Publishers are struggling to make e-books profitable. This is mainly due to propriety issues and high purchase prices of the various e-book readers. Pam Baker, a writer for TechNewsWorld, spoke with Adam Rothberg, the vice president of corporate communications at Simon & Schuster, and he believes that e-books will eventually come to fruition and be profitable. According to Rothberg, “They [eBooks] will never replace printed books, but they will be a big part of our business” (par. 3). Paul Saffo spoke during the SPPC (Stanford Professional Publishing Course) about the length of time and various other factors that are involved for a product to become successful. For short-term success, Saffo said to “look for something that has been failing for the last 20 years.” E-books are a current example, as was the television and the Internet. According to Saffo, “it took 20 years from the television’s invention until it took off in 1951.” The same goes for the Internet; it had its underpinnings in the late 1960s, but it wasn’t until Al Gore supported and promoted it in the late 1980s that the Internet became a viable business venture for companies (Saffo).
While blogs have been more readily incorporated into the business models of publishing companies, e-books appear to be on the rise toward large-scale acceptance. Whereas blogs do not provide a direct source of revenue, they do allow publishers to produce products that are more tailored to what the customer wants. E-books provide a definable measurement of revenue. The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) is the trade and standards association for the digital publishing industry. IDPF conducted a study in 2002 that found that over 67% of respondents were in favor with the idea of reading an e-book (Zeitchik par. 1). Since 2002, e-book wholesales have seen a steady increase from $6 million to around $33 million in 2007; however, the publishing industry is still struggling to cash in on e-books (Mitting and Nias, par. 6).
How are e-books affecting publishers’ decisions and marketing strategies in the 21st century? Are blogs and e-books independent of each other, do they share a symbiotic relationship, or how do they complement each other? The next few posts will survey e-books, their various characteristics and technologies, and discuss how blogs and e-books combined influences are affecting the business model of traditional publishing.
As publishers “figure out how to work effectively with influencers” in the blogosphere, there is a technology being developed and marketed that will eventually transform the publishing industry (Nelson 16). This technology will revolutionize how people read and absorb information, not only from books and blogs, but also from every type of media; that technology is e-ink. Newsweek’s Steven Levy remarked that many people consider the book as “the bedrock of our civilization.” When reading a book, whether it’s a hard copy or an e-book, it has to be “capable of transporting a reader into that trancelike zone where the world falls away” (57).
Although handheld e-book readers were originally introduced to the market 10 years ago, there was a lackluster response by consumers. One reason was due in part to people’s perception of an e-book’s value versus that of traditional print books. The technology was there, but the market wasn’t. There was also one crucial component missing in the e-book reader technology. The screens that e-book devices used were LCD screens, similar to current desktop computer screens. LCD screens are not sensitive to the eyes and people can only read off of LCD screens for a limited amount of time. Imagine trying to read a 300-page textbook on marketing principles using only your desktop computer. Not only would it be inconvenient, but it would also be difficult on your eyes.
In 2000, a new technology emerged that enabled e-book readers to overcome this obstacle. It came through the introduction of e-ink technology. In future posts, I will develop a commercialization plan for e-ink technology as it relaters to e-paper. In this commercialization plan, I will provide an in-depth description of e-ink and e-paper technologies, but for now I will only provide a brief overview as the main discussion is focused around e-books and e-book reading devices.
Every e-book reader on the market (there are currently six eBook devices) uses technology similar to eInk. e-ink is a breakthrough technology that mimics print. e-ink basically consists of microcapsules about the diameter of a human hair. The charge, positive or negative, that is passed through these microcapsules will determine whether the black or white microcapsules rise to the top of the “paper”.
The advent of this technology enabled e-book readers to extend their reach further into the market; however, people remained attached to the printed copy for sentimental, financial, and proprietary reasons.
Works Cited
Baker, Pam. “The Next Chapter for eBooks.” Ecommerce Times. 29 June 2007. 11 May 2008. http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/OlzzGQnOQrPywV/The-Next-Chapter-for-eBooks.xhtml.
Levy, Steven. “The Future of Reading.” Newsweek. Nov. 2007: 56-64.
Mitting William and Simon Nias. “HarperCollins opts into growing eBook market.” Printweek.com. 17 Apr. 2008. 13 May 2008. <http://www.printweek.com/environment/news/802648/HarperCollins-opts-growing-ebook-market/69154CEB384F1C5B074162AD43BAB816/>.
Nelson, Meredith. “The Blog Phenomenon and the Book Publishing Industry.” Publishing Research Quarterly. 22.2 (2006): 3-26.
Saffo, Paul. “Paul Saffo Examines an Old Idea: E-Books.” Stanford Publishing Courses for Professionals. SPPC 2007. Pod Cast. 11 Feb. 2008. <http://publishingcourses.stanford.edu/blog/labels/SPPC%202007.html>.
Zeitchik, Steven. “Open eBook Forum: People Who Like PDAs and Books Are Likely to Like eBooks.” PW Newsline – Publishers Weekly. 16 Dec. 2002. 7 May 2008. www.publishersweekly.com.
