Tag Archives: ebooks

Choose your own appventure, publishing edition

Actor and comedian Stephen Fry is proving his love of technology with the release of volume two of his autobiography, The Fry Chronicles, as a hardback, e-book, iPhone app, and audio book.

Why the variety of publishing platforms? Jeremy Ettinghausen, digital publisher at Penguin, explains:

“We’ve created the perfect format for dipping in and out of and exploring books in a more playful way. […] the design and technology have allowed us to create an experience that would not be possible in print, and discover a new way to present an author’s work.”

The iPhone app, dubbed myFry, includes the entire autobiography, but has a color-coded index so readers can read sections in any order. The app and the e-book also include additional photos and eight videos of Fry discussing events in the book.

Fry isn’t the first writer to take advantage of digital publishing. In July, Japanese author Ryu Murakami announced a deal with Apple to release his new novel directly to the iPad — bypassing his traditional print publisher completely. A Singing Whale (Utau Kujira in Japanese) will include video content set to music by Academy Award-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. And in August, marketing entrepreneur and author Seth Godin announced that he’s no longer publishing his books the traditional way.

“[…] my mission is to figure out who the audience is, and take them where they want and need to go, in whatever format works, even if it’s not a traditionally published book.”

It is yet to be seen how many writers will choose to follow Murakami’s and Godin’s lead. After all, these are two established authors (Murakami has published more than 15 novels, Godin has published 12) with devoted audiences, so their decision isn’t as risky as it would be for a lesser-known writer. But the number of authors experimenting with digital publishing will only continue to increase given the interactive content options and the demand for books on both e-readers and mobile devices. It will be interesting to see which of the four platforms will be the most profitable for Fry — numbers that I’m sure other authors will be watching closely as they consider the future of their own publishing endeavors.

E-readability

If you’re in the market for an e-reader and you’re concerned about readability, check out the test recently conducted by usability expert Jakob Nielsen where users were asked to read a short story by Hemingway on four devices: PC, iPad, Kindle 2, and printed book.

ereader-readability2

Users hated reading on the PC because it reminded them of work, but the tablets actually scored higher than the printed book in terms of satisfaction—even though the printed book won out in reading speed and level of relaxation. Nielsen predicts a promising future for e-readers as technology continues to close the readability gap. Check out his site to learn more about the study’s methods and findings.

Weekend showdown: Amazon vs. Macmillan

It was a busy weekend in the publishing world after the unveiling of the iPad last week sparked a showdown in the e-book market between Amazon and Macmillan.

amazon-macmillan

In an effort to pre-empt Apple’s challenge to their share of the e-book market, Amazon reduced their e-book publishing cut from 70% to 30% one week prior to the iPad announcement. However, in order to get the higher royalty option, authors must acknowledge Amazon as a publisher, grant licensing rights to the company for the Kindle publishing platform, and let them set the e-book price — no higher than $9.99.

Macmillan, one of five publishers who has partnered with Apple, met with Amazon on Thursday to request the price of e-books be raised from $9.99 to about $15 to prevent book devaluation. Amazon response? To remove all books published by Macmillan — e-books, hardcovers, and paperbacks — from its site on Friday, excepting those available from third party sellers.

In a statement to its authors, illustrators, and agents, Macmillan CEO John Sargent said:

In the ink-on-paper world we sell books to retailers far and wide on a business model that provides a level playing field, and allows all retailers the possibility of selling books profitably. Looking to the future and to a growing digital business, we need to establish the same sort of business model, one that encourages new devices and new stores.

[...] It also needs to insure that intellectual property can be widely available digitally at a price that is both fair to the consumer and allows those who create it and publish it to be fairly compensated. [...] Our disagreement is not about short-term profitability but rather about the long-term viability and stability of the digital book market.

The move by Amazon was met with anger and frustration from the literary community as the news of the “Amazon Fail” quickly spread online. Amazon was silent on the matter until Sunday:

[...] We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan’s terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books.

Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it’s reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don’t believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative.

In their carefully worded capitulation statement, the company shows they believe customers will side with them by refusing to pay $14.99 for an e-book. Some people have commented on the statement with support for Amazon’s “pro-consumer” model and $9.99 price cap, citing a “Macmillan Fail“. Others support Macmillan and believe $14.99 is a fair price. Only one thing is certain: the weekend battle may have ended, but the war is far from over.