AAUP members: ebook output formats
The Association of American University Presses (AAUP) recently surveyed its member presses about digital publishing strategies and programs. According to the AAUP, the survey had two purposes:
- To share the responses to seven questions specifically about digital strategies, technologies, and concerns related to their book publishing programs.
- To expose new and updated information on specific e-publishing programs at member presses
Roughly 45% of then-current members (59 publishers) completed the survey, representing presses of all sizes, from all regions. Of the individuals who responded, 39% are press directors, and 24% reported job titles directly relating to digital publishing, including positions in production, marketing, IT, and administrative departments.
One of their survey questions was: Our press makes content available in the following formats. Respondents could choose all applicable formats. Formats are listed in order of greatest adoption. Two presses skipped this question.
| Format | # of Presses | % |
|---|---|---|
| 55 | 96.5 | |
| AZW (Kindle) | 18 | 31.6 |
| EPUB | 17 | 29.8 |
| MOBI | 8 | 14.0 |
| iPhone Apps | 2 | 03.5 |
| LIT | 2 | 03.5 |
| DAISY | 1 | 01.8 |
| None | 1 | 01.8 |
Other responses included:
- HTML (1 press)
- XML (3)
- EPUB available soon (6)
- iPhone Apps available soon (2)
- Other file formats for readers with print disabilities (1)
- Kindle titles available soon (2)
Bitextualism
Frank Romano, professor emeritus at RIT School of Print Media and author of 45 books, writes a column, “Frankly Speaking,” in which he presents his views on the publishing industry. I’ve been reading his writings for more than 25 years. In the January/February 2010 edition of Book Business Magazine his column is titled “Are You Bitextual.”
In essence, the subhead claims, the “glut of new formats and distribution options requires publishers to be increasingly nimble—willing to meet book buyers’ changing habits.” Romano writes: “My feeling is that many publishers have difficulty dealing with all these formats (offset, digital, e-book) at one time. They will just have to be more bitextual.” He says that the “entire marketplace will have to deal with new book formats and new book distribution,” depending upon the readers’ desire: whether to download an ebook, go to a bookstore to buy an already-printed hardcover, or wait at the store for an on-demand version to be printed.
I was tickled by the term bitextual. Thought it was clever and so original. I did a quick search on Bing and found 1,780 results. Well, I didn’t think it was so original and clever after that search. Here are some of the ways the term has been used:
- Google has a patent (#6438515 filed on 28 Jun 1999) for “bitextual, bifocal language learning.” It’s a “language learning system for presenting a text in a first language to be learned by a person, the text in the first language being presented in a bitextual format to facilitate learning the first language.”
- There is a case note on a CSI Forensics web site.
- There’s a website called Stargate Bitextual, the place where everybody in the gateverse can follow their own preferences.
- The Urban Dictionary defines bitextual as: When you are in a text conversation with someone, and you suddenly find yourself in 2 separate conversations with the same person.
- James Kendrick says writes in his blog, jkontherun, about the increasing frustrations of a bitextual (multi-platform) technology writer, because he uses both the Windows and Mac systems: “I am a technology writer who works heavily with both platforms, bitextual if you will, and I am more productive and get a more gratifying experience on the Mac.”
And these are the findings on just the first page of the search. The search is the thing that brought me back down to earth as far as the term “bitextual” was concerned. It broadened my knowledge about the term and told me how widespread it was being used. It’s not that new and is used to describe more things that I thought possible. This is what gives the digital book a new dimension that you won’t find in a printed book: you can search and find precisely what you want. I don’t know that that diminishes the need for an index, but it does show that it’s a value-added feature that makes me a firm believer in the digital world. Just about every book born today is born digital. It’s the printed version that demands a change in the digital primordial origins. I say, let the book stay digital.
Given that, I am bitextual, and proud of it. I am probably one of the few people left who both read a daily newspaper (Santa Fe New Mexican) and read it’s online digital version. Proof that I’m bitextual.
