Google Book Search: It's All About the Index

Mac Slocum
June 30, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

Adam Hodgkin says the grand design of Google Book Search is aimed at creating a massive index, not an all-encompassing, locked-down reading system. From Exact Editions:

Some of Google's critics suppose that the aim of the GBS [Google Book Search] project is to capture, corale [sic] and deliver to readers the whole of the world's literature in a readable format. But perhaps the business goal has all along been to produce a complete searchable index of literature, not the monopolistic reading medium. [Bold text included in original post.]

Google's initiatives have always focused on the creation and expansion of digital content platforms rather than individual content products. The public's mistaken focus on Google products -- rather than Google platforms -- was noted in Wired's recent story about Google's mobile project, Android:

Those hoping for a new gadget to rival the iPhone finally understood that Google had something radically different in mind. Apple's device was an end in itself -- a self-contained, jewel-like masterpiece locked in a sleek protective shell. Android was a means, a seed intended to grow an entire new wireless family tree. Google was never in the hardware business. There would be no gPhone -- instead, there would be hundreds of gPhones.

I can understand where the confusion comes from: The creation of a gargantuan reading service seems to be in Google's wheelhouse because they're one of the few companies that can actually attempt such a project. But as we learned with Android, Google isn't a product-centric company -- all those individual tools and services plug into bigger platforms. Development of a searchable full-text book index that can be distributed across all sorts of devices is more in line with Google's history and its focus.

Related Stories:

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Open Question: How Can Ebooks Improve the Reading Experience?

Mac Slocum
June 24, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (6) | Listen

In "Random thoughts about the Kindle," Seth Godin suggests three ways the Kindle could improve the "act of reading a book":

* Let me see the best parts of the book as highlighted by thousands of other readers.

* Let me see notes in the margin as voted up, Digg-style, by thousands of other readers.

* Let me interact with hyperlinks and smart connections not just within the book but across books.

What suggestions do you have? How can digital books -- or, more broadly, digital content -- improve the reading experience? Please share your thoughts in the comments area.

Exploring DIY E-Reader Platforms

Liza Daly
June 23, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1) | Listen

I've been working with the EPUB open ebook format a lot lately, but when I want to read a book in it, I have to use my computer. There just aren't any devices which support it yet. Naturally this leads me to wonder whether I could build my own e-reader.

I'm not a hardware person, but the last few years have seen an emergence of open hardware platforms designed to allow even ordinary programmers like me to modify and customize small devices. As far as software goes, an e-reader is pretty straightforward: it's just some text on a screen. That shouldn't be too hard, right?

Surveying the landscape of hardware options, I've ranked below a variety of devices from "friendliest" to "most-intensive DIY." I'm not addressing PDA or phone devices here, largely because I consider their screen size and text rendering insufficient (but plenty of people disagree).

The Chumby -- With a 3.5" touch screen and reasonable $175 price tag, this little wireless computer in a bean bag is an obvious candidate. There's a full-fledged development environment and large community of users. Most Chumby applications are written in a lightweight version of Flash, which is easy enough to develop in.

It has a few downsides, though. The Chumby doesn't have much storage space at all, so any ebooks would have to be saved online and streamed to it, a page or a chapter at a time. Since it's meant to be an always-on wireless device, that seems doable. The screen might be too small to comfortably read lots of text, as it's meant for short bursts like RSS feeds or Twitter updates.

Unfortunately, it's powered by a wall outlet, with only a small 9-volt battery for emergency backup. People on the hardware forums have managed to hack in rechargeable batteries, and I wouldn't be surprised if a totally-wireless Chumby is forthcoming. [Disclosure: O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures is an investor in Chumby Industries.]

BugLabs -- The most open of the commercial hardware platforms, BugLabs sells individual pluggable modules that support various features, from touchscreens to cameras to GPS. It looks like a great platform, but it's very expensive ($349 for the base module plus $119 for the 2.5" touch-sensitive screen). The screen is probably too small for comfortable reading, but the company Web site promises a larger display soon.

