BLACKWELL 1 The challenges to migrate print to ebooks Keith Stanley Blackwell Library Services UK LACIG Workshop 27 September 2010

BLACKWELL 2 An ebook is simply a print book in another format….

BLACKWELL 3 ….if it is that simple, then why does so much about the ebook environment appear so complicated?

BLACKWELL 4 Who is publishing ebooks? Popular and general publishers Academic and scholarly publishers Governments and institutions Self publishing In short…everybody!

BLACKWELL 5 Are ebooks selling? Amazon claims to have sold 143 digital books for its e-reader, the Kindle, for every 100 hardback books from May to July 2010 (note – hardback sales, not paperback!) Self published materials (especially fiction) is more affordable and very prolific Classic literature and un-copyrighted material is free or at very low price point

BLACKWELL 6 Are ebooks cannibalising the print book market? In the US, it does not appear that the growth of ebooks is damaging sales of physical books. According to the Association of American Publishers, hardback sales are still growing in the US, up 22% this year. (July 2010) The association says that ebook sales in the US account for 6% of the consumer book market. In the UK it is a slightly different picture, according to the Publishers Association Digital sales were around £150m last year, over 80% in the academic-professional sector, with only £5m in consumer sales The US leads the way, but other markets will follow

BLACKWELL 7 Core challenges: print to e What content is wanted in ebook format? Copyright and Digital Rights Management (DRM) Consumer and user expectations Pricing and profitability Various formats and the lack of standardisation Discovery tools – finding and acquiring ebooks

BLACKWELL 8 What Content is wanted in ebook format? Publishers have to consider Frontlist vs backlist Academic publishers reluctant to make textbooks readily available Never again should a book be out-of-print or not available More than just English language Local materials

BLACKWELL 9 Copyright and DRM (Digital Rights Management) Publishers ultimately want to protect their content and manage it tightly In academic ebooks, restrictions are in place on printing, copying and cutting & pasting Open Access (OA) licensing arrangements Platform restrictions (e.g. locked pdf) Single user vs multiple user Challenges to publishers on copyrighted content (e.g. illustrations and graphs) Archiving and storage, ownership of ebooks ePiracy concerns (peer-to-peer sharing)

BLACKWELL 10 Consumer and user expectations Easy access Downloadable material No time or usage restrictions anytime anyplace Single user access can be frustrating Ability to print and copy with ease Manage their own collections Not feel tied in to a publisher platform Ability to put material on a device of choice (e-reader; mobile carrier –iphone, ipod, ipod touch etc; laptop, ipad) Value added content (metadata, web links, open url etc)

BLACKWELL 11 Pricing and profitability Publishers do not want to lose profitability Users expect a good deal Less cost involved in creating an ebook…and consumers know this Trade ebooks are a lot cheaper than their print counterparts Academic books are matching hardback pricing Contractual issues on Digital Rights – author royalties

BLACKWELL 12 Various formats and the lack of standardisation No industry standardisation on DRM Most licensing arrangements are complicated Aggregator platforms (ebrary, EBL, MyiLibrary etc) Various platforms (pdf, plain text, html, Amazon Kindle, TomeRaider, etc) Rough count: 18 formats with 25 supporting hardware platform types Attempts to tie-in the consumer on a brand or publisher Editing of ebooks – quality varies, self published works can be poorly proof-read and edited

BLACKWELL 13 Formats Plain text.txt HTML.html PostScript.ps Portable Document Format.pdf DjVu.djvu EPUB (IDPF).epub FictionBook.fb2 Mobipocket.prc,.mobi Kindle.azw eReader.pdb TealDoc.pdb Broadband eBook.lrf,.lrx WOLF.wol Tome Raider.tr2,.tr3 ArghosReader.aeh Microsoft Reader.lit Multimedia EBook.exe

BLACKWELL 14 Hardware Readers Amazon Kindle 2, DX Amazon Kindle 3 Android Devices Apple iOS Devices Azbooka WISEreader Barnes & Noble Nook Bookeen Cybook Gen3, OpusCOOL-ER Classic Foxit eSlick Hanlin e-Reader V3 Hanvon WISEreader iRex iLiad Iriver Story Kobo eReader Nokia N900 NUUTbook 2 Viewsonic VEB612 OLPC XO, Sugar Onyx Boox 60 Pocketbook 301 Plus, 302, 360° Sony Reader

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BLACKWELL 16 Discovery tools – finding and acquiring ebooks Finding ebooks – Amazon, Blackwell, Kalahari etc Academic discovery tools (Blackwells Collection Manager etc) Collection development Book supplier relationships Print has advantage of many well established outlets (bookshops, online, supermarkets, second-hand market etc) Ebooks only live in the online environment at present Managing collections

BLACKWELL 17 Conclusions and going forward The challenges are very different for academic publishers from their trade cousins Consumer expectations are currently not always met, perhaps they are too high and at times unrealistic Need for more standardisation of platforms, formats and most importantly DRM Open access is the ideal…and undoubtedly the future Distribution and discovery remain challenges Ebooks will become more prolific and more sophisticated in their content delivery Ebooks will match and in many cases exceed their print counterparts in sales and usage

BLACKWELL 18 THANK YOU QUESTIONS