By the way, I Binged the term bitextualism and didn’t get a hit. Did I coin a new word?
What do you think of the word bitextual? I’d like to hear your views.
If you own an eReader, you might be a …
Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI) just released the results of a fall 2009 survey that profiles U.S. electronic book-reader owners. The approximately 2.1 million U.S. adults who own eReaders are more likely than the average adult to be well-educated and have high incomes, according to the most recent data.
Survey results include:
- At 56.3% of eReader users, men outnumber women (43.7%).
- Adults ages 35-54 are the “sweet spot” for this product, as they are 20% more likely than the average adult to own an eReader.
- eBook owners are 11% more likely than the average adult to own their home.
- 87% more likely to have a household income of $100,000 or higher annually.
- They are also 111% more likely to have obtained a bachelor’s or post-graduate degree.
- eBook owners are particularly Web-centric; they are 116% more likely than the average adult to be a heavy Internet user.
- Moreover, they are 199% more likely to have accessed the Internet using a WiFi or wireless connection outside the home.
- They are 154% more likely to have accessed the Internet using a cell phone or other mobile device.
“Clearly, users of the current generation of eReaders are highly educated, upscale and Internet savvy,” said Anne Marie Kelly, SVP, Marketing & Strategic Planning, at Mediamark Research & Intelligence. “With Sony preparing to ship its Reader Daily Edition and Barnes & Noble about to enter the market with its Nook product, it will be interesting to see how quickly eBooks catch on in greater numbers with the more mainstream population.”
eBook Readers and Standards…Where to Now?
On 18 Nov, I joined more than 600 other publishing peers for an Aptara webinar on “eBook Readers and Standards…Where to Now?” The presentation looked at the rapidly unfolding eBook market, and how publishers are struggling to adapt as competitive and consumer pressures demand that their titles be compatible with the multitude of new eBook applications and eReaders coming to market. For those working on the development of a successful eBook production strategy, this presentation gave a clear position on where the market is today and will be tomorrow.
The presenters were Sarah Rotman Epps, Forrester Research’s eBook Market Analyst, and Michael Smith, Director of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), which manages the EPUB standard. Here are some highlights:
From Sarah Rotman Epps on a Forrester Research survey completed in the third quarter 2009:
- Q2 2008, 37% had never heard of an electronic book device; in Q3 2009, that number dropped to 17%
- US eReader outlook:
- Sell-through of 3 million units in 2009
- Amazon 60%
- Sony 35%
- Others less than 5%
- 40% of 2009 sales (1.2M) in Q4, with 900,000 in November/December holiday season
- A conservative estimate for 2010 would be for sales to increase from 6M (2009) to 10M units
- Sell-through of 3 million units in 2009
- What’s coming in 2010:
- First eReaders not using E Ink screens
- New screen sizes, color, and non-E Ink video
- New category-bending devices: dual screens, web tablets, smartphones better optimized for reading
- More competition: B&N, others
- Global growth
- 2007 is to eReaders what 2001 was to MP3 players
- US consumers:
- 3% now use their desktop computer to reader eBooks
- 2% use their laptop computer
- 1% use an eReader device, such as a Kindle or Sony Reader
- 1% use a netbook
- 1% use a mobile phone or PDA
- Of consumers who say they are interested in eBooks, the value they saw included:
- Take up less space: 54%
- Can access multiple books on the go: 47%
- Can adjust text size: 37%
- Better for the environment than print books: 37%
- Can read in dark/low light: 37%
- Cheaper than print books: 35%
- Easy to search: 26%
- Easy to look up a word in a dictionary: 22%
- When asked how interested they would be in reading different forms of media on an eBook reader, consumers who were very interested replied:
- Books: 29%
- Magazines: 15%
- Newspapers: 14%
- Textbooks: 11%
- Wikipedia: 9%
- Comics: 7%
- Blogs: 4%
- What should book publishers take away from the survey:
- Stay “device agnostic”
- The features that matter when it comes to content:
- Ability to reflow content and look good on any device
- Ability to sync up content across multiple devices
- Ability to share content with a friend
- What will eBooks mean for a publisher’s bottom line?
