KNOW THIS: E-Books On the Rise…and In the News
January 31, 2010
In a week during which Digital Book World analyzed the potential impact of e-books on the (not-so-great-at-the-moment) state of the book publishing industry, Apple unveiled its newest gadget that some believed would turn the book publishing industry on its head, and Amazon pulled print and digital titles from a major publisher because its proposed new rules didn’t jive with the Amazon e-book plan, we at The Know Something Project took a step back to consider the ramifications of all this boisterous, often bewildering, bookish buzz:
The impact of e-books on the book-reading public continues to grow: According to In-Stat.com, more than 900,000 e-readers were shipped worldwide in 2008 and in 2013 more than 28 million e-readers may be shipped. Such projections easily put potential e-reader sales growth in the billions over the next few years. As far as content goes, nearly half of current e-reader owners already spend about $150 per year on loading their readers with books and other digital documents, an amount that’s sure to rise.
To ensure what you get out of the e-reading experience is worth what you’re likely to invest into it, you may want to consider the following:
The ramifications of Amazon’s latest power play—the pulling of books published by Macmillan, one of the largest U.S. publishers and a partner in the Apple iBooks program—affects not only publishers but everyone from the original creators of the content publishers sell to any person opting to buy a new hardcover, paperback, or digital book. The fact no one knows when a powerful entity like Amazon may limit consumers’ options by refusing to sell a book in any format or by pulling a digital copy of a title like George Orwell’s 1984 off the “millions” of e-readers it’s supposedly sold should make consumers nervous, especially when that same entity seems determined to monopolize an entire industry based on the free dissemination of ideas.
For e-book geeks, the biggest news related to Apple’s iPad’s wireless (via AT&T) iBooks application and iBookstore centers on Apple’s use of the Adobe ePub format. Our Know Something Project e-books overview last June explained that the ePub format is “one of the industry-supported standards for e-books”—ePub is open-source/free and works on most types of hardware. The question that remains, however, is what—if any—kind of DRM (Digital Rights Management, also discussed in our e-books overview) restrictions Apple will attach to the e-books it sells. If Apple uses DRM designed to limit iBookstore books to use only on Apple hardware, the format in which these iBooks are created really doesn’t matter. At least not to those who hope to eventually see all e-books available to all readers across all available e-reading-enabled tools.
In a June 2009 presentation at a conference on disruptive business models sponsored by Wired magazine, Amazon founder, CEO, and chairman Jeff Bezos suggested the Kindle will ultimately be used to read e-books with formats other than its own (besides PDF, which is already accessible on the Kindle), and that e-books purchased via the Kindle Store will be read on e-readers that currently compete with the Kindle. According to The New York Times, this statement marked the first time Bezos “described the hardware business and the e-book store as separate.”
“It would be a rare feat,” the Times noted, “if Amazon could build two profitable businesses out of the Kindle.” Rare, but somehow within the realm of Amazonian possibilities. For now, though, most Kindle users stick to reading only Kindle Store downloads and live with that limitation. From the opposite perspective, those who wish to download e-books from the Kindle store can do that directly onto a Kindle or onto a computer, or can use the app released last year to read Kindle e-books on an iPhone or iPod Touch. Current speculators reason this app will also allow iPad users to download and read Kindle books on the iPad. If it does, Amazon will have taken another step toward pleasing book-reading consumers who want open access to books on as many types of hardware as possible.
Last August, Sony unveiled its large-format Daily Edition reader with wireless capabilities (like the iPad, it uses AT&T; the Kindle uses Sprint) PLUS access to library books. All Sony Readers support multiple formats such as PDF, Word, and text for personal documents and ePub and Adobe Digital Editions for e-books in addition to Sony’s e-book format. Early last year, Google began offering access to its collection of hundreds of thousands of scanned public-domain titles in ePub format to Sony reader users. That plus the library option gives Sony Daily Edition users access to a huge selection of e-titles, many of them free.
Barnes & Noble also partnered with AT&T to offer wireless downloading via its new Nook reader. With access to the B&N library of one million titles, the Nook also allows users to “lend” a book temporarily to another consumer, even if the borrower opts to read the title on a computer rather than a Nook. This option is made possible due to B&N e-reading software available for download onto computers and some handheld devices.
