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Mac Slocum: April 2008
Britannica Opens Up with Free Subscriptions
Mac Slocum
April 30, 2008
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Bloggers, journalists and other Web content creators can apply for free subscriptions to Britannica Online, the Web arm of Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Taking a note from the Wall Street Journal, Britannica.com will also allow direct access ("deep-linking") to specific entries. The move is explained in a Britannica.com press release:
Access to much of the site, including full-text entries from the Encyclopaedia Britannica, normally requires a paid subscription. There’s an exception to that rule, however: When a Web site links to a Britannica article Web surfers who click on that link get the article in its entirety.
The press release also contains a curious quote from Britannica president Jorge Cauz:
The level of professionalism among Web publishers has really improved, and we want to recognize that by giving access to the people who are shaping the conversations about the issues of the day. Britannica belongs in the middle of those conversations. [Emphasis added.]
Britannica's decision is in line with the industry's broader move away from Web subscriptions, so how does Web publisher professionalism factor in?
(Via AppScout)
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Bookstores Confront Fake Author Scam
Mac Slocum
April 30, 2008
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Scammers claiming to be authors are trying to pluck money from California booksellers. From the L.A. Times:
... slowly but surely, stores are being contacted by people claiming to be someone they're not and trying to persuade the bookstore staff to send them money. It's bewildering to a community that operates largely on trust and personal relationships.
The "authors" call retailers with a sob story -- their car was impounded, their computer was stolen, etc. -- and they ask the bookstore owners to wire funds to help them out of their jams.
The onslaught of digital scams from deposed Nigerian princes must have prepared the booksellers for this latest scam; all of the interviewed retailers caught on before sending money.
(Via Publishers Weekly)
Q&A;: Philip Parker, Developer of Automated Authoring Platform
Mac Slocum
April 30, 2008
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Philip Parker, founder of ICON Group International and a management science professor at Insead, has developed a patented approach to publishing that combines databases and programming with editorial management -- sometimes via humans, sometimes via computers. ICON Group produces books in 17 genres, including health care, business, reference and crosswords.
In this Q&A;, Parker discusses ICON Group's computer-driven process.
How do you identify book topics?
Based on personal and research interests, I select a genre. Once a genre is selected, I do all titles in that genre (e.g. all trade categories that are officially recognized).
Are writers, editors, or designers involved at any point?
Depends on the genre, but yes, all are relied on heavily at many stages. Health guides are written by medical professionals and hand edited. The business reports have highly edited sections, but 90 percent is computer based.
What types of sources/databases do you pull information from? Are there data sources you don't currently have access to that you think hold promise for this type of publishing?
Depends on the genre. I use the sources that are used by regular authors. For example, an economist uses well established sources to do econometrics, I use the same sources. Many companies and governments have under-utilized data sources and databases that may yield interesting genres; I have worked on the ones that I found of interest to me. I have a huge store of proprietary data. If I use a government source, this is cited, and will vary by genre (e.g. CDC for infectious disease information).
You were part of a print-on-demand (POD) panel at TOC '08. Are all Icon Group books POD? What POD service(s) do you use?
No, not all are print-on-demand. We use LSI [Lighting Source] and Booksurge for POD. We do some POD ourselves for specialized orders.
Could your company -- or a similar company -- function without POD?
Yes, in fact, most of our titles are not POD, but electronic via subscription for large libraries -- corporate and non-corporate.
Are all books also made available as ebooks? What ebook formats do you use?
Yes. PDF, DOC, Mobipocket (coming soon), Pocket PC.
Do researchers or clients ask you to prepare specific books?
Yes. We are able to do financial and labor studies on demand.
Mike Maznick says there's some fairly negative feedback on some of the titles. Is that a consequence of the automated nature of the content creation? Do you feel confident people buying these books know they're generated? Or does that not matter?
All publishers have negative and positive comments (e.g. O'Reilly). I would find it strange if our titles did not. Of the titles we have on Amazon, some 50/210,000 have real comments. Many are satirical. Of the ones from actual buyers, all publishers will receive negative and positive feedback (both can be not real, as Amazon comments are almost wiki based; posted by various people, including affiliates who are trying to sell titles).