- Expect small revenues from any one channel, but expect growth over time across devices
- Could be incremental, but much will be replacement
- Plan for a smaller business
- But potentially still a profitable one as you cut back print operations over time
- New opportunities
- Subscriptions
- Incremental content sales
- Advertising
From Michael Smith’s presentation:
- Industry predictions:
- Continued growth of eBooks and eReaders as they become more mainstream
- Younger generations (digital natives) begin to read electronically for pleasure
- Hockey stick sales growth: 2010-2011
- eBook wholesale numbers:
- 2009: $109,900,000 (Q1-Q3)
- 2008: $53,500,000
- 2007: $31,800,000
- 2006: $20,000,000
- eBook formats: What’s right for your content?
- Final form content vs. digital reflowable text
- PDF vs. EPUB
- How will content be consumed?
- Web
- Mobile
- E Ink Display
- Final form content vs. digital reflowable text
- Current standards landscape
- EPUB is an open and non-proprietary standard
- Key to healthy eBook ecosystem
- PDF is an ISO Standard
- DAISY, ONIX, ISBN, XML, XHTML, CSS all important
- Others promoting non-EPUB formats
- EPUB is an open and non-proprietary standard
- What’s pivotal to pervasive EPUB adoption?
- Publisher adoption — Critical mass of content
- Consumer adoption — EPUB prefect for small screen apps
- Continuous evolution and improvements — EPUB Maintenance Working Group + EPUB 3.0
- Future of EPUB — Not a matter of “if,” but how fast it will become the dominant format/preferred standard
- Continued worldwide adoption of EPUB with strong push throughout Europe, China and Japan
- Move from primarily trade titles into Science/Technology/Math and then Higher-Ed
- Continued growth in Library markets
- Adoption of EPUB format to be a factor in rise of accessible titles available for Print Disabled community
Carbon footprint of eReaders
CleantechGroup estimates that the total current US market for ebook readers is roughly 1,000,000 units, increasing to 14.4 million in 2012. Of the 1,000,000 units, Kindle comprised 45%, 30% were Sony, and other brands comprised 25%.
While those numbers are interesting, the real focus of the study was to determine the life cycle impact (carbon footprint) of electronic book readers on the environment. After concluding that the number of units in use is too small to have any significant impact on the environment, they did state that “… on average, the carbon emitted in the lifecycle of a Kindle is fully offset after the first year of use.”
The report author, Emma Ritch, states: “Any additional years of use result in net carbon savings, equivalent to an average of 168 kg of CO2 per year (the emissions produced in the manufacture and distribution of 22.5 books).”
A summary of findings can be found here.
Book Industry Study Group webinar on future of ISBN
Who: Book Industry Study Group (sponsored by the U.S. ISBN Agency)
What: Identification and Digital Publications: Exploring the Emerging Standards Landscape
Where: Free webinar
When: 11:00 am-12:00 pm Eastern Time (US/Canada), Tuesday, 15 September 2009
Why: “The book industry has had the ISBN for nearly 40 years; there has been little cause for excitement. Now, suddenly the whole subject of “identifiers” has become a hot topic, particularly when it comes to digital books and other online resources. This BISG Webcast will explore why the book industry has standard identifiers, and consider the future of the ISBN (International Standard Book Number), as well as the role of newer identification standards like ISTC (International Standard Text Code) and ISNI (International Standard Name Identifier). What do you need to know to make informed decisions about how — and whether — to use them? Register today to find out.”
What the ebook world looks like: from Book Business magazine webinar
I attended a Book Business magazine webinar recently. Here are my notes from “On-Demand Publishing: The Bottom Line.”
