there lease as well as purchase options?

DN - We sell the EBM for $97,500 plus the cost of the text printer (note that the EBM comes equipped with the full-color cover printer). The price of the text printer ranges from a little over $4,000 for the mid-speed printer (35 pages a minute – or a book ever 7-10 minutes) to roughly $28,000 for the high-speed printer (120 pages a minute – or a book every 3-4 minutes).

FPP - How do you anticipate the agreement with Lightning Source and Google will impact sales of the Espresso Book Machine (EBM)?

DN - Both Lightning and Google represent significant sources of high-value books. They’ve made the EBM more attractive to our customers and are helping sales.

FPP - What are the barriers to getting all publishers to sign on with ODB and what is the company’s strategy for growing the number of books available via the EBM?

DN - Distributed printing clearly is attractive to publishers who see the advantages of a greener distribution and sales channel. There may be some technical barriers on the publishers’ side to aggregate their printable files but most are creating or outsourcing Digital Asset Management repositories. Our strategy is to make our customers successful by going after content that will sell well through their setting. Academic content for the University Bookstore, for example.

FPP - Do you see a potential market for magazines, journals or newspapers using the EBM?

DN – Absolutely. The Espresso Book Machine will print, bind, and trim absolutely anything that a laser printer can print. In addition, customers have used the machine to print journals with personalized covers and lined pages, technical manuals, custom anthologies, professor-created textbooks, lab journals, study guides, coloring books, conference documents, corporate reports, recipe books, collections of (digitized) letters, and the list goes on . . .

FPP - E-books have been steadily growing in popularity. Do you see this as competition for the EBM?

DN - No. The growth in e-books has helped us in several ways. First, to the extent that growing e-book sales help publishers and booksellers, then we are helped, since these represent our partners and customers. More concretely, the digitization of backlist books for e-readers has made more titles available to our machines. Also, with the growth in e-books, publishers and retailers have grown more comfortable with nontraditional methods of book distribution, including our own.

FPP - What new features would you like to see in the next version of the EBM?

DN - We have no major upcoming changes to the EBM. In summer 2009 we began our full commercial rollout of the new EBM, version 2.0 (previously we had installed earlier-generation machines to test the market and the technology). At 3.8′ x 2.7′, the new 2.0 machine is half the size of the previous model. Interest in the machine has been fantastic, and we expect our installations to accelerate significantly in 2010, with an early emphasis on trade bookstores and the university bookstore and library market.

FPP – What do you see as the biggest challenges ahead for On Demand Books?

DN – Managing rapid growth is the biggest challenge. Other challenges relate to selling internationally. It is an exciting time for On Demand Books and our customers and we are very confident about our ability to meet challenges as they arise.

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• New Rules!
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Last Friday I attended BookCamp Vancouver, an “unconference” to explore new ideas emerging in the publishing industry as reading is becoming ever more digital. The day was packed with presentations from a variety of publishing perspectives, including the session I led, along with Rob Ellis and Brock Whitten of Nitobi Software, on BookRiff as a new model for publishers, authors and readers. The dialogue during the BookRiff session began with an array of questions, mostly about copyright, mostly originating from the same fears of piracy that emerge whenever anyone poses an idea to place copyrighted works online, in any form. One important thing to remember is that BookRiff is a tool for copyright holders to profit from their works. So, while we’re not going to run around shutting down user accounts without clear evidence of piracy, we will take every reasonable means to make sure copyright is protected. That’s a no-brainer for us. And, though the discussion began with a hint of skepticism, the clear response by the end of our 45 minutes was that BookRiff takes advantage of the digital landscape to provide a complement to traditional publishing and authoring. (So encouraging to hear this message.)

There were more than a few voices contributing to the dialogue throughout the day, as authors and readers drilled publishers on everything from DRM to e-book pricing; newspaper editors defended the continual need for print circulation in an industry full of free online news; new publishing models were presented; and marketing folks hashed out best practices for web marketing and social networking tools to help sell more books. Each session concluded with a group-think on key takeaway points. Looking back at the day as a whole, here are mine:

• Publishing is in a process of evolution. As new tools are emerging for readers, traditional ideas of books and reading are changing, influenced by a variety of players both inside and outside of the traditional publishing industry. Book publishers must find ways to adapt their current business models to accommodate for shifting audience demands, while still holding on to their distinguishing value: curated books.
• Bookselling and marketing is undergoing a similar shift, as communities of readers are shifting from geographic to interest-based, and social networking tools are allowing global interest-based communities to develop. The key is to interact with these communities on a personal level. As Emiko Morita said, “every copy of Margaret Atwood’s new book is sold individually, whether by a book marketer, bookseller, or twitter user.”
• Amidst all of the change, there are a lot of myths that need debunking. Most importantly, there is the myth that publishers are behind the times, unwilling  and afraid to change, clutching on to traditional models, charging exorbitant prices for books and grappling for all the royalties we can pocket. This couldn’t be less true: innovation is happening in every corner of publishing. BookRiff is just one example; there’s Vooks, podcasts, Enhanced Editions and all sorts of other enhanced e-books, not to mention more free online sampling than one could hope for. Publishers, please give yourselves a pat on the back…and let’s keep moving.

I didn’t make it to all of the sessions, so I’d encourage others who attended to comment with their own key points to add to this list. You may also want to check out the ongoing BookCamp Twitter buzz (courtesy of Raul Pacheco @hummingbird604 ), and a nice post-BookCamp blog post by Darren Barefoot.
I’d like to thank the organizing team of BookCamp Vancouver, including Sean Cranbury, Books on the Radio; Monique Trottier, Boxcar Marketing; Crissy Campbell, Boxcar Marketing; Morgan Cowie, BookNet Canada; Nick Bouton, Taunt Media, Protagonize.com; John Maxwell, SFU Masters of Publishing Program; and Suzanne Norman, SFU Summer Publishing Workshops for putting together this event, as well as all of the other moderators for the ideas presented.

The day of the m-book (e-books on mobile phones)  is rapidly approaching.  Recently one of the founders of LexCycle, the company that makes the Stanza e-book reader for iPhone, recently spoke at a Book Publishers Northwest meeting.  Stanaza’s numbers are impressive.  In a very short time, over 100,000 titles have been converted into Stanza books.  And there are now more than 1.3 million readers using Stanza on iPhones.  And Stanza has added some distribution muscle by teaming up with two major retail partners, Fictionwise and Smashwords (both of which also provide e-books in other formats as well). 

Stanza iPhone App Review – AppVee.com

LexCycle was purchased by Amazon in April.  Unlike the Kindle, it uses the open standard epub format for its e-books.  With the purchase of Stanza, Amazon may be hedging two bets – the popularity of reading books on a large form factor, single use device in a proprietary format versus a multi-function, small form factor, standard format mobile phone.  Single function mobile devices have an annoying habit of becoming obsolete.

The success of Stanza has me wondering – how will the spread of m-books change the way we regard books and the manner in which we read?   

Size won’t matter.  As books go digital, the notion of personal library becomes something you carry in your pocket.  It’s no big deal to have thousands of songs in your iPod; why not thousands of books on your iPhone (memory permitting).

We’ll need reading management apps.  Gigantic personal libraries means we’ll need apps to help sort it all out and find what we need when we need it. 

Read me a story.  When its difficult to read, we can switch to an audio mode.  Every book will come with two modes - text and audio. For example while commuting on a crowded bus or train,or in your car (there is already a controversy starting to brew about people reading books on their mobile phones while driving).  

Books will become more social.  Finding and texting interesting book snippets to friends will be easy.   

Books will be processed, as well as read.  Processing book content with other apps.  For example, clicking on a location mentioned in a title and using Google maps to view the locale.  Or mark inspiring passages and have them shown to us periodically. 

Perhaps none of this will happen.  It may be that the biggest change m-books will have is simply to make us read more, if in a different manner.  With libraries and educational institutions leading the way, books are being reconceptualized as downloads and reading as an app.   

A Reading Revolution – CBS News

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Future Perfect Publishing has been following the Espresso Book Machine for the last several years.  The Espresso Book Machine, sometimes called the “book ATM” is developed and marketed by On Demand Books.  The system, about the size of a photocopier, allows a book to be selected from a digital catalog, then printed and bound in just a few minutes. 

Now it is beginning to make serious inroads into the bookstore community.  Two of the latest installations are going to be right here in the Pacific Northwest.  One is at Third Place Books in Bothell, Washington, just outside of Seattle.  The other is at Village Books. It is a community-based, independent bookstore located in the historic Fairhaven district of Bellingham, Washington, and was honored as the 2008 Outstanding Philanthropic Small Business in Washington State.