I do not track the feedback on Amazon, but I imagine of the 17 genres (crosswords, classics, trade, outlooks, etc.), the negative ones are probably only on the health care guides, which are sold mostly to libraries and patient associations. Of all the genres, this one [health care] is not "generated by computer" -- all the text is written by professionals. The computer is used for formatting and doing the index, and compiling the glossaries.
I have a feeling that the low ratings are because the person does not like the content, thinks that better content or similar content is available elsewhere (e.g. the Internet) or was hoping for more. The health guides are clearly marked as Internet guides, and they cite Internet sources. All of the guides are vetted (by librarians, etc.). If people are dissatisfied because they think the computer wrote the text in the books, then they are dissatisfied for the wrong reason, which is unfortunate.
Many patient associations have not only reviewed the books, but also recommended them to patients and families. On balance, I think it better to make these available to patients with rare diseases who wish to better know how to navigate the Internet, beyond a Google search. For the other genres, I have never received negative feedback, only positive feedback or questions about methodology.
What is your most popular title? How many copies were sold?
Our trade reports, which are purchased by consulting firms, investment banks, and companies involved in international trade. This series is very popular. We gauge sales by series, not by individual titles. Traditional publishers think in terms of individual titles.
On average, how many copies of a single title do you sell?
There are thousands held by libraries (this is public data at World Cat). Some firms subscribe to all titles. Again, we often sell series. Some [titles] sell hundreds, some sell just a few, as a part of a series sale. The prices seen on Amazon are one-off -- we sell few or none of these.
For a typical title, what percentage of the total retail sale is profit?
We do not have a typical title. ICON Group as a whole makes no "profit" -- all resources are plowed into R&D; for new genres. The margins of the books at retail -- as opposed to profit -- are very low for the POD titles, and higher for the business titles. The margins for the low-priced products follow the industry, though we have lower margins as POD can be expensive compared to short-run printing.
A recent New York Times article says that each book costs you "about 12 cents in electricity." What other costs are involved in the process?
It can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, or more, to set up a genre (programming, licensing, editing, research/analysis, etc.). Many [genres] take about 1 year to create, some take 3 to 5 years. I have been doing this for about 8 years now.
How is pricing determined?
Same as in the publishing industry. In some genres we try to equate marginal revenues to marginal costs. On lower-priced POD we make sure we cover the basic costs. On higher end, we try to be substantially below related titles (e.g. trade and outlook, and other business reports). The latter [higher end] are really not sold via Amazon much, but rather through MarketResearch.com, EBSCO (content inclusion), NetLibrary and traditional channels for those markets (direct sales).
How many titles do you plan to develop this year?
Depends on the genre. For Mobipocket (mobile books), we plan on about 68,000 titles. For others, maybe around 50,000. We are working heavily on my dictionary and animations.
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Book Reading Down, Book Writing Up
Mac Slocum
April 29, 2008
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In a New York Times Sunday Book Review essay, Rachel Donadio notes the interesting discrepancy between book reading and book writing. Namely, people aren't reading, but they're certainly doing a lot of writing.
In 2007, a whopping 400,000 books were published or distributed in the United States, up from 300,000 in 2006, according to the industry tracker Bowker, which attributed the sharp rise to the number of print-on-demand books and reprints of out-of-print titles ... In short, everyone has a story -- and everyone wants to tell it.
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Nabokov's Final Novel: The Perfect Mash-Up Source
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April 29, 2008
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Vladimir Nabokov died before he could finish The Original of Laura, and the long history of the unpublished novel is worthy of its own literary epic. The saga is coming to an end now that Nabokov's son, Dmitri, announced his intention to publish the work.
But here's the rub: The Original of Laura is drafted -- in fragment form -- on 50 index cards, and Dmitri Nabokov has no intention of finishing the novel himself. Nabokov tells the BBC:
I would never presume to finish my father's works for him because there are so many strands and threads and thoughts there that perhaps might have been developed further. And I simply don't have the right.
Will another author accept the daunting task of completing a Nabokov title? Or, will the text from the 50 index cards be edited together as a book?
Here's another idea: publish the fragments on the Web and let Nabokov scholars and fans interpret the material. I know the chances of Nabokov-inspired literary mash-ups are remote, but content with this kind of pedigree would bring significant attention to digital publishing experiments.