Both the Chumby and BugLabs have touchscreens, which is key for making small screens more usable.

The Kindle -- All the heavy lifting has been done already to get into the Kindle filesystem and peek inside. It's probably too difficult to extend the existing Kindle environment without true source code, but it might be possible to do some simple things, like add new fonts. Few people have really explored hacking on e-ink devices, largely due to high cost and low availability. I suspect when the first color e-ink devices come out, used black and white ones will become popular playthings for enthusiasts.

YBox2 -- For the ultimate DIY experience, the YBox2 platform is a pile of electronic parts you solder together and assemble in an Altoids tin. It doesn't come with a touch-screen, or any screen at all: you connect it to a television or monitor. It uses the tiny Propeller chip, which powers many hobbyist devices and small robots. Like the Chumby, YBox2 comes with networking capability but little storage, and would need to stream book content from the Internet. The networking isn't wireless and of course there's no handy rechargable battery, but if you are the kind of person who can build a YBox2 you probably know how to make those too. I am not that kind of person.

While I'd be happy to crawl around a hacked Kindle, I know I'm not ready to program my own microcontroller. BugLabs seems great from a developer standpoint, especially when they release a larger screen, but I'm unwilling to shell out almost $500 just to experiment. The Sony Reader doesn't have networking, so that's much less interesting. Perhaps a Chumby is in my future. Any other options?

Related Stories:

• Select O'Reilly Books Soon on Kindle, and as DRM-free Digital Bundles (Including EPUB)
• What Would Your Ideal E-Reader Look Like?
• Ergonomics and Ebook Success
• Hacking the Kindle

Select O'Reilly Books Soon on Kindle, and as DRM-free Digital Bundles (Including EPUB)

Andrew Savikas
June 18, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (24) | Listen

Update (7/15): 30 O'Reilly titles are now available as ebook bundles. Full information is available here.

Update (6/19): On his New York Times blog, David Pogue has noted O'Reilly's pilot in the context of the recent discussion prompted his column on ebooks and piracy (which brought insightful responses from Adam Engst and  Mike Masnick, along with a follow up from David).

Ebooks are certainly nothing new for us at O'Reilly. We've offered PDFs of hundreds of our titles for some time now, and until quite recently Safari Books Online, our online-publishing joint venture with Pearson, generated more revenue than was typically associated with the entire downloadable ebook business.

But it's clear that things are changing in the ebook market (though precise numbers are proving hard to come by), so we've decided to officially announce two new e-publishing programs that have been in the works for some time:

• First, through oreilly.com we will offer a select number of books as a bundle of three ebook formats (EPUB, PDF, and Kindle-compatible Mobipocket) for a single price -- at or below the book's cover price -- starting in early July. Since we began selling PDFs directly some time ago, we've given those customers free updates to the PDFs to reflect published changes in the books; the same will apply to the ebook bundle, which will replace the PDF option on those titles. That also means that although the ebooks aren't yet available, if you buy the PDF now, you'll receive the EPUB and Mobipocket versions as a free update once they're available in early July. These files (like all our PDFs currently for sale) will be released without any DRM, though we are exploring some custom watermarking options. With these three formats, customers should be able to read the books with most current ebook software and devices, including Adobe Digital Editions, Kindle, Blackberries, and Sony Reader (Sony announced in May that EPUB support is forthcoming in a firmware update for their Reader).
• Second, O'Reilly has agreed to sell select ebooks for the Kindle through Amazon. We hope to see those ebooks available for sale through the Kindle store in the near future.

Q&A; with Susan Danziger, CEO of DailyLit

Mac Slocum
June 18, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

DailyLit is a digital service that delivers short, scheduled book installments to subscribers by email and RSS. The company offers free and pay-per-read titles in plain text, which makes them accessible through nearly all email clients, browsers or mobile devices. In the following Q&A;, DailyLit CEO Susan Danziger discusses the company's philosophy, process, and upcoming services.