Village Books, Outstanding Philanthropic Small Business 

Chuck Robinson has been co-owner, with his wife Dee, of Village Book in Bellingham, WA, since June of 1980.  Chuck has pioneered many causes in his community so it seems only natural that his bookstore would be one of the first to make this innovative new way of producing books available.  He’s a former board member and president of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and the American Booksellers Association and currently serves as a board member of the Community Food Coop and as a trustee of Whatcom Community College.  He is currently writing a book about the history of Village Books to be published–on the Espresso Book Machine–during the store’s thirtieth anniversary next June.

Helping him with the installation is Lindsey McGuirk, Digital Marketing & Publishing Manager.  Lindsey has been in the book industry for over 5 years, beginning as a bookseller at Village Books where she eventually became the Events Coordinator. After a short stint on the publishing end of things with Algonquin Books, she returned to her true love as an independent bookseller at Village Books.  She now does the online marketing for the bookstore and will be the go-to person for Village Books’ Espresso Book Machine.

Chuck and Lindsey recently took the time to share their plans for the bookshop’s new Espresso Book Machine.

FPP:  How did you first learn about the Espresso Book Machine (EBM)?

CR & LM:  Though we had read about the machine in trade publications we first saw an early model of the EBM at Book Expo America a couple of years ago.

FPP:  What convinced you to put it into Village Books and how do you plan to use it?

CR & LM:  We’re convinced that “the times they are a’changing” and that we need to be on board or we’ll be left behind.

FPP:  What type of books do you expect to use the EBM to produce?

CR & LM:  Although we’ll have access to books through LightningSource and now Google’s public domain books, the bulk of the books we will be printing–at least in the short term–will likely be self-published. We have already been receiving inquiries from authors interested in having their books printed on the Espresso Book Machine and have a few projects lined up to print when the machine is installed.

FPP:  How many titles are available in the EBM catalog overall?

CR & LM:  Between LightningSource and Google Books, there are nearly 4 million books available to print through the EBM. There are also nearly 600,000 backlist titles that are in-copyright that we can print thanks to publisher’s permissions.

FPP:  Could you describe what happens when a customer places an order that requires the EBM?

CR & LM:  This could be an elaborate answer, but I’ll try to simplify it as much as possible. Assuming that an author brings us print-ready PDFs (those that will not need any additional layout changes or adjustments) of both the book block and the book jacket, we will simply upload those files to the EBM and let it do its work. It prints the book block, glues it, prints the book jacket, and binds it all together. It will then take the book and trim it to its specified trim size. It’s an amazing process!

FPP:  How does the cost of producing a book on the EBM compare with ordering it from a wholesaler or distributor?

CR & LM:  Pricing in print-on-demand, like that of e-books, is still shaking out. However, we expect the retail price for books printed in-store to be comparable to those ordered from distributors.

FPP:  Will having an EBM change how many titles you carry in your physical inventory?

CR & LM:  We believe the EBM will allow us to enhance our inventory by being able to offer books that would otherwise be unavailable. There will be some books that we may carry in smaller numbers because we can instantaneously print a replenishment copy and there will be other books that we won’t have on the shelf–just as there always have been–but, unlike the past, will be able to provide very quickly.

FPP:  What is the purchase model for the EBM? Is it an outright purchase? Lease? Per book fee?

CR & LM:   There are a couple of ways one may obtain a machine. We have chosen to lease ours.

FPP:  Will Village Books use the EBM to support self-published authors or small presses without distribution?

CR & LM:  We absolutely will be supporting self-publishing authors! We’ve been highly supportive of self-published authors for year—we have a strong consignment program and carry dozens of books by local, self-published authors. We haven’t considered printing books for small presses without distribution, but you have just added another element to our growing list of possibilities. Thank you!

FPP:  Are there any special logistical considerations for operating the EBM? For example, space, power, supplies, etc?

CR & LM:  We did have to provide 220V wiring to the site and we will be moving shelves around to accommodate the machine. And, we will, of course, need to stock paper, glue, etc.

FPP:  If you could design the next version of the EBM, what features would be on your wish list?

CR & LM:  It’s a little hard to say prior to our working with the machine for a while. We’ve spent some time with an earlier model and feel that the company has addressed many of the issues we would have had with that machine. I’m sure that this is a question we may have a better answer for in a few months.