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Charting the Pitfalls of DRM
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April 28, 2008
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In the wake of MSN Music's authorization decision, Steve O'Hear from last100 looks at five DRM-based businesses that left customers high and dry. From the article:
Any digital store that sells or loans you content in a copy-protected format makes you a hostage to that store or format's commercial success.
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A Glimpse into Google's Book Scanning
Mac Slocum
April 25, 2008
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Google doesn't divulge specifics about its proprietary book scanning set-up, but the Associated Press offers a brief look into the manual scanning process used for old/fragile titles:
... the temperature is always in the 60s ... Each technician has a slightly angled table with a flexible middle that cradles books and holds them still while two overhead cameras photograph the pages. ... Once the images reach the computer, the women [featured in the AP story] use the book scanning software Omniscan from Germany's Zeutschel GmbH to clean them up. A final click of the mouse sends each digitized book to Google for optical character recognition processing, which makes the text searchable. Google then returns a copy of the images and data to the library and posts another to the Web.
(Via Publishers Weekly)
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News Roundup: Kindle 2.0 Speculation, Wikipedia: The Book, "Dilbert" Embraces User-Generated Content, Mobile Audiobook Downloads, Tracking Drafts and Revisions
Mac Slocum
April 25, 2008
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Ars Technica speculates on what the Kindle 2.0 might provide:
... the general hardware configuration appears to be here for a while. The fact that they're still selling the current version also suggests that they have committed to this design in all its white-plastic glory. In the long term, there's still the option of moving some of the awkwardly-placed controls and of improving the E Ink screen (color and improved contrast or faster response times, seem inevitable) ... All of this leaves changes to the software as the most likely candidates for 2.0 improvements. Realistically, we could only infer what Amazon considered to an acceptable interface based on what was released as 1.0. If this doesn't reflect what they "wanted to release in the first place," then all bets on what may change are off.
German Wikipedia Coming in Book Form
Bertelsmann is putting 25,000 German Wikipedia entries into The One-Volume Wikipedia Encyclopedia. From the New York Times:
Bertelsmann says the project should not be judged as a re-creation in book form of what appears online, but rather as an attempt to harness the collective wisdom of Wikipedia’s users. (Continue reading ...)
"Dilbert" Embraces User-Generated Content
"Dilbert" creator Scott Adams and his distributor, United Media, are supporting user-generated content through Dilbert.com. Visitors can rewrite captions and redistribute the results, and the full "Dilbert" archive will eventually be available for free. From Webware:
I asked Adams why he and United Media are opening up the Dilbert intellectual property like this, and he sent me a response by email: "We're accepting the realities of IP on the Internet, and trying to get ahead of the curve. People already alter Dilbert strips and distribute them. If we make it easy and legal to do so, and drive more traffic to Dilbert.com in the process, everyone wins. Plus it's a lot of fun to see what people come up with in the mashups."
UK Service Brings Audiobook Downloads to Mobile Phones
UK-based GoSpoken has partnered with Random House to make 50 audiobook titles available for purchase through the GoSpoken mobile download service. GoSpoken is currently aimed at early adopter UK residents who have broadband-capable cellphones (specifically, HSDPA-enabled) and mobile data plans. (Continue reading ...)
Writing and Tracking through Subversion
Programmers use version control systems to track and monitor code revisions. Writers can bring the same functionality to their drafts by following Rachel Greenham's Mac OS X Subversion tutorial. (Continue reading ...)
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The Inertia of Digital Turf Wars
Mac Slocum
April 24, 2008
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Two recent news stories touch upon a core question in the conflict between established businesses and digital creators: what's the point of a turf war when the turf keeps shifting?
First up is a New York Times story that examines the murky relationship between professional sports teams, bloggers and multimedia coverage:
Mike Fannin, the president of the Associated Press Sports Editors and the managing editor for sports and features at the Kansas City Star, said the dispute was the result of traditional news organizations redefining themselves in a changing technological environment.
"Ten years ago newspapers weren't in the world of video and audio," he said. "We were in the world of print. The leagues don’t have a print product. Their view of this is that we entered their world."