The market growth is in the on-demand sector:
- Traditional book publishing title introductions declined by -3.2% in 2008
- 285,394 on-demand titles were introduced in 2008; a 132% increase
On-demand production has increased by 462% since 2006.
The future is all e-everything.
The ebook market is very small, but growing:
- 1.5% of book sales were ebooks in 2008
- 2.5% of book sales were e-books in Q1 2009
There is a renewed interest in ebook readers, such as the Amazon Kindle and Sony eReader.
There is anecdotal success in niche markets, for example, in romance novels.
The future looks bright due to a push toward color display and the refinements coming with e-ink and e-paper.
A representative from IBT Global gave some interesting figures on warehouse storage for printed books vs. disk storage for ebooks waiting to be ordered:
- Warehouse square footage costs $8 – $12
- A pallet of printed books hold 2,387 books
- Takes 13 sq. ft. of floor space, or $130, which is $.054 per book
- A 20-terabyte server holds more than 230,000 titles
- Takes up 6 sq. ft. of floor space, or $60, which is $.00026 per book
Just a different perspective on what is costs to store the hard copy and the electronic versions. Your thoughts?
Most surveyed at Cambridge: they would “never” read ebook on mobile phone
An excellent study (http://arcadiaproject.lib.cam.ac.uk/docs/M-Libraries_report.pdf) published in May 2009 under funding by arcadia@cambridge, suggests that libraries need to investigate ways to “deliver their services to mobile phones and other small-screen devices so their customers can access them any time anywhere.”
In “M-Libraries: Information use on the move,” author Keren Mills, writes that “This can be as simple as sending text message alerts about reservations becoming available or overdue books, or as complex as the [reading room], which allows readers to access full ebooks and journal articles through their library’s subscriptions on any mobile device. These services are becoming known as ‘m-libraries’.”
The results of the survey respondents are not surprising. While most use their phones to make calls, send text messages, and take photographs, very few used them to listen to podcasts or audio books, and only a small number read ebooks or journal articles.
This study, done at the University Cambridge and its Open University, says that 55% of the respondents favored being able to access the library catalog from a mobile phone. At present, it states, “most users are put off by the constraints of the technology, such as poor screen quality.” However, iPhone users are already more inclined to read ebooks on their phones, according to the survey results.
The most surprising finding I saw concerned reading ebooks on mobile devices. When asked if they use their phones for reading an ebook, 93.8% of Cambridge University respondents and 92.3% of the Open University respondents said they would “never” read an ebook.
Perusing library science literature on ebooks
Here are a few abstracts of recent library science articles about ebooks published in various journals. Enjoy.
- “An overview of the e-book marketplace,” by Magdalini Vasileiou, Richard Hartley, and Jennifer Rowley, Online Information Review, 2009, Vol. 33, Issue: 1, pages 173-192.
URL: http://tinyurl.com/kpvrgr. Fee required to read entire article.Provides an overview of the e-book marketplace players and their services against a context in which e-books are becoming an increasingly significant category of digital resource. The authors start with a brief overview of the literature on the global e-book market and e-book business models offered by vendors to libraries. Analysis of the web sites of nine e-book publishers and 11 e-book aggregators was used as a basis for profiling the main features of e-books (user-oriented features and librarian-oriented features) and the services offered by e-book publishers and e-book aggregators. The e-book market is under constant change and it is important to monitor its development, not just at national but also at international level. Currently, the majority of e-book vendors market to libraries–typically academic libraries, and publishers are increasingly using e-aggregators to distribute their titles. Collections of e-books are expanding gradually and there is evidence of increasing uptake. Current e-book business models are complex and range considerably. This development of the availability of e-books could have significant implications for the future role of libraries and for library strategies, policies and processes. The authors draw attention to the potential of the future importance of e-books and profiles the uptake of the e-book marketplace in terms of main players and their services.
