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Take that, Amazon! 80 percent rev to publishers via Scribd: From O’Reilly tech books to travel guides
May 18, 2009 | 6:30 am
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By David Rothman
A 65-35 percent split in favor of Jeff Bezos—that’s an example of what self-publishers must deal with on Amazon’s e-book side.
What’s more, larger houses also may be hoping for bigger cuts.
But now Scribd, the social publishing site, is offering 80 percent revenue to writers or publishers through new e-commerce arrangements allowing content providers to set prices.
VarnaInYourPocket
Shown is a guide to Varna, Bulgaria. The entire catalogues of O’Reilly Media, Lonely Planet and Berrett-Koehler are going on Scribd, and Random House has tried out the site.
Alas, however, because of piracy fears, Random House and other giant publishers have not committed all the way. I hope they will—if nothing else, to curtail Amazon’s growing power, which in the end could cost publishers a lot more than piracy ever could.
In fairness to Amazon, let me note the bigger potential exposure to readers that it offers. But in Scribd, I see lots of potential.
Related: Techmeme roundup and New York Times item.
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Comments:
Just FYI, lulu.com has been offering 80% of revenue to ebook publishers for years! Granted without the spiffy iPaper.
The problem with Scrid is an apparent exclusivity with online reading or PDF. (I never seen anything else, though maybe those formats exist on the site for some titles.) These formats are OK for short excerpts, but not for reading whole books. While some people might be happy reading on desktops and laptops or the error prone PDF conversions for handhelds, I think Scrid is mostly just peacock feathers that look pretty, give readers the impression of free content, but ultimately little will be read in its entirety unless a paperback or other ebook format is purchased.
Thanks, David. I’ve just uploaded one of my ebooks for sale on Scribd.
Scribd keeps only 20% of the sellng price per sale, plus a fee of 25 cents per sale (for non-DRM ebooks) or 35 cents per sale (for DRM-afflicted ebooks).
You set your own selling price — and Scribd does not discount your price. Alternatively, instead of setting your own price, you can use Scribd’s automatic price generator: it will tell you how much your book should be selling for.
Scrbid lets you choose how you want to sell your ebook:
a) Buyers can read it on the web but not download
b) Buyers can read it on the web and download a copy (my choice); or
c) Buyers can read it on the web and read a DRM copy of the ebook, using Adobe Digital Editions. (Scribd adds the DRM for you, I believe.)
I like the choices; and I like the fact that I can change my settings and options and prices at any time.
And of course I like getting 80% of the pie.
Scribd says that the no-DRM PDF ebooks that buyers buy from Scribd can be read on the Kindle.
I’m sure that there will be improvements to Scribd’s selling system, but this is a very impressive first launch.
Michael Pastore
50 Benefits of Ebooks
I, too, welcome the new competition from Scribd, but the quoted 65%-35% split in Amazon’s favor misses a couple of key points. The first is that those numbers are referenced to publisher’s list price, not Amazon’s actual sales price. Actual percentages vary with sales price but are typically more like 56%-44%. See Stephen Windwalker’s very useful spreadsheet http://bit.ly/1247Xo. A second missed point is that Amazon is funding cellular wireless delivery from their share of the proceeds.
There is not one single format that Scribd offers that I am willing to use. Until they cure this problem they are of no use to me and, I suspect, to most other people as well.
Paul, I do agree with you on this point: it would be good for Scribd to expand their range of reading formats. Let’s hope that Scribd listens, and makes some changes.
But when you say that Scribd is of no use “to most other people”, I might want sit down with you and a teapot of strong Turkish tea, to challenge your facts behind that opinion.
In the free mode, every month, more than 60 million readers read documents on Scribd. It’s used by the biggest players (Harvard University, New York Times, The World Bank, Duke Medical School, The Obama Presidential Campaign … and more) and by millions of individuals.
My free guide to Google Analytics, posted there, has received just under 10,000 views.
Scribd holds more than 35 billion words, and it has embedded more than 5 million documents, via its iPaper, in 90 different languages.
Can Scribd achieve anything near these numbers in their “pay” mode? … We’ll need to wait and see. All the free documents posted there will continue to draw attention to the site.
Michael Pastore
50 Benefits of Ebooks
Scrid may hold more than 35 billion words and draw attention to the site, but do people actually read the whole books offered? Reading a full length book while online at the website is not something, I would think, most people would do. A few people might try reading a whole PDF, though the numbers, I would guess, are far fewer than those who finish complete books on the Kindle or other handheld device.
Greg, what is your objection to buying a downloadable PDF ebook (with no DRM) from the new Scribd ebook store, and then reading that PDF ebook on your Kindle?
I don’t own a Kindle; I’m wondering how well Kindle works with unencrypted PDF files. I thought it would read these PDFs without a problem. Are you saying that there is a problem with Kindles reading PDF files? … I’d like to know one way or the other.
Thanks,
Michael Pastore
50 Benefits of Ebooks
Michael, the 6” Kindle can’t natively read PDF files due to its fixed page format. Conversion for the Kindle is free and easy to use in a number of different ways, but there are always errors in the formating afterwards. (You can put a file into a PDF format, but you can’t take the PDF formating out of the file.) Some readers are more tolerant of these errors, but I find them too choppy. With all the content available elsewhere in easy to read formats, for purchase or for free, I have enough choices to always say no to any PDF ebook.
As for a personal choice, if there was a book I wanted to read that was available for free in non-DRM PDF format or for purchase in a DRM format, I’d rather pony up the bucks.
Michael,
Kindle 1 and Kindle 2 do not support PDFs natively. Instead, Amazon offers a free email-based conversion service that works quite well for many Scribd PDFs of narrative documents. However, graphical, multi-column, or bitmapped PDFs are poorly supported by the service.
Kindle DX will offer native support for PDFs, but the footnotes are as yet unknown.
Thanks very much, Greg and Steve, for the info about Kindle.
Is there a solution for a publisher or author, who wants to make her/his ebooks available for reading on the Kindle — but does not want to sell through Amazon?
Are there non-proprietary ebook formats that read well on Kindle, and also avoid the reflow problems of PDF?
Michael Pastore
50 Benefits of Ebooks
Only Amazon and OverDrive provide DRMed ebooks for the Kindle. OverDrive’s Kindle-compatible DRMed MOBIs are mostly lending library ebooks, but are also sold by Books on Board.
However, the Kindle reads all DRM-free MOBI ebooks. Sites such as Baen’s webscriptions and FictionWise provide this format. I don’t know of a central repository, like Scribd, for DRM-free MOBI though.
Practically any DRM-free reflowable ebook format can be converted to MOBI (for the Kindle) using Calibre. One good choice is ePub. If you have a DRM-free ePub, Calibre will optimally convert it to DRM-free MOBI. It is therefore a shame that Scribd does not have a DRM-free ePub option.