That is one point both sides agree on. "I'm all for selling newspapers and magazines," said Bob DuPuy, the president of M.L.B. "What I'm not for is them branching off in to other enterprises."
The second story comes from the publishing world. Author JK Rowling and Warner Bros. sued to block publication of the Harry Potter Lexicon, a book derived from Steven Van Ark's Harry Potter fan site. From the Associated Press:
The author and her lawyers said they were stirred to action by the proposal to move the Potter lexicon from the anything-goes Web, where it was available for free, into book form, where it would compete directly with a Potter encyclopedia that Rowling plans to write herself.
In short, by deciding to sell his material, Vander Ark was stepping across a line. He was no longer just an enthusiastic fan, but a professional and potential competitor -- fair game for the lawyers.
The conflict between digital envelope pushers and traditional businesses will take years to subside (or move on to a new skirmish on a new platform). But isn't there a better way? Rather than throwing huge resources at lawsuits and posturing, especially when you're confronting a gray area, why not allocate some of that time, energy and money toward trial runs and acquisitions? Digital initiatives don't require abandonment of established business models, and the knowledge gleaned from experimentation -- knowledge that could lead to new revenue -- is far more useful than a turf war.
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Writing and Tracking through Subversion
Mac Slocum
April 23, 2008
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Programmers use version control systems to track and monitor code revisions. Writers can bring the same functionality to their drafts by following Rachel Greenham's Mac OS X Subversion tutorial:
What does it [Subversion] do? It manages multiple versions of a project in development. You check your project out of the repository, make changes and you commit those changes back to the repository. At any time you can view older versions of the whole project or of individual files, and revert to them, if the work done since was in error. You can make branches, which allows you to develop your work in two (or more) ways in parallel, and you can tag your project to say, at this point I met a certain milestone (eg: first draft, second draft, version sent to publisher X, version sent to publisher Y, published version, etc.)
(Via TUAW)
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Ease of Use as Anti-Piracy Tool
Mac Slocum
April 23, 2008
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Simon Juden, CEO of the Publishers Association, says uniform ebook standards -- and the resulting ease of use -- can deter piracy. From The Bookseller:
Licensing must be intuitive, simple and straightforward at the user level or the user will look for ways to circumvent them.
On a related note: Itunes, noted in the past for its ease of use, recently claimed the top spot among U.S. music retailers.
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German Wikipedia Coming in Book Form
Mac Slocum
April 23, 2008
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Bertelsmann is putting 25,000 German Wikipedia entries into The One-Volume Wikipedia Encyclopedia. From the New York Times:
Bertelsmann says the project should not be judged as a re-creation in book form of what appears online, but rather as an attempt to harness the collective wisdom of Wikipedia’s users.
Arne Klempert, executive director of Wikimedia Germany, says the book is a content experiment:
It is a very good example of the power of free knowledge, so anyone is free to use the content and do interesting things with it. It’s a nice experiment to see if the Wikipedia content is good enough to sell books.
Available in September, the book will have a 20,000-copy press run and sell for 19.95 euros. The Times says Wikimedia Germany will receive one euro per copy sold.
(Via Publishers Weekly)
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Shelfari Rolls Out Editable Author Profiles
Mac Slocum
April 23, 2008
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Each author's page will feature an open wiki in addition to a message board and a list of written books. Shelfari hopes to set itself apart from other big name wikis (namely Wikipedia) by encouraging authors themselves to join the community and modify their own pages. Many sites tend to discourage this practice because of obvious bias concerns, but Shelfari believes the interaction to be seen between authors and their fans will compensate for this drawback.
LibraryThing, another community-centric book site, also offers a level of editable profile information.
(Via Peter Brantley's read20 listserv.)
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Ergonomics and Ebook Success
Mac Slocum
April 22, 2008
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Lee Gomes of the Wall Street Journal discusses the pleasant surprise of reading ebooks on his BlackBerry:
Your thumb doesn't fall off turning teeny-tiny digital pages thousands of times to get through even the most fleeting novella. In fact, the ergonomics almost beats that of books.
Some will argue that mobile screen sizes don't encourage extended ebook experiences, but there's something to be said for the convenience of flicking through pages with your fingers or zooming along on a track ball (or if you're old school, a click wheel). In fact, e-reader manufacturers might want to look at popular handheld devices for design inspiration -- and by "handheld" I mean anything that can be held in your hand, not just mobile gadgets.