- “Scholarly e-books: the views of 16,000 academics: Results from the JISC National E-Book Observatory,” by Hamid R. Jamali, David Nicholas, and Ian Rowlands, Aslib Proceedings, 2009, v61 #1, pages 33-47.
URL: http://tinyurl.com/lk3muz. Fee required to read entire article.This study, a part of JISC-funded UK National E-Books Observatory, looks at the perspective of students and academics, the main e-book users, on e-books. The paper provides an analysis of two open-ended questions about e-books, contained in a UK national survey conducted between 18 Jan and 1 Mar 2008. The survey obtained a response from more than 20,000 academic staff and students; 16,000 free-text responses were obtained to these two questions. The study discloses that convenience associated with online access along with searchability was the biggest advantage of e-books. The study shows a potential market for e-textbooks; however, e-books have yet to become more student-friendly by improving features such as printing and screen reading. This is the biggest survey of its kind ever conducted and it improves one’s knowledge of what the academic community thinks of e-books.
- “E-books or print books, “big deals” or local selections—What gets more use?” by Robert Slatera, Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services, 2009, v33 #1, pages 31-41.
URL: http://tinyurl.com/kmaxjb. Free to read entire article.
This article tracks the use of several hundred books at Oakland University that were made available both in print and electronically. The author attempts to determine if there are discernible differences in usage based on format. This paper also examines usage to determine if collections of books that were locally selected exhibit different usage than those purchased through a consortium. The author concludes that locally selected collections receive greater usage than consortially selected collections. Furthermore, the author finds that usage of a particular title in one format does not correlate to usage of that title in the other, but that there is a relationship between the formats when you compare aggregate circulations/accesses of books based within NetLibrary subject areas. In 2005, the university began investigating the e-book aggregator Safari Technical E-books. Safari specializes in what, to date, have been the most heavily used areas for e-books according to the literature– computer science (and related fields) and business/economics. For some time, Oakland University librarians had been struggling with an unusually high rate of lost and stolen books in the area of computer science. “How to” and “teach yourself” computer science books published by Sam’s and O’Reilly were particularly problematic. Various attempts to limit access and prevent theft did little to lower the rate of loss, while simultaneously making the books harder to access for legitimate users. Safari’s e-books seemed to be the perfect solution to this problem; they would provide access while guaranteeing that the items would not be lost or stolen. The computer science librarian anticipated that use of computer science and related books would be high, but wanted to determine if use would be equal to or higher than that of print counterparts. If it turned out this was the case, then he could justify developing a collection policy that always favored e-books over print books for books in the area of computer science and related subject areas, when available. The librarians also wanted to determine if theft and loss of print computer science books from the open stacks continued to be a problem. Furthermore, the librarians wanted to compare how usage of locally selected e-book collections compared with that of consortially selected collections. - “E-books in Spanish academic libraries,” by Luisa Alvite Díez and Blanca Rodríguez Bravo, The Electronic Library, 2009, v27 #1, pages 86-95.
URL: http://tinyurl.com/lw5xl3. Fee required to read entire article.Explores the current presence of e-books in the collections of Spanish academic libraries, from the viewpoint of the contents on offer. Exploration of the library web sites was undertaken in order to gauge the level of presence of packages that distribute electronic books. In evaluating the extent of content available, the data recorded were compared with those derived from another research carried out in 2004. Similarly, an approximate indication of the topic areas with greatest representation was attempted, distinguishing multidisciplinary suppliers from those specializing in one field. Out of the 50 existing universities, 36 support the subscription of at least one collection of electronic books. The universities of the communities of Andalusia, Catalonia, and Valencia are those that have reached a greater implementation of e-books. There is a considerable diversity–many universities have subscribed to collections specializing in literature and in the field of engineering. The main multidisciplinary collections purchased by libraries are E-libro and NetLibrary. This is a sector that is definitely taking off in Spain and will require progressive acceptance on the part of the academic community. Librarians have the responsibility to aid their users in understanding the growing complexity of the information market and the increasing range of resources available for research. The research is a necessary approach to the integration of collections of e-books into Spanish public universities. Encouraging the use of monographs in electronic format takes on great importance, when it is borne in mind that e-books will have a crucial role in the new model for education advocated by the European Higher Education Area (EHEA).