How many titles do you offer through DailyLit? How many do you hope to have by the end of 2008?

We currently have over 950 titles (450 or so which are available on a pay-per-read basis), and by the end of this year, we're targeting several thousand pay-per-read titles.

Releasing titles in plain text seems like a simple way to avoid the formatting needs and device restrictions that come with proprietary ebook formats. Was this your intention, or was plain text just an easier way to get started?

It was definitely our intention to allow the installments to come in on any device, which is an important part of how we designed the experience. We started with plain text because it was the easiest to implement, and we will be launching HTML shortly as well.

Do most DailyLit users read installments on mobile devices?

10%-20% of our readers currently read their installments on mobile devices, but as the reading quality on mobile devices improves (the iPhone is a great start), we're confident that more and more people will be reading their installments on these devices.

Can readers purchase print editions or ebooks through the site/service?

At this point, only DailyLit editions are available. We're starting to allow publishers and others to sponsor certain titles, which would allow a link to purchase other editions. With this sponsorship model, instead of readers paying for the title, sponsors would pay for them instead.

How will the sponsorship model work? Also, in regards to "other editions," are you only referring to printed editions, or does this include different ebook formats as well?

DailyLit readers would have access to free DailyLit versions of the books under the sponsorship model. Sponsors of titles would be able to include links that would lead to their sites (or other sites that sponsors indicate). "Other editions" could be printed editions or other digital formats.

How many DailyLit users receive updates via email? How many via RSS?

About 90% of our readers receive installments via e-mail; 10% via RSS.

How much time goes into prepping books for delivery? Is production handled in-house?

The production time depends on the format in which the book is delivered. If the book is delivered in PDF, the production time can be up to eight weeks. We prefer it if books are delivered in EPUB or XHTML, which greatly reduces the production time, not to mention cost. Production is handled in-house for certain titles, but for most titles we use an outside production house.

How are installments defined? Is it by word count? Average reading time?

Installments are usually around 1,000 words, which is under five minutes of reading. If a chapter is about to end, we'll adjust the length of the installments accordingly. Certain books, such as books of quotes, have much shorter installments. Under the "Manage Your Subscriptions" feature, folks can personally adjust the length of each installment (to 2 times or 4 times the length), so an avid reader can read more.

Are fiction titles the easiest to serialize, or does any chapter-based book work?

Fiction titles are probably easier to serialize since they're more straight forward. With non-fiction titles, we need to account for footnotes and other ancillary materials. That said, we're featuring titles from all different genres, from science fiction, such as books by Cory Doctorow, to such non-fiction best-sellers as Skinny Bitch. We also feature language books, such as titles from Berlitz, business books, as well as romance titles from Harlequin.

What types of books don't lend themselves to serialization?

Reference books that readers do not want to read cover to cover don't work in serialized form. Apart from that, since DailyLit is intended for those readers too busy to read (or who want to sneak in an extra book during the day), any other kind of book works well. After all, folks are avidly reading War and Peace, Moby Dick, The Art of War and Pride and Prejudice, and none of these books were originally intended to be serialized.

Who sets the pricing for titles?

Since we've structured this as a licensing deal with publishers, DailyLit sets the price.

Are you licensing a specific version of a book (i.e. "text-only" or a particular ebook format)?

We characterize it as "digital serialization rights" so it's a combination of serialization (typically understood as a license) and a digital rendition of the book. Depending on rights available for the title, we might license text only or with illustrations/photographs.

How have publishers responded to DailyLit?

We've had a great response from publishers. On the whole, they've been really excited about this new format, which combines marketing and potential incremental revenue. We've also been developing innovative technology -- several initiatives will be rolled out shortly -- which will help the publishers market their titles and expand their reader base.

What sorts of tools will you be releasing?

