You know that the realm of live web-conferencing has changed when those watching/listening get far more thought-provoking data from the live chat feature on the sidebar than from the actual speakers. Last week I ‘attended’ a live webcast billed by a TOC O’Reilly tweet as: “Rethink + reshape the publishing business model. Free webcast…”
Lured by the O’Reilly name, I hoped to hear some statistics and unique ideas by which publishers could finally get a leg up in the eBook market… but instead I sat through a 45-minute infomercial featuring digital publishing/distribution services by Ingram, who’d ‘sponsored’ the event (information not prominently mentioned beforehand). There was an initial problem with the sound, which seemed to be shared by all attending; after a few moments we were warned not to listen to the audio over a wireless connection, to instead dial the conference telephone number and listen that way. It worked for those who had access to a nearby land line.
After the sound snafu, the power-point presentation began. Questions like ‘how can publishers thrive using changes in technology’ were answered with allusions to Ingram’s existing clients in publishing that already use their experience-enhanced services for eBook creation and distribution. To give credit where it is due, speakers Ingram SVP Larry Brewster (Ingram Content Goup) and VP Mark Ouimet (Ingram Publisher Services Inc.) divided their target audience in a logical fashion (publishers, retailers, libraries & educators) and spoke briefly on the changes happening in each sector. However, I did not appreciate the repetitive–and rather obsolete–themes of “publishing is in a transition”, “gone are the days of limited players in publishing”, POD saves publishers money… or the ‘observation’ that library resources are being stretched, all of which were just a few of the things that provoked a scribbled “ORLY?” once or twice in the margins of my notebook.
One statistic that Brewster brought up caught my eye stating that nearly 1/3 of Internet users plan to buy a Kindle. He also mentioned that 96% of books in the US are still printed on paper, though off-set production has declined in favor of Print On Demand; he suspected it would continue to do so. The speakers also repeated an earlier industry prediction that digital books would grow from 4% of the market to 15% by 2015, and that an eBook dominant format was likely. Brewster also put a several lists of things that publishers should outsource to save themselves the growing costs of trying to marry print production with digital publishing. Those watching the webcast were left with no doubt that Ingram’s various services embody all the transitional changes recommended during the presentation. How should I partner with? Why, Ingram, of course… just like all these satisfied customers did. I halfway expected a photo-shopped imagine of the late Billy Mays–wearing an Ingram polo shirt–to pop up on one side of the screen, grinning and giving the web audience a double thumbs-up.
The only reason I sat through the entire webcast was the vigorous and intriguing discussion happening in the sidebar chat window. Quite a few folks showed up via the Twitter link and once the collective conscious realized the advertising bend to the webcast it was almost ignored completely while chatters asked each other questions, counted the times Ingram services were mentioned (I counted eleven) and voiced concerns about the realm of digital publishing; a few of these concerns/questions were addressed by the speakers at the end of the Ingram pitch after a little prompting from Catherine, the O’Reilly hostess. The chatters consisted of eBook readers, small self-publishers, hopeful writers and those who’d never purchased an eBooks, but were curious. The most brought up issue was formats, and how reading a book could be made simpler. The next most voiced issue was eBook unit prices, specifically why they were heading skyward. Book piracy was fairly low on the list with chatters. Brewster answered that concern at the very end by pointing out that print books can be scanned in moments and made into eBooks and there’s “nothing we can really do about it”, a reply which bordered on being a verbal ‘shrug’.
The best question asked, in my opinion, was asked by one bold chatter and (paraphrasing) read thusly: What is the value that publishers add to the equation and what advantage do I get by going through a publisher? Mark Ouimet answered this one, indicating that publishers bring experience to the question and they make sure the quality is good. Considering some of the books being published these days, and that several eBooks have recently been released by big name houses yet speckled with errors, its no wonder that both webcast speakers had to admit that the “content explosion” of this last year along with self-publishing authors have captured the attention of the consumer and Brewster predicted that niche eBook publishers will “continue to thrive”.
“The change is in how people are reading,” Ouimet said, “No one denies that the change is upon us and moving quickly.”
Indeed.
Via Meredith Greene’s Greene Ink blog
