One view of the future of publishing, which I’ve brought up here a few times, is that publishers need to begin reaching out directly to consumers. On FutureBook, Amsterdam-based publishing exec Jürgen Snoeren disagrees, suggesting that in the rapidly changing publishing environment, publishers need to focus first on their core competency—producing excellent content. Snoeren points out that publishers can’t hope to beat Amazon at its own game—but Amazon does not seem to have as much of a problem competing with them. When the Kindle was released in Germany, the lack of German content did not seem to hinder...

Last week I covered John Blake’s idea of delaying e-books in order to save print bookstores. On FutureBook, Rhian Davies has also responded with an interesting post referencing Theodore Levitt’s paper on “Marketing Myopia”—the source (or at least popularizer) of that anecdote we often hear about railroads thinking they were in the railroad business when they were really in the transportation business. Thirty-six years ago, Levitt pointed out that industries needed to focus on the customer, rather than the product, and some industries still haven’t learned that lesson even today. Today we have the ereader, be it Kindle or other device.  Like...

In a Publishing Perspectives discussion seed article connected to the piece on the French Feedbooks matter that we covered a few days ago, Edward Nawotka pondered whether one of the reasons publishers like DRM so much might be that it often causes people to have to buy multiple electronic versions of a given work as earlier platforms fade to obsolescence. It’s an interesting notion. Certainly I’m not immune; I had to re-buy the Liaden novels after their original DRM-using e-book vendor went out of business. (Though the re-bought versions come from Baen, so I’ll never have to worry...

On Publishing Perspectives, independent publisher and e-book consultant Erik Christopher has an article looking at whether to assign separate ISBNs to individual e-book formats, and whether DRMed vs. non-DRMed e-books constitute separate formats. Much of the debate about ISBNs and e-books stems from the use of the word “format.” The question being, when is an e-book in one format, say ePUB, no longer an ePUB? We know, for example, that a Kindle version is a new format, because it is no longer an ePUB file, but a unique version that will only work with...

While researching my primer post on e-book formats, I happened across an interesting article from a month ago by David Skurnik on the DCLnews blog. Skurnik advises publishers on how to “future-proof” their e-books. Skurnik notes that e-books have only just begun the process of evolving away from their common ancestry with print books into something more complex. Given how many different formats are competing for primacy, it is difficult to know which horse to back, or indeed whether (or how) to back all of them. To stay prepared for whatever e-book formats win, or whatever new...

Andrew Savikas of O’Reilly has posted a very interesting chart of the breakdown of format downloads by percentage of O’Reilly books for the last two years. The chart shows PDFs falling from around 90% of the total to around 50%. The sharpest drop in PDF happened around the end of 2008, and the decline has been more or less stady since then (save for a big spike brought on by an “any book for $9.99” promotion earlier this year). The biggest gain has been seen by EPUB format, which seems to account for about 25%, followed by Mobipocket...

The Bookseller reports on execs from Penguin and Random House speaking at a book award breakfast on the subject of e-book piracy. They warned that illegal copying has been “engrained culturally” and, while the industry can cope with current piracy levels, once e-books are more commonly used the cost could be significant. The most interesting thing to me is this quote from Tom Weldon, Penguin’s deputy chief executive: “The only way to fight piracy is to publish digital content across as many formats as possible, through as many channels, at a fair price. If...

Sighted via Twitter from Mariah Jovan: Lulu now offers conversion of manuscripts into ePub format in addition to its other electronic offerings. While more support for ePub is certainly a good thing, if you actually take a look at the rates you might vacillate between staring in disbelief and laughing yourself into an apoplexy: 250 Pages or Less  $175 251-500 Pages  $350 501-750 Pages  $495 Do you see that? They use “less” instead of “fewer”! And they call themselves a publisher! Oh yes, and their prices are...

On Publishing Perspectives today, Irish publisher (and TeleRead “Things Publishers Fear” contributor) Eoin Purcell opines that e-books are a “cul-de-sac.” But on reading further, his point of view is the exact opposite of most e-book skeptics. Rather than seeing a future primarily in print, Purcell thinks that e-books do not go far enough. Purcell sees a danger in getting so wrapped up in e-books as e-books that publishers and writers forget to concentrate on other new media formats. Rather than expend their energy focusing on one format that may be fleeting, publishers need to...

Writer Henry Melton has posted a pair of blog entries meditating on e-book font and layout from a couple of different directions. Melton’s first post, a couple of days ago, looks at the iBooks reader from his perspective as a writer and self-publisher who formats his own printed and electronic books. Fundamentally, Melton was disappointed that underneath the fancy user interface, iBooks was simply going to be another plain-vanilla ePub reader instead of creating a new format that better replicated the printed experience. When he formats with InDesign, Melton notes, he has a great deal of control...

I conducted an interview with Pablo Defendini, Producer and blogger for Tor.com, via Google Wave. Our conversation ranged from the Tor.com blog itself, to the free e-book giveaway that kicked off the site, to the much-anticipated but still-absent Tor.com e-book store. Defendini noted that Tor.com was a separate subsidiary from Tor Books the publisher, and as an employee of Tor.com he was unable to answer questions pertaining to Tor Books’s stance on e-books or its e-book ventures prior to Tor.com (such as Tor Webscriptions). However, he did have a number of fascinating things to say about...

Tim O'Reilly is a publisher and web entrepreneur who has proved himself in both worlds, and I always admire his dead-on observations of Web technology and its possibilities for entrepreneurship. Before this last Web 2.0 Expo, he did some nice checks and balances on the hype. It's always bittersweet to have someone reminding us that we have a long way to go. As an entrepreneur, this is the constant joy and lament. In the interest of getting past both hype and disdain, we should all take a minute to speculate about what Web 2.0 means for books. Some might...