One such tool is public subscriptions, which will allow publishers, authors or third parties to serialize a book publicly on their site. Each day on that site, folks will be able to view a new installment of a book. This is a way to build community on their site and would be an alternative to giving away free PDFs of books. We'll also offer readers the opportunity to receive a personal e-mail or RSS subscription to that title if they don't want to return to the site each day, but for that they [consumers] would need to pay. As such, it's a neat viral marketing tool as well as having potential for incremental revenue.

Do you use digital rights management (DRM) on titles?

We put the reader's experience first, which means that there are no attachments or files that need to be opened with a special device or software. With respect to illustrations or photographs, we are able to track where they go and, in the event of a hot link, we can disable use of an illustration associated with a particular subscription.

Have you run into any piracy issues? Is this a concern?

We haven't run into any piracy issues. Since books are divided into hundreds of installments, there is less concern that individual installments are copied or forwarded. In fact, any installments forwarded by readers have been viewed by publishers and authors as a way to virally market their titles.

In addition to books, you feature Wikipedia tours, language lessons and SAT prep. Are other non-book projects in the works? Where do you see DailyLit expanding?

We're in the process of adding newly created titles for DailyLit, including allowing authors and publishers to create content that work well in the serialized format. We're also developing lots of interesting technology to help market books and expand the current reach to additional readers. For instance, we recently launched via Twitter a group read or virtual book club so that folks can read books according to the same schedule. Folks can sign up now to participate.

Related Stories:

• Ebook Format Primer
• Treating Ebooks Like Software
• What Would Your Ideal E-Reader Look Like?
• Ergonomics and Ebook Success

Putting Ebook Piracy into Perspective

Mac Slocum
June 10, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

Adam Engst from TidBits offers a comprehensive rebuttal to David Pogue's concerns about ebook piracy. Among the many notable points:

... the harder you make it for someone to buy an easily replicated digital commodity, the more likely they are to share that commodity as a way of making things easier for others. Look at the parallels in the music industry. Apple made legitimate purchases of music both easy and inexpensive via the iTunes Store, and anyone who was on the fence about whether it was acceptable to share music suddenly had a viable alternative. Providing a legitimate purchase path for electronic versions not only generates revenue, but also reduces illicit copying.

The teeth gnashing associated with publishing's transition to digital continues to obscure an important -- and simple -- point: publishing isn't the first industry to confront digital issues. Businesses in the music, film and media worlds have been tackling these concerns for years, and there are important lessons to be learned from their failures and successes.

Engst's argument about ease of use -- especially as it relates to iTunes -- deftly illustrates this. Regardless of your opinion of iTunes and Apple, it's hard to argue with the equation they've developed: make money by giving people easy access to quality digital material. This trail has already been blazed; publishers just need to pay attention.

On another topic ... Pogue's post cites two examples of scammers who, posing as blind readers, requested book PDFs and then copied them to piracy sites within 48 hours. Engst's experience with piracy is considerably different:

I have found our ebooks available for download on a handful of occasions; each time it was someone who had put the file on a server without realizing it was open to the public or who was transferring the book from work to home and had forgotten to take it down. I periodically search the file sharing services too, but it's exceedingly rare to find any of our ebooks there, and those I have seen were wildly out of date.

In short, far from the foregone conclusion that publishing an electronic book will result in rampant copying, our years of experience show just the opposite.

Engst notes that his company's subject matter (tech) and its size (small) likely minimize piracy, but there's an underlying point in this passage that's relevant on an industry-wide scale: blanket statements about the ills of piracy -- or the opportunities from piracy -- fail to recognize the nuances at play.

Whether we're discussing Pogue's run-in with "blind" con artists or Engst's limited issues with accidental piracy, it's important to remember that singular examples do not define trends (or unmask ebook cabals). Publishers need to look at ebook distribution, and the potential for piracy, on a case-by-case basis. To paraphrase Tim O'Reilly, certain titles from certain authors may benefit from increased exposure of any sort (that's the idea behind this experiment), but well-known authors with blockbuster titles might be undercut by widespread copying.

When it comes to piracy, free, and other unusual models, the only real mistake is embracing a closed-minded, all-or-nothing perspective. Doing so limits both the threats and the opportunities.

