Class 6 Redefining the Book, Changing Role of Editorial/Publishers

Class 6

Redefining the Book, Changing Role of Editorial/Publishers

CURRENT EVENTS

Current Events

• What price points where just announced for eInk devices?– Amazon was selling refurbished Kindles through

its warehouse at $109 (the company is now out of stock)

– Books-a-Million customers can now buy the Sony 505 e-reader for $99 (or $89.10 for those with membership cards)

Current Events

• How much did eBook sales rise in May?– 162.8% in May, to $29.3 million, at the 13 publishers that

report results to AAP’s monthly sales report. • How much for the first five months?– 207.4%, to $148.3 million.

• Bonus questions: what was the differential between publishers reporting print vs. digital sales?– 17 publishers reported physical sales. – 13 publishers reported digital sales.– What is the significance of the differential?

Current Events

• What company just launched a new digital educational platform?– Nixty

• What is the solution?– teaching tools:

• automated grade books• easy-to-make-and-print certificates.

– Aggregated, easy to navigate, Ivy League courses – Socially-driven user interface– drag and drop course building software to create new courses– wiki features; teachers can add certain texts, videos or lectures to

a course.

Current Events

• What is the business model?– Public courses (open to all) are free to create– Planning to roll out payment functionality for

private/continuing education courses soon. • For paid courses, Nixty will charge teachers

$4.99/month for three courses;• Or $9.99/month for nine courses plus an additional

20% of whatever the teacher decides to charge students for each course.

Current Events

• What were some possible inaccuracies or misleading facts on the Gizmodo article?– iPad has captured 22% of the eBook market in it's

first 60 days– Purchases tied to device: • “Apple, Barnes and Noble, Borders and even

newcomers like Kobo are creating their own eBookstores and mobile eReading Apps. Initially these bookstores were tied to devices like the iPad, Kindle, Nook and the Kobo”

REDEFINING THE BOOK

By Subject

• Children’s• Adult• Professional• STM

Digital Book Content Types

eBook•Straight epub rendering•No “extras”

eBook w/ Bonus Material

•Straight rendering + text based extras (FAQ, etc.)•No price increase

Enriched Digital Edition•Additional elements including audio or video elements•Higher price point

Book App

•Usually includes light motion or some interactivity

All digital resellers

All digital resellers

Targeted Release

Only to “App Stores”

Linear Reading Experience Non-Linear

Online vs. In-line

• Online – hyper linking to web– What are the advantages?• Existing aggregated content• Single source to maintain• Multiple books can link

– What are the disadvantages?• Dead links - you may not own the link• Not everyone is connected all the time• Disrupts the reading experience

Online vs. In-line

• In-line – content is part of the book, does not hyperlink to web– What are the advantages?

• Does not disrupt the reading experience• Don’t have to be connected to the web• Don’t have to worry about dead links

– What are the disadvantages?• Not as easily shared among books• Not all devices can display audio, video, color, etc.• May require extra rights to be granted / cost• Layout more difficult

Contracts

• What do publishers have the rights to do?– Pre 2010 contracts – NOT MUCH

Boilerplate

Editorial Roles

• Positions:– Managing Editor– Digital Publisher

• Roles:– Negotiate contract

• “Conflicting Work”• Royalties• Creative Approval

– Budget / P&L– Communication liaison: Author, Agent, IT, Digital Media,

Sales, Marketing

Creating a Content Map

• It is important to map out what will be extra and understand its value to the reader and book

Demos

• Deliver Us From Evil• Toy Story• Cookbook• Guinness Book of World Records• Spanish for Dummies