Take the TiVo remote. In 2004, the New York Times did a feature story on this device:
Because of the nature of the TiVo video recorder, the remote is held for long periods as users continually choose shows to record, skip commercials, fast-forward and rewind recorded shows, rate programs by pressing the thumbs-up or thumbs-down buttons, and even pause live TV. Designing a remote that consumers would find comfortable was a high priority.
An e-reader doesn't have much in common with a TV remote, but that's not really the point. It's all about core use. The TiVo remote works because the oversized pause button -- embodying the essence of a DVR -- is impossible to miss. The iPhone works because the touchscreen gives you maneuverability in a small space, thereby narrowing the gap between a mobile device and a PC. And the BlackBerry works because the track ball lets you fly through menus and information. Moreover, each of these design elements is now second nature to users, so manufacturers can safely incorporate similar (not stolen; similar) functionality while avoiding user-interface re-education.
It could be that touchscreens and intuitively placed buttons/wheels/balls don't enhance the ebook experience (although I think they might), but the current insistence on meshing traditional books with ebooks isn't a design nirvana, either. As Gomes notes, the book-ebook connection isn't really necessary:
Until a few weeks ago, my assumption had been that a useable electronic book would need to resemble a Gutenberg book as much as possible, with, for example, pages of screen text about the same size as pages of print ... The Sony Reader, however, turned out to be a gateway device. Once you've experienced its great rush of convenience, choice and portability, you just have to have more. It's then that you cross the line and start downloading British novels onto a BlackBerry. [Emphasis added.]
If "convenience, choice, portability" and other core ebook attributes define e-reader hardware design, then the resulting ergonomics could be the key attribute that reinvents the established market.
(Via Teleread.)
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Bezos Hopes for Longer Attention Spans
Mac Slocum
April 21, 2008
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In his annual letter (PDF) to Amazon shareholders, Jeff Bezos discusses the Kindle's place in an "info-snacking" world:
... networked tools such as desktop computers, laptops, cell phones and PDAs have changed us too. They've shifted us more toward information snacking, and I would argue toward shorter attention spans ... If our tools make information snacking easier, we'll shift more toward information snacking and away from long-form reading. Kindle is purpose-built for long-form reading. We hope Kindle and its successors may gradually and incrementally move us over years into a world with longer spans of attention, providing a counterbalance to the recent proliferation of info-snacking tools.
(Via Peter Brantley's read20 listserv.)
UK Service Brings Audiobook Downloads to Mobile Phones
Mac Slocum
April 21, 2008
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UK-based GoSpoken has partnered with Random House to make 50 audiobook titles available for purchase through the GoSpoken mobile download service. GoSpoken is currently aimed at early adopter UK residents who have broadband-capable cellphones (specifically, HSDPA-enabled) and mobile data plans.
Managing director Tony Lynch describes the genesis of GoSpoken on the company's blog:
As I travel round London, I am staggered by the amount of people traveling with earphones attached and because I have a vested interest and never stop wondering what they are actually listening to. Now those people who have seen me staring at them through buses, trains and their daily commuter work will be able to download the audio version of best-selling fiction and non-fiction anywhere where their network gives them broadband coverage.
(Via Peter Brantley's read20 listserv.)
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"Last Lecture" Success Inspires Kindle Marketing
Mac Slocum
April 21, 2008
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Perhaps catalyzed by the Kindle's new availability, Amazon recently associated the surprise success of The Last Lecture with happy Kindle owners. From an Amazon press release:
"One of the advantages for readers is that Kindle titles never go out of stock," said Steve Kessel, Senior Vice President, World Wide Digital Media at Amazon.com. "That's good for readers, and it's good for publishers too."
Ebook editions of The Last Lecture are available in Kindle, Secure eReader, Secure Mobipocket and Secure Microsoft Reader formats.
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News Roundup: Online's Share Increases, New York's "Amazon" Tax, Open Source Textbooks, Edits Shown in Pan Macmillan Ebooks, Penguin UK's Simultaneous Print-Ebook Plan
Mac Slocum
April 18, 2008
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Amazon Growth Fuels Online's Book Market Share
Online retailers claim 21-30 percent of the consumer trade book market, according to two recent surveys. Publishers Weekly says much of this growth comes from Amazon. (Continue reading ...)