Engst's post touches on a variety of other piracy-related topics, all of which are worth considering.

Related Stories:

• Essential Points in the Free Debate
• Author Notes Risks and Opportunities in Free Ebooks
• Piracy is Progressive Taxation ...
• Responsibly Assuaging Author Concerns about File Sharing and "Piracy"
• How Do Publishers and Authors Get Paid in a "Free" World?

Treating Ebooks Like Software

Mac Slocum
June 5, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (3) | Listen

Peter Kent, DNAML's senior vice president for U.S. operations, brings a software-centric perspective to ebooks. In the following Q&A;, Kent discusses the merits of in-book transactions, affiliate marketing, and other digital initiatives that can benefit book publishers.

Q: In your presentation at last month's IDPF Digital Book '08 you discussed treating ebooks like software. Do you feel the software model is directly related to ebooks, or are there specific aspects of the software model ("try before you buy" trialware, download ebooks through multiple outlets, etc.) that are more in line with ebook/publishing goals?

Not sure of the distinction you're making here. I think that there's much about software distribution that applies to ebooks, and why not? Ebooks are, of course, pieces of software. In particular, providing ebooks in a trialware format makes a lot of sense, and is a proven model. That's why Amazon let's people view a portion of a book, that's why Barnes & Noble likes having people in their stores hanging out reading. And of course, download through multiple outlets makes a lot of sense, too. Why wouldn't you distribute your products as widely as possible? If trialware works -- and it does -- then you naturally want as many people as possible to get the books in their hands. The large, established publishers are going to have a shock when they see the new book-distribution world. It's no longer a gentleman's game in which everyone hands over their books to a bookstore, and then they all compete on the same level. In the future the more aggressive publishers are going to go out and find book buyers even before the buyers have thought about buying!

Q: Do publishers focus too much on the "book" aspect of ebooks? Would a shift toward a file/software perspective open things up?

Some do. The more advanced publishers understand what's going on, but I do think there's still a bias toward the old method of distributing books: give your books to a retailer who puts the books on shelves. Certainly up until recently most publishers have had the idea in their mind that in order to sell ebooks they have to create the ebooks and then give them to Amazon and other retailers to sell. Little thought has gone into new methods of distribution. What may save the publishers is that new distributors will come on the scene: distributors who understand the new landscape and go out and push the books.

Q: Are ebooks available through sites like Download.com, Tucows.com and other software-specific hubs? If not, should they be?

You can already find ebooks in many software download sites, though most do not yet have specific ebook categories. ZDNet's download site doesn't have an ebook category, for instance, though it does have an ebook "tag." Download.com has a music category and a games category, why wouldn't they have a book category? Of course they will eventually, as more and more books become available. But one thing holding back the creation of ebook categories is that only free books, or trialware books, will fit. Once books from major publishers are commonly sold as trialware, you'll see the download sites pay more attention.

Q: What about ebook availability through P2P sites/mechanisms, such as BitTorrent?

Trialware books are perfect for this form of distribution.

Q: In your conversations with publishers and others in the industry, do you feel most people understand the basics of internal ebook transactions and affiliate tagging? How do you describe these concepts to newcomers?

Most publishers haven't the slightest idea about this. When I ask publishers "do you know what affiliate marketing is?" I typically get a response such as "um, well ...". So if they don't understand what affiliate marketing is, they certainly don't understand affiliate tagging. This isn't true of all publishers; Harlequin, for instance, is really good at online marketing, and certainly understands affiliate-marketing well.

So, how do I explain these things? Well, by internal transactions, I mean that each ebook is its own shopping-cart system. You reach a point inside the book that you cannot get past without paying. You enter your credit card information into the book itself (though the actual form is retrieved from a server so, for instance, the book price can be changed at any time), and when you submit your card and it's approved, the server automatically unlocks the book, so you can continue reading.

