The Digital Publishing Landscape

There has been a lot of talk around new devices coming out which are set to open up the e-reader market. The current crop of e-reader devices are bland and un-inspiring and we are already seeing that sales of e-books on devices like the i-phone are growing at a faster rate. Perhaps if the price point for these e-reader devices is low enough, say for example $50-$70 then they may start to find some traction, however, I think their days are limited.

There is much speculation and debate about the next range of devices to come out. The Apple Tablet (or Apple Slate), the Microsoft Courier are due to be launched but no one is really sure when. I guess one thing we can say is that the likes of Apple, Asus, Microsoft et al will be following this debate as closely as we are and sooner or later a device of this type will be with us.

We will have multimedia devices which enable us to interact with our social communities and also be our entertainment centres. I think we can take this as a given, the question is when will this be … next year or the year after, either way, that isn’t far away!

What publishers need to consider is that these new devices will be feature rich computers and offer more opportunity to include things like multimedia and community links to publications. The current idea of taking your printed book and converting it into some e-reader format is missing the point of what these new devices will be able to offer

For example … a travel guide should be able to link through to Google Streetview and walk the user through a city, or include translations or an audio description or music or movie clips or enable you to connect with communities who have visited the same area or posted photos or reviews of places etc. It shouldn’t be a page by page conversion of the printed product.

So what are publishers doing? As far as I can see, there are three main issues;

1. Publishers need to have their content in a format where it is easy to create digital products.

• there are no standards set for this,
• it costs money to do,
• publishers don’t want to burn cash going down the wrong road.

2. The business model for developing and selling digital content and products hasn’t been tied down and in some cases may not be viable.

• what will people be prepared to pay for digital products and content, the base level is they can get a lot of stuff for free
• how will the products be sold – as complete volumes or bit by bit

3. Uncertainty and concerns over control of content and piracy since digital rights management hasn’t been resolved.

It is a difficult time for many publishers, trade is down and there are threats that the publishing industry is heading down the same road as the music industry. But this isn’t a time to play ostrich or have a “lets do nothing until someone else does” attitude! By the time your competitor offers a successful digital product, you may well be more than a year behind and your competitors won’t want to share that learning curve!

Top tips.

• Do something! Unless you are dabbling or involved in the space it is easy to get alienated or even miss new technologies and trends.
• Set aside some budget, these areas will affect the future direction of publishing and therefore your business.
• Start revising your production lines to take into account potential digital product development. New products should be captured and held in a way that means the data can be re-used quickly and cheaply. This includes ensuring you have digital rights for bought images etc.
• Look at your top selling products, is there a digital opportunity for them, this doesn’t mean publishers have to go back and “digitise” vast archives of material.
• Talk to developers and other companies about your content, they will have new ideas about what products could be developed from it.
• Start adding content to your website to try and gauge what your customers may be interested in and how they may prefer to access and purchase your content.