Joe says: “Four areas jump out at me: Android vs. iOS, Amazon’s dominance, EPUB 3 and, again, data. . . . The market is changing way too fast to ignore the signals we’re able to pick up from the data all around us.”
Kat adds: “Ecommerce, global markets, digital content pricing, and discovery are all key issues we’ll be talking about at TOC. All of these issues are inter–related, but I think ecommerce has gotten the least attention in the publishing industry, and is one to which we need to pay attention. Everything from shopping cart software to government regulation will increasingly impact the bottom line for publishers.”
And that’s before this newsletter’s even begun! Read on below for more sagacity and, of course, the odd touch of absurdity.
“E” Ain’t for “Easy”
Self–published author Daniel Markham details a crisp list of what it took for him to produce and market one leetle book. Hint: Writing the book was the way easy part. The rest? Ridiculously difficult. Among his travails, he lists:
Locating a distributor. Amazon pays me 17 bucks for a 50–dollar book. . . . LuLu pays me 43 bucks, but only if you buy on their site. Do the math. Platform vendors own authors and small publishers.
Worrying about copyright issues. Remember that picture you took of the Sprint close with 15 guys all working at the storyboard? Got model releases from those guys? I didn’t think so.
Buy an ISBN. Have you seen the price on ISBNs? Try over a hundred bucks for just one number. Then you need a new number for every format your book is published in.
Don’t we know it, Daniel. Don’t we know it. . . .
Kinetic Arts
Posting on BoingBoing, Cory Doctorow recently showcased a fantastic stop–motion animation of the books on the shelves of Toronto’s Type Books re-arranging themselves in a delightful dance once the bookshop’s doors are closed. Doctorow writes, “They position the video as a case for printed books, which it is, but it’s also a great case for Type Books, which is an absolutely marvelous bookshop with great curated tables and a wicked kids’ section.”
And when considering moving printed images, it’s hard to beat this Makezine video showing a Rube Goldberg–style page turning ‘machine.’ Well worth the entire two minutes.
Dept. of Multitasking
In their rush to take beloved children’s books from dry ink to e–ink, many publishers are requiring their programmers to handle the code–and the color, the graphics, the music, the dancing, the fun–prompting Teleread to wonder if programmers aren’t just plain ruining ebooks for everyone.
Prime: Suspect?
“There are two types of people in the world: those with Amazon Prime and those without,” writes Jason Calacanis. “How you think about consumption, commerce and your personal time is radically different depending on if you’ve join the cult–yet. And to be clear, Prime is a cult you will be joining. . . .”
Joe responds: “I’m very concerned about this. I’ve been such a fan of Amazon but their market dominance is starting to lead to all the usual problems created by other dominant players. As a cheapskate, I appreciate a good deal as much as the next guy. But when monopolists use predatory pricing practices and exert undue pressure on the economic model, well, bad things happen too. I don’t look forward to the day that Amazon is the only option. How about you? jwikert@oreilly.com
Book Lust
NPR commentator and librarian Nancy Pearl has been tapped by Amazon to annually curate six languishing titles back into the bright digital light. Pearl will introduce a frame of reference for each of the works, books she feels have been overlooked since the turn of the (name your) century. Of course, there’s been backlash.
Native v. Acronym
The topic of native vs. HTML5 apps has come up in a number of our TOC podcast interviews (have you subscribed yet?) and this BusinessInsider article drills down nicely into the debate. We tend to agree with their summary but wonder if and when we’ll see HTML5 access to device features like sensors, cameras, etc. That would help accelerate the shift.
Publisher’s Corner
Kindle Fire: Lessons Learned
In this partial post, Joe ruminates on the Kindle Fire. Click through to his blog to read his lists of pros and cons.
I don’t regret spending the $200 I paid Amazon for my Kindle Fire. I tried it out and decided it wasn’t for me, so I gave it to my daughter instead. Even though I no longer use the Fire, I wanted to share the things I learned about the device and myself over the past several weeks.
I realize I’m a fairly unique user and that plenty of Fire owners are perfectly happy with their purchase. That’s great, but I’d also love to see Amazon step up, act like the market leader they’re trying to be and address these shortcomings.
I’m convinced that my next tablet will be an Android–based one. The only Android tablet I’ll consider, though, is one that gives me access to all types of content, not just content from the company who sells the hardware. Heck, as closed as they are, even Apple lets you install e–reader apps from Amazon, B&N, etc. One of the reasons they can do that is they’re confident they’ve got a terrific piece of hardware and you’ll want to buy it over the competition. They also charge a premium for it. I’ve learned it’s worth paying a premium, as long as it’s not ridiculously high, for the ability to choose from multiple content providers.
So while my next tablet won’t be the cheapest on the market, I won’t make the same mistake twice and limit myself to one source of content for it.
"Multimedia" and "interactivity" are the poster kids for ebooks’ potential, but how do they really make books better? Peter Meyers’ Breaking the Page delivers an inspirational answer, filled with real-world examples that demonstrate how innovators are fulfilling screen publishing’s promise without botching the reading experience. Here’s a small taste:
Writers and publishers of all stripes need help crafting great digital reading experiences. Not just guidance on making print books look better onscreen–what the Ebook Age requires is a fresh look at how screen-based publications work, the kinds of content that’s reader–friendly, and how to assemble all this new stuff in a package that’s as entertaining and compelling as print. This book is here to help.
In the pages ahead, I give every digital book ingredient you’ve ever heard of a deep–tissue design critique. From navigational dashboards to new kinds of indexes, from animated page elements to stop–motion tutorials, the chapters that follow map out how to conceive and architect reader–friendly productions. And since we’re entering a world in which the lines have sharpened between the different “services” books provide–immersion and delight for stories, instruction and info extraction for teaching and reference–you’ll also learn to tailor content for all these different scenarios. Above all, I like to think of this book as a skeptic’s design guide–as much about what to leave out as what to put in. It will challenge you to think about enhancing digital documents not simply because you can but, instead, only when you should.
In 1993, the great humorist, environmentalist, and of course, novelist and TV writer Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Doctor Who) recorded a brief history of the book for his publisher Voyager Books. In his inimitable style, Adams begins with rocks being scrunched up and used as tablets; moves on to wood being scrunched up and rolled out into scrolls; and then moves into a blandly perfect prediction of the future of the ebook, “scrunched up into silicon or something.”
To honor Adams, who died in 2001, TheLiteraryPlatform is hosting a fun contest, “inviting creatives to produce an animation that illustrates” Adams’ droll voice–over. What’s more, entries will be judged by the great British humorist Stephen Fry, among others. Deadline is April 15, 2012; winners will be announced on May 25, which is, as you surely know, Towel Day.
In describing the paper–based book, Adams drily notes: “All you had to do was sit there. It really caught on.”
Here’s hoping that this contest really catches on.