- “Allocating costs in the business operation of library consortium: The case study of Super e-Book Consortium,” by Steve H. Ching, Maria W. Leung, Margarret Fidow, and Ken L. Huang, Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services, 2008, v32 #2, pages 97-103.
URL: http://tinyurl.com/nf4m6c. Fee required to read entire article.
This case examines the Super e-Book Consortium in Taiwan and Hong Kong by employing Activity Based Costing Method (ABC), which seeks to establish an activity and process analysis pattern for costing structure, and tries to find cost drivers for consortia business operation. The actual level of activities and the services provided by consortium have not been clearly identified. The service charges incurred for financing the consortium business operations are not commonly found in the expenditure category of their existing operating budgets. The key activities and relevant costs have been analyzed to provide a reference for pricing the service charges and as a benchmark for the future consortium operations in terms of cost reductions and efficiency improvements. A future inter-jurisdiction organizational business model is recommended based on key consortium operational activities and its changing environment. - “Assessing e-books: Taking a closer look at e-book statistics,” by Nancy Sprague and Ben Hunter, Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services, 2008, v32 #3-4, pages 150-157.
URL: http://tinyurl.com/lr4ha3. Fee required to read entire article.In 2008, the University of Idaho Library conducted an in-depth analysis of its three major electronic book providers. Using spreadsheet and database applications, bibliographic data from their ILS was combined with usage statistics obtained from each platform. This technique produced a master sheet that allowed the library to do subject analysis by LC classification, discover e-books that were not cataloged in their OPAC, and identify e-books supplied by more than one provider. The usage statistics show relatively low use across both subject areas and platforms. The discussion includes an analysis of subscription costs and recommendations for the reporting of e-book statistics.
- “E-books in practice: the librarian’s perspective,” by Rafael Ball, Learned Publishing, 2009, v22 #1, pages 18-22.
URL: http://tinyurl.com/needtl. Fee required to read entire article.
It has become unimaginable to provide information–particularly scientific information–without e-books. They have become part of today’s combination of media, which includes printed books and journals, e-journals, e-books, and databases. When e-books first appeared on the market, librarians very quickly formulated their key requirements. The most important requirement is functionality: it must be possible to look through a book chapter by chapter, and also to get a quick overview of a comprehensive monograph. Usage arrangements, including concurrent usage and use for interlibrary loans, are also important. The use of uniform technical standards increases the acceptance of e-books. - “The shifting landscape of e-books,” by Aline Soules, New Library World, 2009, v110 #1/2, pages 7-21.
URL: http://tinyurl.com/kl59k7. Fee required to read entire article.Reviews the current state of e-books, describing their potential scope, highlighting information from recent ebrary surveys in connection with the author’s on-the-ground experience with students, and discussing the challenges of these evolving works. The paper describes the need to broaden perceptions of e-books in light of their extensive potential and scope. It highlights significant points in the ebrary surveys and compares them with the author’s on-the-ground experience in a medium-sized university with students who are less advantaged. It also presents the challenges librarians face, both currently and in the future, illustrating progress in some areas and emphasizing the growing complexity in managing these works. Even as librarians cope with what can now be considered “traditional” e-books, little attention is paid to the potential breadth and diversity of e-books. The surveys show that librarians are only partially aware of students’ perceptions about e-books and that there are conflicting priorities among students, faculty, and librarians. Conclusions are that: even as librarians cope with the current state of e-books, they must also plan for future types of e-books; and there is a strong need for greater communication in the increasingly complex e-book arena of selection, acquisition, collection integration, and instruction. Much of the literature about e-books deals with the pros and cons, either of e-books or of e-book readers. The paper lays out e-book issues to foster further in-depth discussion.