As for affiliate tagging, this is the ability to add a code to each book you distribute -- one code for each specific distribution channel -- so the publisher or distributor knows where that book came from. If you distribute through Web Site A, 10,000 people download the book, and 500 buy it, you know that those 500 people came from Web Site A. If you put the book in a magazine insert, 100,000 people buy the magazine, 10,000 copy the book to their computers, and 500 buy it, then you know that those 500 customers came from that particular magazine insert. Thus you can pay the right company the required affiliate commissions.

So these two components, along with the ability to partially lock a book, allow you to create trialware books -- try-before-you-buy books -- that can be distributed widely, through many different channels.

Q: Is there an opportunity for competing publishers to generate affiliate revenue by selling other publishers' books?

Absolutely! Books can be bundled within books -- certainly our DNL format allows this -- so a publisher might bundle several locked books at the end of the book. Those books might belong to the publisher or, in appropriate cases, from another publisher. In particular, of course, small publishers could benefit from these sorts of relationships with other publishers.

Q: What is the upside of "try before you buy" in ebooks?

A try-before-you-buy book with built-in transaction processing, and built-in affiliate tagging, opens up a whole new world of distribution options. All of a sudden, the book can go anywhere. Sell computer books? Talk with computer manufacturers about putting your books on the desktop of every new computer sold, and talk to software manufacturers about bundling the books in their software downloads. Sell photography books? Put them on the software CDs inside digital-camera packaging. Sell wine books? Give away try-before-you-buy books on wine Web sites. Science fiction novels? Give books away on fan sites. Those three things -- try-before-you-buy, internal transaction processing, and affiliate tagging -- free books from ecommerce Web sites, and provide almost limitless marketing opportunities.

Q: What viral/social aspects does your company include in ebooks? (Email to a friend, etc.)

We include Email-to-a-Friend, of course. If you try a book, like it, and buy it, that book is now unlocked. But if you email it to a friend or colleague, when it lands on the recipient's computer it's now locked. Word of mouth is hugely important in book sales; it always has been. Email-to-a-Friend is essentially a modern-day word-of-mouth feature. We also allow people to share notes. Members of a book club could highlight areas of the books, add notes, then email the highlights and notes to each other. Members can import these things, and see who said what based on the name at the top of the notes.

Q: Are ebook giveaways useful?

Of course. Companies such as Harlequin use giveaways to build interest. I think, though, that these giveaways will get more sophisticated, as publishers learn more about try-before-you-buy books. For instance, if you're giving away a book, you're hoping that the reader will come to your site and buy another one at some point. But why not create a giveaway book, a single file, that includes a book for sale at the end of the free book? Or several books from which the reader can choose?

Q: Do you recommend user tracking and registration? How in-depth should this tracking/registration be?

Of course you want as much information as possible; we're in business, after all, so we need to create relationships with buyers. Amazon does this. I like to point out to publishers that someone owns the relationship, it's just not them. If you sell photography books and someone buys one of your books through Amazon today, tomorrow Amazon will start promoting other photography books to this buyer. Some of these books will be yours, perhaps, but most won't! So Amazon's tracking, and Amazon's benefiting. Publishers are going to learn to do the same for themselves, and some already are.

Related Stories:

• This Way to the Egress, er, Ebooks
• Author Notes Risks and Opportunities in Free Ebooks
• Open Question: When Will Digital Books Overtake Print Books?
• Commentary on Penguin's Missed Ebook Opportunity

Publisher Offers Tips for Embedding Web Links in Ebooks

Mac Slocum
June 4, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (4) | Listen

Morris Rosenthal, owner of Foner Books and author of the Laptop Repair Workbook, is blurring the line between books and Web content by embedding clickable hyperlinks within the margins of his PDF-based ebooks. Rosenthal discusses his linking process in the following Q&A.;

Q: What inspired you to insert links into your ebooks?

I was forced into large margins for the Laptop Repair Workbook due to the flowcharts that make up the meat of the book, and I'm not sure it would have occurred to me to include the links if I hadn't been staring at all that white space.