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• Interview with Dane Neller of On Demand Books – The Book Espresso Machine
• Ending the Tyranny of Inventory

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In a group web conference this morning, members of the Association of Canadian Publishers were taken behind the scenes to view a site demonstration of BookRiff-in-construction. In its last few days of private beta development, the software is now a bare-bones framework of a site with the potential to be an essential tool in every publisher’s belt. For now, it raises a lot of questions, and it’s our job to answer them. Here are a few of the points discussed today:

1. Pricing: How should publishers price their books and chapters on BookRiff?

BookRiff is an entirely new model for publishing, but that doesn’t mean it introduces a complex new formula of costs, revenues, and profit share for publishers to digest. In fact, that’s precisely what we’ve tried to avoid. The BookRiff business model lets publishers (and other content creators) determine their own revenues, because they set the price and receive 100% of that price each time a Riff of their content is printed. The rest of the model is just as transparent, making it easy for publishers to predict the final cost of a Riff, and then set their content costs accordingly.

Let’s take an example: A publisher wants to create a BookRiff version of a 250 pg. frontlist book with 5 pages of extra materials from the author. The book is listed at $28.95. In this case:

• The Riff  base fee, including print costs (paid by Riff purchaser) = $7.73

• Book content price = publisher’s desired price of BookRiff version, minus $7.73
• Publisher’s revenues = publisher’s book content price

So, if the publisher wanted to sell the Riff at the book list price, the content cost (and also revenue) would be $28.95 − $7.73 = $21.22

And, if that book were divided into 12 chapters, each chapter might be priced at $21.22 ÷ 12 = $1.77

The next, more complex, underlying question here is: What is the value of a Riff? The way I see it, it’s up to you: the publishers, and you: the Riff composers, and you: the buyers to decide. It’s an open market, after all: your content will speak for itself.

2. Publisher channels vs. Author channels vs. Other Creator channels: whose work is whose and how do you know?

Like the first question, there’s a simple answer and a more annoying, you-decide one. The simple response is that only copyright owners can upload their content to BookRiff, or license others to do so. Each time a BookRiff Creator, be it a publisher, an author, or another individual, makes content publicly available through their creator channel, they must claim ownership of that work. They can only do that if they have an account, set up with a credit card and a TOS agreement.

Now that copyright infringement is put aside, there’s still a question of interaction between users on BookRiff. Who creates Riffs: authors, publishers, or fans? The answer: yes, perhaps, if they’re keen, and who knows who else? It will be important for publishers to communicate with their authors to gauge interest and build plans for selling books on BookRiff. We can’t wait to see who will take the lead from there.

3. Can BookRiff users sell their Riffs of publisher’s short stories (or other chapters/ chunked content)?

Yes, anyone can sell their Riff, but no, they won’t profit from anyone else’s work. (This means fans double as enthusiastic not-for-profit booksellers: can you imagine such a thing?)

4. Will Riffs have color? Will Public Domain books be available? What about sizes? Electronic books?

BookRiff is made to evolve, and we’ve got all kinds of plans. Custom covers, full color interiors, multiple sizes and formats are just a few ways we want to make BookRiff more robust. We’d love to hear your ideas, too!

5. When can publishers have access?

Soon, very soon. (Let us know if you’re eager!)

BookRiff has recently received mention in several news articles about the rise of self-publishing websites, a trend Roberto Rocha in the Calgary Herald calls “Self-publishing 2.0.” True, much like sites such as Lulu.com, WeBook.com, and the new Book Oven, BookRiff does provide online tools anyone can use to instantly publish their writing in a book they can sell online or have printed, sidestepping traditional models of publishing. Yes, it is a site for building your own book, where individuals- rather than editors and publishers- decide the content and order of a book. It increases the role readers play in the books they purchase, and allows them to contribute to the material available to other readers. But calling BookRiff a website for self-publishing is like saying cell phones are tools for taking pictures: you can do it, but there’s a lot more you could do with that tool, and a camera might work just as well if you only want to snap a photo. More than a tool for unpublished writers to publish their own works, BookRiff is a way for readers to access more written content and consume it in the way they want. It isn’t a platform that sidesteps traditional publishing, but one that traditional publishers and authors can use to make book and other written content go further by offering it up in new ways.