New York Eyes Amazon Affiliates in Tax Move
From the New York Times:
... people owe taxes on what they buy regardless of whom they buy it from. But the seller only has an obligation to collect those taxes (and thus the only time taxes are ever actually paid) when the seller has a physical presence in the state of the purchase. The state is proposing defining Amazon’s affiliates -- Web sites that earn commissions by referring customers to it -- as a physical presence. (Continue reading ...)
Open Source Textbook Adoption Grows
Inside Higher Ed notes the slowly growing open source textbook movement:
Colleges and individual faculty members continue to experiment with putting course information and material online, and "open textbooks" typically are licensed to allow users to download, share and alter the content as they see fit, so long as their purposes aren't commercial and they credit the author for the original material. This allows instructors to customize e-textbooks and offer them to students for free online or as low-cost printed versions.
Pan Macmillan Plans Ebooks Showing Edits and Changes
Pan Macmillan is releasing ebooks with extra sauce. From thedigitalist.net:
The idea that a special edition eBook can contain marginal material produced before, during, or after a print edition features in two other eBooks to be published by Picador this year. Sid Smith’s China Dreams, which we published in hardback in January 2007 and in paperback in January 2008, will be issued in a uniquely up-to-date edition, in the author’s latest version, with corrections, changes, and new material, and a foreword in which he considers the process of composition and revision. (Continue reading ...)
Penguin UK to Release Print and Ebook Editions Simultaneously
Beginning in September, print and ebook versions of Penguin UK's new titles will be available simultaneously for the same price. Digital editions will be made available in .epub format through Penguin's Web sites and via retailers. (Continue reading ...)
Related:
Amazon Growth Fuels Online's Book Market Share
Mac Slocum
April 16, 2008
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Online retailers claim 21-30 percent of the consumer trade book market, according to two recent surveys. Publishers Weekly says much of this growth comes from Amazon:
In discussing their 2007 results, both Penguin's David Shanks and Simon & Schuster's Carolyn Reidy said the e-tailer was their fastest-growing account last year, while Quarto Group chairman Laurence Orbach noted that sales of its MBI Distribution subsidiary have increased by more than 10 percent at Amazon in each of the last three years.
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Industry Questions Raised by "Potter" Encyclopedia Suit
Mac Slocum
April 16, 2008
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Updated 4/17/08
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling testified earlier this week against a publisher that wants to release the unofficial Harry Potter Lexicon, a print adaptation of Steven Vander Ark's popular Potter encyclopedia site.
From the New York Times:
... Ms. Rowling said the proposed Lexicon book flouted her plans to write her own encyclopedia and donate the proceeds to charity. She argues that Mr. Vander Ark’s book could deter fans from buying hers.
The article says the legality of the Lexicon hinges on the originality of the title, but this suit also raises broader theoretical questions that plug into many of the free/open shifts we've recently covered.
For example, if the Lexicon is successfully released and Rowling follows through with her own encyclopedia, will Rowling's concern come true? Will her edition falter because the Lexicon has already claimed the market? Or, will awareness and publicity raised by the Lexicon boost Rowling's title? Going a step further, does Rowling even need awareness at this point? (Probably not ...)
The release of both encyclopedias would also provide a real-world test of official vs. unofficial value. Does an "unofficial" encyclopedia -- even a thorough one -- trump an "official" edition? Or, would Rowling's brand and resources marginalize the unofficial title?
Finally, is there an opportunity in the middle ground (and is there a roadmap for other publishers)? The article notes that Rowling and her publisher have been open to Potter fan sites, but what if that openness extended to a formal path for fan-created Potter material? This could take the form of small print runs for "good bet" titles like Van Ark's Lexicon, and print-on-demand services for marginal/niche topics.
Update (4/17/08): Judge Robert P. Patterson says this disagreement could be solved with creativity. From Publishers Weekly:
Patterson reiterated that he felt this was a case that “could be settled and should be settled,” and that it would only take “a little imagination” to make that happen.
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