Q: Do you recommend inline links or links in the margins? Is one form or the other easier, from a production standpoint?

For a large size book, 8.25 X 11 or 8 x 11, I think links in the margins make the most sense because they can do double duty as design elements. Since the ebook is printable and since most people will be printing on letter size paper, I kept the design nearly identical to the soon-to-be released paperback version. Inline links would be much easier from a production standpoint, but they would tend to interrupt the reader, making people stop and think "should I click on this?" In the margins, they are clearly labeled as supplementary illustrations of procedures. And since the printed book requires full URLs to be shown, it would make the text pretty ugly to show them inline. For the ebook, I could have hyperlinked words without showing the URL, but again, the ebook is printable, and seeing that some words are underlined in blue doesn't get anybody anywhere.

Q: How much time did it take to create separate Web pages and insert links into the Laptop Repair Workbook?

Around half of the Web pages were created before I even started on the book. But in general, a photo illustrated page takes anywhere from a few hours to a day to create. A test procedure takes longer, as there's quite a bit of experimentation behind any given test.

Inserting the 25 or so links, once I settled on the large-margin format, only took a couple hours. I used the text box tool in Word.

Q: Are you able to track visitors from the links?

No. I suppose it would be possible to add an extra anchor argument that would separate the PDF visitors from direct traffic and bookmarkers, but I haven't done it. I wouldn't be surprised if there are more sophisticated ways to identify visitors through links, and it certainly would have been possible to link to duplicate pages that are excluded from spidering, but I didn't see a reason.

Q: Do you think embedded links help thwart or offset piracy?

I don't think anything short of full DRM helps to thwart piracy, and then, it's really a question of thwarting casual vs professional pirates. The embedded links may help offset some unauthorized distribution in two ways:

First, anybody who clicks on the links will find out that there's a book for sale, and that might be the first time it hits them that the file they downloaded from site X or received as an attachment from a friend is really a published book that they haven't paid for.

Second, if the links aren't carved out of the PDF, they should help the search engines keep track of who the originator is, if the PDF should end up hosted for a while on a university domain or other authoritative site. When I published ebooks a few years ago through Lightning Source, I went with full DRM primarily to impress upon the customer that the ebooks were a commercial product protected by copyright law. This time around, I've gone with no DRM beyond my embedded copyright notice, but I do send customers through a click licensing agreement.

I should mention that shortly after the New York Times quoted me and mentioned the ebook in an article on laptop repair, I saw signs in Google that some people had been checking filesharing networks for it, as the queries sometimes result in an indexable page. While I take my copyright rights seriously and have the Federal court experience to prove it, I know that the majority of my potential customers will only find out about the ebook through visiting my site, and I'm sure most of those who are willing to pay for an ebook will get it from me. I don't think that most people go trawling through pirate sites when they're looking for a book, but maybe I'm out of touch. I did get some grief from customers during my full DRM years, and while I'm not a knee-jerk "customer is always right" type, I understand that customers have a valid point of view that a publisher ignores at his peril.

Q: What's the upside to embedded links?

For the reader, there are multiple upsides. I'm able to illustrate troubleshooting and repair procedures on my Web site with color photos, updating them at will, without having to charge an arm and a leg for the book ($24.95 paperback, $13.95 ebook). While I could have embedded quite a few photographs in the ebook, most of them would have been irrelevant for any given reader with a different laptop model, different problem, or information that they already knew. When all of those illustrations appear in a book, the customer is paying for them one way or another, and many publishers (especially of textbooks) load up on color pictures just as an excuse to up the price. In this case, it's all supplemental material, a fraction of which may be useful for most readers, but none of which is necessary for core troubleshooting procedures of the text and flowcharts. And from a practical standpoint, I'm able to create a larger number of illustrated procedures because the standard of photography and editing required for a Web page isn't the same as for a book, or ebook.

Q: Any downside to linking?