Take author Michael Turner, for example. He’s planning to use BookRiff to remix his upcoming book, 8×10, which will be published as a trade paperback by Doubleday Canada in September. The book is a series of 64 loosely related fictional events that lack any defined time or place, and are ordered only by Michael’s own logic. His plan is two-fold: he’ll create a Riff of 8×10 by assigning a random order to the chapters, then work with Doubleday to make the book “open to interpretation by recomposition” by allowing readers to assign their own order. You can read more about the experiment from his blog. This is just one way BookRiff will be used by authors and publishers to engage readers in their books.

In a nicely worded description of BookRiff on the BookNet Canada blog, Morgan Cowie calls the site an evolution of D&M Publishers’ core publishing platform: using new tools to continue making books that appeal to readers.

Self-Publishing: Harbinger of Doom or Puffy White Cloud of Hope?

I’ve recently done a spate of media interviews wherein the main topic was the ‘rise’ of self-publishing. It’s an interesting media trend, founded largely by the appearance and development of innovative new web communities that are focusing on bringing together those interested in creating great books – who may or may not already consider themselves book professionals.

There’s no doubt that it’s been an interesting summer for those interested in the evolution of book creation online. The alpha version of The Book Oven was released. The beta version of BookRiff is available to check out. WEbook, Protagonize, TextNovel and scores of other writer-based communities continue to work collaboratively to create, refine and display new talent from (mostly) unpublished authors.

So what does this all mean for traditional publishing?

Hugh McGuire, one of the founders of Book Oven, sees the role of his new site thusly (yep, I just wrote thusly. And I’m keeping it):

The key here is: cloud-publishing (and Book Oven) will provide the tools to allow groups of people to easily coalesce around the production, distribution and sale of a particular book or books. How those groups organize themselves will look different from book to book. But Book Oven’s tools will mean that book makers can focus on the important thing, the content, and not worry about the technical hurdles of making, printing & distributing books.

Hugh’s whole post is worth reading as it makes a compelling argument for the differences between ’self-publishing’ and the new tool and collaboration-based ‘cloud publishing’ that Book Oven, and arguably other sites like it, are developing.

For traditional publishing, this really invokes the spectre of what Neelan Choksi, CEO of Stanza, called a ‘flight to value’. As I’ve argued before, we as a professional industry exist because we can provide good books. Good service for authors who write those good books. Convenient access for readers who want those good books.

Is the blockbuster culture going to go away? I’m not sure. As much as we talk about Web 2.0 and the forces of collaborative culture, we’re also seeing the big head, rather than the long tail, stay big (or get bigger). But maybe that’s not the big question…maybe the question is where do projects like authoring communities, mash-up books and collaborative creation fit into the new publishing model? Where can partnerships be made to spur all to greater heights?

Instead of seeing self-publishing or cloud-publishing as a direct competitor to trade publishing, do as D&M is doing. BookRiff is not a threat to their publishing house but, rather, an evolution using new tools at hand to continue to do what they do best. Creating great books that are designed to make readers happy and keep them reading is what we all aspire to do. Working together seems like the best way to do that.

]]> http://editorialconsultant.wordpress.com/2009/08/11/authors-guild-sends-authors-another-misleading-letter-about-google-settlement/ Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:23:01 +0000 editorialconsultant http://editorialconsultant.wordpress.com/2009/08/11/authors-guild-sends-authors-another-misleading-letter-about-google-settlement/ http://blog.bookriff.com/2009/08/05/ubc-creative-writing-panel-discussion/ Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:08:23 +0000 Julie Morris http://blog.bookriff.com/2009/08/05/ubc-creative-writing-panel-discussion/

In a July 10 panel at the University of British Columbia, students of UBC’s Creative Writing MFA Summer Residency Program discuss changing technologies in publishing, and how BookRiff will fit in the mix. Host Andrew Gray is accompanied by panel members Thad McIlroy, Jennica Harper, and myself.

UBC Changing Technologies Panel

]]> http://editorialconsultant.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/why-writers-shouldn%e2%80%99t-bet-their-careers-on-magazine-writing-part-ii/ Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:55:04 +0000 editorialconsultant http://editorialconsultant.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/why-writers-shouldn%e2%80%99t-bet-their-careers-on-magazine-writing-part-ii/ http://futureperfectpublishing.com/2009/07/24/after-the-page/ Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:54:29 +0000 orionwell http://futureperfectpublishing.com/2009/07/24/after-the-page/

Since the development of written language, mankind has experimented with different reading “devices” and formats.

