ePub3 - Media rich has to add consumer value

The arrival of ePub 3 will undoubtedly see a rush from publishers to make maximum use of its whistles and bells. Will fiction publishers be falling over themselves to produce media rich content? While I can see the temptation to add video author interviews or even authors reading chapters, my concern will be adding multi-media content just because we can, not because it is actually needed or adds anything to the publication. Platforms such as Vook have been around for a while and have set an entry level for media-rich eBooks, with ePub 3 opening the door too many more of us there could be a similar rush to provide content similar to the rush to provide eBook apps. Everyone is crazy to do them but who the heck is actually buying them.

At present the embryonic market for plain old text eBooks is slowly taking off and establishing itself in the minds of the consumer. I think the next area of development should be expanding that understanding, association and eCommerce platform, to be more accessible in our stores in the high street and not to get carried away with product which will inevitably push the price of eBooks up. I think this step could further alienate a budding market which could if left to embrace eBooks could blossom into a market which could bring a new revenue stream to the high street book shop as well as the Internet.

I am not for one moment suggesting we don’t develop media rich content but what I am saying is that we not in our haste ignore ways to ensure that eBooks not only reach a wider audience but that they sit as comfortably in book shops as their paper brothers and sisters. Stores sell eReaders, why don’t they have digital libraries which consumers can browse and purchase from – maybe even giving the option to buy a linked purchase of the physical paper copy with the digital one?

eBooks and digital publishing is the future but I do wonder if the industry is losing association with its roots in the high street and if, maybe an opportunity is being ignored.

LBF11, ePub 3 and the next big thing?

So the London Book Fair is over for another year and I have to report that it was a far better fair than last year, though that comparison is like telling a man who has just lost his leg that you have been able to sell his shoe. The numbers were back and so was a genuine buzz. The IRC had a constant flow and deals were being negotiated not just in the IRC but also in the many cafes populating Earl’s Court.

But what were the hot topics of the show, what was the headline grabbing advance in publishing? For me there was only one clear evolution and that is still digital, especially the forthcoming arrival of ePub3.0. There were a number of seminars dealing with the development of the platform and fortunately most of them delivered in clear and concise language.

The key benefits for publishers with ePub 3 will be the ability to have multimedia rich eBooks with ePub able to host and stream video and audio content. This will have many clear advantages and open a world of possibilities. My main concern here though is for fiction publishers not to lose site of the fact that content is king and no matter how many fancy videos you incorporate readers still want a good read. We must never lose focus that it is the words which are and always will be the most important aspect of a book be it paper or digital. So, while great it is a tool we must use with caution and creativity. One of the other areas of improvement with ePub 3 is the ability to use Scalable Vector Graphics (SGV) files with greater ease. Though SVG’s have been around since 1999 they have not fitted well with ePub until now. The new version will bring a greater dimension to the graphical layout of ePubs. Clearly one of the big sectors to gain from ePub 3 will be magazines and non-fiction publications both of which can incorporate the two key developments.
Another step forward has been ePub 3.0’s improved metadata which will enhance text to audio features and help define key attributes of titles for better search parameters.

Bill McCoy from the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) gave an excellent presentation which I hope will be made available online.

There still appears to be an element of the gold rush with eBooks and apps, and many companies are clearly cashing in. One stall in the digital zone was selling its CMS app generating system – a cloud based app generator. All you do is upload your files to a predefined template and hey presto...one app. The software was simplicity itself and frankly my hamster could have generated an app using it so bravo to the software designers. Now before you all go rushing off to Google this company (who shall remain nameless) check your bank balance first. I was told that to produce one app using this remarkably simple software would cost...wait for it...£10,000 per book. I am glad I turned down the free offer of a ‘celebration’ sweet as I may well have choked on a mini snicker, though to be fair as I walked away I did have a major chortle. Maybe there are publishers out there desperate enough to jump on the next digital bandwagon but 10k for a crummy app is serious wedge and you are so very not likely to see anywhere near close to a return on that investment.

The next ‘big thing’ is going to be a glut of ‘social media specialists’ promising to elevate your books from the mire to the stratosphere. Two specialist companies were encamped in the digital zone, both of which were actually offering very good advice. Clearly many publishers require help with social media and also with traditional media. I watched amused as a packed seminar filled with publishers and authors alike scribbled in their notepads devouring the nuggets tossed from Gareth Howard of Authoright PR. Gareth talks a lot of sense and while a close observation of the content reveals nothing new or startling it was the response by the eager audience which clearly shows that there is an audience willing to pay handsomely for this sort of expertise. I would not be surprised to see a number of new companies eager and ready to mop up here, it will be interesting to see if the 2012 LBF shows an increase here.

There was the usual strong contingent of companies from China, India and Russia this year being the market focus. Once more there was not much new or startling from these areas. There was a marked reduction in companies selling proprietary eReaders. This may also be a case of a maturing market or one consigned to the dominance of Amazon and Apple in the market.

