ENTRIES TAGGED "ebook business models"
Building an ebook business around analytics
What happens when a web publishing business enters the ebook space?
AskMen, “the leading online magazine for men,” has just launched an ebook publishing program, using the PressBooks Publisher Platform to manage the front-end catalog/website, and back-end ebook production. In the year-and-a-bit since PressBooks launched publicly, we’ve worked with many traditional book publishers, big and small. But what’s most interesting to us is non-traditional book publishers entering the ebook space, because they have the flexibility to approach book publishing in whole new ways.
Especially interesting to us are successful web publishers, mainly because web publishers have the most direct understanding of their readers, and reader behaviour. This skill, and approach, will be critical, we believe, as book publishing evolves. Web publishing is an analytics-driven business. In the ebook world, timely analytics are very hard to come by. And generally, analytics is not something most book publishers prioritize in their business. We believe this will change, as book publishing becomes increasingly digital.
In the interview below, I explore the issue of web vs. ebook analytics with Emma McKay, managing editor of AskMen’s online magazine, and the leader of their ebook publishing program.
How libraries can help publishers with discovery and distribution
Why are we making the publisher-library relationship so complicated?
Why can’t the publisher-to-library sales model simply be the same as it is for every other ebook channel? The only difference is the library can only lend the ebook out to one patron at a time, just like the print version. Set a discount schedule off the publisher’s digital list price and call it a day. Some libraries might want to order one copy while others might want ten. Again, same as the print world.
Publishers are apparently afraid of lost sales. Why is this any more an issue in the ebook world than in the print book world? It’s really an opportunity for discovery and, more importantly, distribution.