• Inscription on the walls of dwelling spaces or public buildings
• Engravings on clay tablets
• Scrolls
• Bound books with pages

Over the last two thousand years or so the bound book reading experience has become so ubiquitous it is difficult to imagine any other way to read.  The structure that surrounds our reading experience has slipped beneath the level of our consciousness.  The only thing that surprises us is when a book comes with an odd trim size, similar to the micro jolt we get when someone hands us an odd sized business card.   

Every readng device has its opportunities and tyrannies.  The page in the bound book of today provides a simple unit of reading; the total number of pages lets us know in advance how much information a book contains or how much effort will be needed to read it.  Page numbers and headers provide useful reference points.  But the price of paper and ink limits the information that can be conveyed.  This has always been the problem with all previous reading devices:  the cost of the physical medium used to convey the information scaled with the amount of information.

But electronic reading devices offer an escape from that hard rule.  E-reading or reading with the aid of software offers us new opportunities (and doubtless many tyrannies as well). 

• Extension - Linking to related material
• Search – Finding without the need for page numbers or indexes
• Filtering - Hiding irrelevant or uninteresting parts of the book; especially useful for second readings
• Layering - Accessing additional information (e.g. pictures and / or background material) via layers that can be turned on or off under reader control
• Annotation – Adding / editing your personal annotations (actually part of layering)
• Sharing – Connecting to your favorite reading groups and sharing your comments and quotes from the book
• Apps - Simple applications that make the reading more enjoyable – e.g. embedded dictionaries, automatic translation to another language and summarization of key information.  For fiction this might include summaries of the story to the point where you last left off to refresh your memory between reading sessions.  Innovative developers will find ways to extend the capabilities of our reading devices similar to what has been done for the iPhone.
• Multiple modalities – Switch between reading and listening
• Metrics – Tracking personal stats on everything you’ve read

Like it or not, over time our books will become more like computers and we will expect them to the things that computers do.  Our long standing reading model will change as the physical nature of our primary reading device changes.  The big limitation may become, not physical cost, but reader attention.

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• Return of the Scroll
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• Reimagining the e-book Experience
• Richer Reading with Social Media – An Interview with Vidar Brekke of Social Intent

 

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]]> http://bwv1080.wordpress.com/2009/07/18/kindle-books-down-the-memory-hole/ Sat, 18 Jul 2009 19:03:17 +0000 gershom2112 http://bwv1080.wordpress.com/2009/07/18/kindle-books-down-the-memory-hole/

The Volokh Conspiracy (hat tip: Instapundit) reports on a disturbing “feature” of the Amazon Kindle (eBook reader). Somebody bought two ebooks from the Kindle store, downloaded them into his device, and started reading. Then all of a sudden… Amazon discovered they had been selling eBooks they didn’t own the rights to, and… remote-wiped them off the Kindles of everyone they had sold them to.

Oh divine irony: the two books were… “1984″ and “Animal Farm” by George Orwell.

Wait a minute, you say: Orwell has been dead for over half a century. (He passed away shortly after completing “1984″, which was actually written in 1948.) How come his books haven’t passed into the public domain? Well: the Berne Convention on copyright indeed specifies “life of the author+50 years”. However: this is a minimum requirement, and any signatory country may at its own discretion protect the author’s copyright for longer periods. (Wikipedia has a table of copyright durations by country.)

Some countries (e.g., Canada) only specify the Berne statutory minimum, and others (e.g., Australia and Russia) specify the Berne minimum for authors who passed away before some cutoff year (1955 and 1953, respectively). In all those countries Orwell’s works passed into the public domain.

However, the USA and many other countries specify “life+70 years” for individual authors, and thus Orwell’s books are subject to copyright in those countries. And clearly whatever electronic publisher was marketing Orwell eBooks through Amazon hadn’t bothered to secure the publishing rights.

Nevertheless, the idea of somebody remotely erasing content on a book reader will make some people think twice about buying a Kindle. And, of course, for this to be the very book that introduced the word “memory hole” into the English language…

Update: Glenn Fleishman in “Doubleplusungood: Amazon unpublishes Orwell” looks into the legal ramifications either way. Amazon, struck by the backlash, has meanwhile promised not to “remote-zap” books already downloaded anymore.