In summary, the LBF 11 was a success in a very challenging market. There was a palatable air of optimism, who knows if this was real or naive and wishful thinking but it was upbeat, positive and a huge step in the right direction. ePub 3 will launch later this year, July has been mooted but we will wait and see. One of the positives from Bill McCoy was that ePub 3 is an ongoing project and that we are not immediately going to rush to a new ePub 4.0 platform. This will be a genesis which evolves rather than a rewrite of the format, which for publishers, authors, and readers is excellent news.

London’s Calling

London calling to the faraway towns

Now that war is declared-and battle come down

London calling to the underworld

Come out of the cupboard, all you boys and girls

The Clash weren’t talking about publishing over 30 years ago but after the disaster of the LBF in 2010 this song could well be the theme tune for the 2011 event. Despite a particularly stiff upper lip at Earls Court in 2010, there is no denying it was a complete waste of time and money for all concerned.

All that phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust

London calling, see we ain't got no swing

Let’s hope this is not the message this year and that London finds its swing. God knows the publishing industry needs it. It can no longer bury its head in the sand as far as digital and POD is concerned.

The ice age is coming, the sun is zooming in

Engines stop running and the wheat is growing thin

A nuclear error, but I have no fear

London is drowning-and I live by the river

The digital age is coming and the creditors closing in.

Bookshops have stopped running and profits grow thin.

A DRM error but I have no fear

Publishing is drowning and I live by the river

 

London calling to the imitation zone

Forget it, brother, an' go it alone

London calling upon the zombies of death

Quit holding out-and draw another breath

London calling-and I don't wanna shout

But when we were talking-I saw you nodding out

London calling, see we ain't got no highs

Except for that one with the yellowy eyes

With London’s Calling, The Clash wrote one of the truly great rock’n’roll punk songs ever.

And every word of it is now an analogy for the state of publishing today.

London’s calling and I’m gonna respond in 2011

Let’s hope the industry survives.

Fantastic lyrics of London’s Calling belong in their entirety to Joe Strummer & Mick Jones

World e-Reading Congress 2011…You are cordially so uninvited

Well, this morning I received my invitation to the World e-Reading Congress 2011 in London. I opened the mail with anticipation thinking here is an event which could be very interesting. My eyes were immediately drawn to the box-out in the centre of the letter which accompanied the 8 page colour brochure. The box read “If you register before 1st April you can save up to £290!”, at this point my heart sank and I realised here is another event which is not aimed at opening up the debate beyond the publishing big boys. Another BS back-slapping affair designed to make them feel comfortable with their own knowledge and without any real sense of what is happening in the real world. Entry to the event is only £3,822 though to be fair special publisher rates reduce this to £2,634 and if you cut out the Pre-conference workshop a bargain at only £1,710…get real! Have the organisers of this event really lost so much touch with reality that they think small publishers in this austere times can afford that sort of money, no matter how jam packed with goodies the 2 day conference is?

I don’t think so, I think it has been priced to make this nothing more than away-day for the big publishers. Publishing in the UK isn’t far from being on its knees and here is my ticket to gorge at the table of kings, if I am willing to put my business at risk to purchase a ticket for the pleasure. Let me think long and hard about this, what is a better way to spend (let’s be generous to conference and go cheap) £1710.00 the answer to that sadly is almost anyway. Clearly this event is nothing more that the same old closed shop of publishing trying to monopolise its usual position in the industry when threatened with a world of publishing which is becoming more open and more democratic.

It is truly a shame because I have no doubt that much of this conference will be useful, clearly though by adopting such a pricing policy the message being given out by the organisers is clear…”Small guys, you are so not welcome.”

World Book Night

A huge success or just another case of a middle to upper class industry happily patting itself on the back. The chattering classes seem obsessively pleased and smug about getting books out to the masses (might as well say proletariat). Publishing seems so comfortable with itself with no good reason. The industry is in a mess, unable to cope with change but happily selling itself down the path of self-destruction. Listening to the gushing sentiments about World Book Day pouring or should I say spewing forth from the chatteratti is like listening to the banality of Labour declaring a bi-election win in Barnsley Central as an achievement and indictment of the government. Both of them nothing more than sickeningly self-serving verbal masturbations. I am not knocking the idea of World Book Day, just the execution. I would rather have seen 1 million books given to libraries which are currently under threat from spineless councils who would rather close much needed community services than sack half a dozen highly over paid county council leaders earning twice as much as the Prime Minister. I would also rather see the current Government putting pressure on councils to ensure that libraries are protected.  As for the greedy bankers crippling industry and about to lead the country toward further ruin while their greasy sweaty hands find even more deceptive ways to fulfil their unquenchable thirst for mammon, well…don’t get me started.