Many other manufacturers now offer dedicated e-readers in all sorts of shapes and sizes, but at this time Amazon, Sony, and Barnes & Noble offer the largest selections. Apple’s iBooks program intrigues due to the slick look of its multi-faceted iPad and its nifty iBooks interface, but the iPad has been received by the public as something other than an e-reader. A dynamic multimedia device that not only allows the e-reading user to view color covers and illustrations as well as black and white text, the iPad is hardly limited to the e-reading experience…though the e-reading experience it offers at first may be limited due to lack of content. Again, Apple’s DRM plan will either enhance or injure its iBooks program from the get-go. Consumers considering the iPad for use primarily as an e-reader also need to consider the added monthly cost of a subscription for wireless connectivity—a fee that kicks in before a single item is purchased. Unfortunately, iPad-related costs don’t end there.
While for such reasons the iPad may not prove to be the “Kindle Killer” some techie bloggers had predicted it might be, Amazon may yet manage to lose its hold as the current leader in the e-books universe for any or all of the following reasons:
1) Its refusal to reveal specifics on Kindle sales and e-book sales (excluding free e-book downloads) that makes it impossible to verify exactly how much of the e-books market Amazon actually controls.
2) Its new, troubling tactic of pulling titles from publishers who prefer Apple’s iBooks plan—that would raise the price of some e-books from $9.99 to either $12.99 or $14.99, pay publishers more per sale, and allow the retailer to earn more per sale—and dare to propose Amazon consider doing the same.
3) Its unwillingness to support open platforms so books sold in the Kindle store can be purchased and downloaded via many more devices, and more e-books can be accessed via the Kindle store.
4) Its double standard of insisting the proposed Google settlement would give the search engine a potential monopoly in the book industry (that would also benefit Sony, an Amazon competitor and Google partner) while doing everything it can to monopolize the same industry.
Where all this will lead us in 2010 and beyond remains to be seen, but one fact is clear: E-books are here to stay, and many more e-book headlines are on their way. We look forward to analyzing them—and their impact not only on the publishing industry but on the players within that industry and on the consumers that industry serves—in upcoming installments.
The Know Something Project is an affiliate of Pearl Street Publishing, an independent publisher that publishes the works of those who dare to act on their dreams. From our perspective, the big players in the publishing industry will always prevail. No one needs to shed tears for the protagonists in the current struggle, real or staged: Apple, Amazon, Google, big publishers, bookstore chains, or a few high-profile non-chain bookstores. They may be forced to change, but they will survive.
The beauty of the Internet is that it levels the playing field rather than strictly protects the interests of the same old players. If the reader is truly only interested in the slickest gadget and biggest marketing campaigns for books, then none of this matters. If the writer is truly only interested in the cover price of a digital copy of his or her hardcover book, then the big players are right and the main issue is how an e-book is priced. We, however, remain convinced readers would enjoy reading the many voices that are currently unheard and deserve access to the many quality books that are unpublished…or have been published and lack widespread distribution.
The Internet provides that access unless it is censored and controlled by the big players. As we wrote when we discussed freedom of expression in China, Google happily participated in Chinese censorship…despite the recent outcry by Google that China had interfered with its service. In this country, would anyone be surprised by a settlement among the big players in the publishing industry that puts the highest digital price for hardcover titles somewhere between $9.99 and $14.99? Not at all.** That’s because we acknowledge the fact that only a few big players control the industry, and that most books in this country will continue to be produced and distributed by those players—whether in digital or print versions or via the Internet or bricks-and-mortar stores. We acknowledge that fact and accept it. But we don’t have to limit our choices to what these players offer.
That is why we will continue to be vigilant in our pursuit of freedom of expression, and why we will continue to offer our insights regarding the publishing industry from the perspective of an independent press.
—Sherry Seiber
**Just today, Amazon admitted in a Kindle forum post that “ultimately” the company “will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan’s terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and [Amazon wants] to offer them…even at prices [Amazon believes] are needlessly high for e-books.” Those needlessly high prices, however, will help relieve Amazon of the losses it suffers on many of the currently underpriced e-books it sells, possibly ending the cost-cutting strategy that helped it capture so much of the e-book marketplace early on. While it’s no wonder the company is willing to “capitulate” so quickly, will this step also contribute to the end of Amazon’s dominance in the e-book marketplace? One can only hope so.
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