]]> http://futureperfectpublishing.com/2009/07/14/my-numbers-myself-personal-reading-metrics/ Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:38:44 +0000 orionwell http://futureperfectpublishing.com/2009/07/14/my-numbers-myself-personal-reading-metrics/

Personal metrics – information that we collect about ourselves – have a natural appeal.  We want to be better – if we can measure something about ourselves and optimize it, we will.  Today that process is becoming easier with the help of sensors to collect personal data and web sites that help us make sense of it.  Individuals are keeping track of all kinds of personal data – including caloric intake, how much we’ve exercised (e.g. Nike + iPod video below), the state of our finances.  This is what Gary Wolf in a recent Wired article referred to as “self knowledge through numbers.”

Nike+iPod in action

So why not personal reading metrics?  We capture general statistics about reading levelsof the population.  And with a little bit of mathematical dexterity it is possible to calculate our per capita consumption of books.  But this doesn’t tell us anything interesting about our individual reading habits.  e-Book readers offer a platform that could help us collect and track information about what and how we read.

For starters we could track:

• Total books read over a given time period; also categorized into genre or type
• Books never completed (similarly categorized)
• Average number of pages and words per session
• Average length of each reading session (which could yield average reading speed) and time between reading sessions
• Amount of reading by time of day

Data could be uploaded to websites with the appropriate algorithms and graphing capability to take care of the analysis and trending for us.  By providing just a little of additional personal data, we could even benchmark ourselves against other readers with similar demographics.  Anonymized aggregates of such data could provide publishers with valuable information about their titles and readership.

Such metrics might be viewed as self indulgent.  But, given the natural inclination to improve our stats,  they could spur us to read more.

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• Contemplating the Google-book
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• The Conversation in the Book

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]]> http://futureperfectpublishing.com/2009/06/08/contemplating-the-google-book/ Mon, 08 Jun 2009 04:56:36 +0000 orionwell http://futureperfectpublishing.com/2009/06/08/contemplating-the-google-book/

According to a report in the NY Times, Google is preparing to enter the e-book market and take on Amazon.   The delivery platform is unclear, but it does not appear that Google is favoring any particular e-book device at this time.  Details are also lacking about whether Google would support open standards or take a proprietary approach.  The e-book pricing hasn’t been finalized, but Google has hinted it would probably be more open than say with the Amazon Kindle. 

So let’s say that Google jumps into the e-book market in a major way.  How might this change the market?  Here are some speculations.

Google links e-books with Book Search.  While Google has said it has no plans to do this, it certainly is a strong possibility.  Books scanned today as PDFs can be scanned into e-book formats just as easily.  Search – view – purchase – download.  Seems logical.

Google becomes the Book Scan of e-books.  With its own reader or in partnership with reader manufacturers, Google tracks not only what e-books readers browse and purchase, but how they read them after purchase (think Google Analytics with a “phone home” capability).  Publishers use the anonym-ized information to better understand what readers really want.

Google redefines the e-book experience.  Again, with its own reader or in partnership with reader manufacturers, Google provides a more connected reading experience where book lovers can share what they’re reading with others online.  

Google embeds advertising in books.  Print books today often have a page or two in the back showcasing similar books of interest.  It wouldn’t be a stretch to include a Book Search type of capability in an e-book.  A connected reader could view the preview and make the purchase / download immediately.

Google becomes a publisher.  Google could provide tools to make it easy for authors to publish and market their works directly as e-books.  Absurd you say.  A short while ago you might have said it was absurd to think Google would be a bookseller. 

Growth in e-book revenues (data from IDPF, AAP)

Books in aggregate represent one of the largest storehouses of information on the planet.  Yet most of the information in books is not accessible to us online.  Google has the resources to tap into and monetize this infotopia.  Whether it willor not remains to be seen.  According to a recent Forrester report, the e-book market is ready to go mainstream and break out of its current niche status.  My only hope is that if Google is igoing to take the plunge, they do so boldly

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Related Posts

• ebooks – Toward a Tipping Point?
• Settling In with Google Book Search
• Is XML the New Center of the Publishing Universe? 
• Does Anyone Know How to Price an e-book?
• The Conversation in the Book
• In Search of the Next Gutenberg

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]]> http://samizdatcreative.com/2009/06/05/dave-eggers-ok-heres-why-i-believe-print-has-a-future-mediabistro-com-baynewser/ Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:37:48 +0000 caleb j seeling http://samizdatcreative.com/2009/06/05/dave-eggers-ok-heres-why-i-believe-print-has-a-future-mediabistro-com-baynewser/