The Death of the Book Store...Don’t ask for whom the bell tolls, it’s just the first round....

What we are currently experiencing is adjustment to a revolution, albeit one in a velvet glove. eBooks won't be the demise of the high street book store nor will they replace paper books.  The publishing industry has had problems long before the current rise in eBook popularity and a lot of those problems have been enforced on book shops by the publishing industry who have in turn bounced back some pretty unsustainable business practices. 

I love eBooks and I love paper books, (As long as they come from a sustainable source, are not mass produce in print runs that don't support demand and return to be pulped or used as even more landfill) to say that one will replace the other is not credible.  What we are however seeing is jostling for position.  We may well see one format become the 'Alpha male' as it were, and this may well be the upstart eBook. Publishing needs to look at itself and how it operates.  The demise of the high street book store could just as easily be attributed to publisher greed in selling product at ridiculous prices to supermarkets.  I am all for the democracy of both business and reading, but when consumers expect paper books to be only £1 what message does that send out. If you couple this with the blanket bombing of stores with product from the leading five or six publishers in the country you can quickly see that the whole structure of both publishing and high street retailing is based upon a fragile and vain turnover system which was started in the 19th century.

It is odd that publishing house eager for cheap sales in supermarkets is happy to do this at the expense of the stores which have been the foundation of their growth. We are left in the UK with one dedicated chain of bookstores, Waterstones, and they are trying to turn around some poor trading figures. Publishers have bitched about the high rate of returns they have seen from Waterstones but did they support those myriad of titles, did they create a demand for them or were they sent to their fate on a tide of apathy. Much of publishing has grown complacent and now it is struggling to come to terms with the new order. I believe given enough time Waterstones will get their house in order and return healthy trading figures, whether publishers let them is another thing.

Libraries and the smug majority…

Time to be contentious. The argument in the UK is raging about possible closure of libraries because of spending cuts brought about by the legacies of the recession and the god awful mess that the banking system brought the country to. Everyone is up in arms. People have organised events and stunts where libraries have been cleared of books and we all feel good. We all have that smug sense of worth we have when we buy a copy of The Big Issue.

There is no doubt that libraries form an essential part of our community. For some they are the only connection that people have either with the outside world, the world of art and literature and even the virtual world through the installation of computers with internet access. For others they are a lifeline to finding employment or entertainment or both. None of this I doubt for a second, but what I do doubt is the sincerity of the privileged, and I include myself in this group, to really care. Because if we really cared, libraries would be full, book shelves would be empty and funding would exist to ensure that there was no need to target them in the first place.

I have a library card, I have donated some of our titles to the library but I cannot tell you the last time I used the card. I am as outraged as every right thinking person when I hear that libraries may face the axe, but in all honesty what have the majority of people who are up in arms and so vocal now, actually done to support the system in the past. Yes, it is better to do something now and be vocal, I agree but I can’t stand the holier than thou attitude being flounced around the chattering classes about how dreadful it is and what they are going to do to support it. It is almost as though they are looking for praise for making a stand, but like me I wonder when was the last time they actually used a library.

If we are to be moral champions and guardians of vital community services such as libraries then we have to have the conviction beyond the battle and beyond the possible victories and defeats. We have to support not just the libraries but our communities. If councils want to make cuts let them start at the top and not at the bottom. Chief Executives earning hundreds of thousands of pounds, the minions under them hiding under cover till the storm passes, the actual waste, the cars, the expenses…there is plenty of places the axe can fall before it robs communities of its library, but we know it won’t.

It’s hard for me to truly understand the value of a library now as a person who buys his books, who has turned his back on libraries for his reading pleasure, but what I do know is that they make a difference to many lives. I gained a love of reading from libraries because I could not afford to buy books as a child. I loved the atmosphere, the sense of discovery in finding a new book or author. The fact that I could actually ask for a brand new book to be ordered and then be placed on a list and wait anxiously until the day when a postcard would drop through the letterbox telling me my book was available for collection.

This is why I am against library closures, because I know they make a difference now, as they did when I as a child was an avid user.  However, I feel as though I have betrayed the library service and placed it in this position of jeopardy. The painful truth is, and it is a truth that every person protesting about potential closures must face, is that we cannot be fair weather fighters. We must become long term supporters, true advocates of literacy in the community and we cannot allow ourselves to betray our community once more, nor should we let those who put libraries in this position escape punishment as they have. I no longer want to be a part of the smug majority. This is not an issue about feeling good about yourself, its a time for reflection and honesty about how we have let this situation arise and proving through action that the voice of the community is heard, and that this voice is saying to councils the length and breadth of the country that if you close a library be prepared to be voted out of office. Libraries and their closures should not be a point of political brownie point scoring or party blame. We know who is to blame and it will only be the action of the masses that will stop the closures. Beyond that we have a duty to ensure they are not put in a position of risk again.