The only downside I can see is if some readers conclude that the links represent material that has been left out of the book, and that the links are a sorry excuse to make up for it. The book simply wasn't designed that way, but you can't please everybody.

Q: Do you have any formatting best practices?

I did keep all of the links in the root directory of my fonerbooks.com domain, and all of the file names are less than eight characters, though in truth, that's an artifact of doing most of my Web design with my old GNN Press editor (thanks O'Reilly) from 1995. Since the links appear in the margins, I ended up breaking them over two lines, with the domain on the first line and the filename on the second line. I could have force-fit them on a single line; it was just a visual design decision.

Q: Will links be a standard part of your future books?

Certainly a part of future ebooks. For print books, it would depend on whether there was a large enough amount of supplementary material on my Web site to justify a page layout that supported links.

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• Linking Books with the Web-Way of Thinking
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The Pitfalls of Publishing's E-Reader Guessing Game

Mac Slocum
June 3, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (3) | Listen

A parlor game is working its way through the publishing industry: "Guess E-Reader Sales."

Neither Amazon nor Sony will reveal sales figures for Kindles or Readers, so publishing professionals and prognosticators are relying on ambiguous data -- e.g. financial line items, or the amount and tone of user comments on the Kindle's Amazon listing -- to squeak out guesstimates.

Parlor games are generally innocuous, but two short paragraphs in the New York Times' BEA roundup touch on the competitive disadvantages stemming from e-reader ambiguity:

But neither Amazon nor Sony will say how many of their products they have sold, making it impossible for publishers to assess the size of the market or for bookstore owners to evaluate the threat.

One publisher estimated that Amazon had sold roughly 10,000 Kindles, while another estimated that as many as 50,000 electronic-book readers of all types are in general circulation. But both publishers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that those figures were little more than educated guesses. [Emphasis added.]

Again, this guessing game may seem harmless on first blush, but closer inspection reveals three business pitfalls bubbling beneath the surface:

1. False response through vapor messages: Amazon's two recent Kindle "announcements" (here and here) are intricately developed statements, each of which requires second and third looks to realize there's no "there," there. Combine these official announcements with customer comments and sales guesses already in circulation, and soon we're all amplifying messages that don't actually exist. Meanwhile, Amazon receives attention without ever showing its hand.

2. As the Times notes, ambiguous threats are impossible to evaluate: The default response to closely guarded sales figures is to assume those figures are low. But the longer the e-reader guessing game goes on, the easier it becomes for imagination and fear to creep into the equation. These emotional responses, if taken to an extreme, may actually hinder publishers from developing their own digital gameplans.

But there's a flip side to extended ambiguity: If/when Amazon and Sony ever reveal reliable information, publishers might breath a sign of relief because they finally know what they're dealing with. The anxious shuffling we're currently witnessing could finally turn into definitive business strategies -- and this is a prime reason why we may never see hard data from either of these companies.

3. The distraction component: All this talk about Kindles and Readers and the impending doom heralded by electronic formats distracts everyone from the larger digital issue: It's not the device that matters, it's the platform.

Making books available in digital formats ("the platform") is vital to sustained and future growth because digital is both a way to take advantage of current devices like the Kindle and the Reader, and it's a way around hardware lock-in. Popularity defines the power of a content device (this is why the iPod is infinitely more powerful than the Zune), but if a content provider cannot accurately gauge popularity, then the focus needs to elevate to a broader level of analysis: How can my company take advantage of digital as a whole? How can we best position ourselves to adapt if/when the electronic book tipping point emerges? How do we make the platform work for us?

Distraction from these core questions makes it easier for a third party to swoop in and grab the platform itself, which, as we've seen on the music side, is where the real power lies.

Related Stories:

• OUP Blog: "How I Realized that Amazon's Kindle and Sony's E-Reader Were Exceeding Sales Estimates"
• Amazon: Kindle Owners Buy More Books
• Kindle Bits: Price Drop and Rough Title Sales Figures
• An Educated Guess at Kindle's Impact
• Amazon Ups the Ante on Platform Lock-In