Dan Poynter - Mark Coker Presentation: Print Books to Ebooks

66 lbs & 26” of Shelf Space 30 kg & 66 cm S: Someone printed out the whole thing?

Congratulations on
Attending the Publishing University
Deciding to wring more value out of your work.
pBooks to eBooks
 

Poll
How many have a
Kindle?
Sony Reader?
iPhone?
PocketPC?
Other reader?
How many publish eBooks?
Still write letters and buy stamps?

Chapter Fourteen Provide a Choice of Format 9 editions of the same Work

My History
Selling downloadable documents since 1996
Speaking on eBook since early 1990s
Reader of eBooks
eBook author, publisher & reader

pBook Must Come First
For credibility
For promotion
Reviews
To opinion molders
S: Cape Town

Who Reads eBooks?
People on the move
Portable
Less weight & volume
Think outside the (paper) book
My travels

Why eBooks?
Less expensive
No typesetting
No printing
No inventory
No wrapping
No physical shipping
Quicker to market
Speed of light
S: Spm-2 editions

Think Globally
The World is your potential market
We are selling information—not hard goods
Distribute via the Internet
No cost to ship
No import duty
No sales taxes
Instant delivery

50,000 Reading Devices
Amazon Kindle books to iPhone.
500,000 Kindles. 38 million iPhones and iPOD Touches.
More hardware is coming. Kindle DX, Apple reader, Plastic Logic eReader, FirstPaper,
Some reading devices are large enough to replace newspapers and magazines.

Content
Amazon Kindle books to iPhone.
275,000 current eBook titles
B&N and Fictionwise
Lots of current titles. Great site.
Sony and Google
Out-of-print books
Available to iPhone
Must give people what they want to read

Who is Taking a Piece of the Action? Buyer Discount Nets Publisher Retains Nets Cutting out the gatekeepers in the middle Based on Book’s List Price: $19.95 Publisher 45% ($8.98) Publisher 34% ($6.78) Publisher 60% ($11.97) Reader 0% ($19.95) Publisher 100% ($19.95) Bookstore 40% ($7.98) Wholesaler* 55% ($10.97) Distributor* 66% ($13.17)

How are eBooks Selling?

Digital Rights Management What Needs Protection?
Entertainment Information
Music Fiction Nonfiction
Appeals to many Appeals to some Appeals to few
Used repeatedly Used Once Kept as reference
Often shared Occasionally shared Rarely shared
Not revised Not revised Revisable
Multitask Single task Single task
Protection schemes penalize paying customers. Weigh the value.
Amazon.com provides a locking device

Pricing Your Book
Pricing pBooks
Top-down: Additional method.
What will the traffic bear?
Bottom-up: Traditional method.
8x printing and trucking costs
(After your initial 500 books)
Pricing eBooks
Top-down only ($4-$8)
No investment in printing, etc.

eBook Readers Amazon Kindle Sony Reader

Read Books on Your iPhone
See the video demo at http://www.fictionwise.com/help/iphonefaq.htm

eBook Reader: Pocket PC
Stores 10,000+ books
Text is one Newspaper-Column Wide
Type size is adjustable
Address book
Calendar
Synchronizes with PC
Backlighted
Wireless
WiFi & Skype
Stores 3 audiobooks
Google Maps and GPS Navigator

1. Write Your Book
MS-Word

2. Convert to Various eBook Formats
Smashwords.com
(Actually a Publishing Platform & Online Store)
PubDimensions.com
DetailsPlease.com/eBook
eChapterOne.com
codeMantra.com
eBookApp.com
IngramDigital.com
ScrollMotion.com
Shortcovers.com
N: More converters

More Converters
Amazon.com
ElectronicAndDatabasePub.com
ReadHowYouWant.com
Texterity.com

DIY Conversion Programs
DropBook
Blackman’s eBook Converter
FeedBooks.com
eReader.com
Stanza.lexcycle.com
Adobe InDesign
Calibre
BookGlutton.com

3. Submit
Smashwords.com
LightningSource.com
Amazon.com
B&N.com
Fictionwise.com
BookLocker.com (PDF only)

4. Sell
Downloading from your own site is not recommended
They handle the order processing
Dealers have more customers/traffic
Customer Service expenses

Unique ISBN for Each “Edition” Get a Block of 100 ISBNs http://www.ISBN.org

Introducing Mark Coker

Books are precious
Receptacles for capturing, sharing and immortalizing
knowledge
culture
Promote cross-cultural understanding and knowledge sharing
We must save books

Are books endangered?
Print books are too expensive
Books face increased competition from alternative media
Overall book industry sales in decline
Many publishers struggling to survive
Many talented book trade professionals out of work
Risk losing bookmaking brain trust?

Will Ebooks Replace Print Books?

eBooks will save publishing Image credit: movie poster for “Smiley Face,” directed by Gregg Araki http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi565313817/

Ebooks are similar to print books and stone tablets
Each offers lovingly prepared packaged units of words
Each delivers words on a substrate medium
Each represents a different way to enjoy a book

eBooks failed in the late 1990s, left for dead
Paper reading vastly superior to screen reading
Overpriced
DRM=confusion, frustration
Limited selection
… yet the demise of ebooks was greatly exaggerated

Wholesale Ebook Revenues Surpass $100 million Data: AAP http://www.publishers.org/documents/S12008Final.pdf 58% compound annual growth for 6 years vs. 1.6% all books

Annual growth rates, p- & e- Data: AAP http://www.publishers.org/documents/S12008Final.pdf

Monthly growth, y-o-y eBook vs. overall market Data: AAP http://www.publishers.org/

Do eBooks Really Matter? $113,220,000 (ebooks)  $24,225,025,000 (all books) = 0.467% AAP sales data 2008

Do eBooks Really Matter? = 0.6% Source: 2008 Bowker PubTrack Consumer survey of book-buying behavior

Yes eBooks Matter! Q1 2009 = 2.4% Up from 0.6% for all of 2008 Source: Bowker's PubTrack Consumer survey of book-buying behavior

Stats understate results of early ebook participants
Build it and they will come
For books available in both e- & p-, in Feb ‘09 Amazon reported that 10% of sales were ebooks

Amazon May 2009: eBooks 35% of pBooks Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-kindle-sales-now-a-shocking-35-of-book-sales-when-kindle-version-available-2009-5

Why ebooks are hot
Screen reading (almost) rivals paper
Amazon + Oprah
iPhone (Stanza 1.8 million users)
Free books are gateway drug
Greater content selection
Prices coming down
Digital shelves appearing everywhere
Impulse buying
Early adopters new evangelists
DRM on its way out?

Why eBooks will become more popular than paper
Ebooks will offer superior reading experience
Screens will become better than paper
Changeable font size
Portable & compact
Library in the cloud
eBooks as hubs and spokes within richer, more immersive experiences
Huge selection
Ebooks are cheap

eBook opportunity for publishers
Publishers become more important
curators of content
Digital opens worldwide market
Lower cost = higher per-unit margin
lower cost = larger available market
No inventory
No product returns
No shipping
Digital enables serendipitous discovery
Digital shelves everywhere
instant sampling
impulse purchases
Supply chain disintermediation

How eBooks will impact book supply chain for publishers printer P-publisher Shipper/w/d customer bookseller E-publisher customer ebookseller E-publisher customer ebookseller E-distributor E-publisher customer E-publisher affiliate ebookseller E-distributor customer

Winners and losers in new ebook supply chain
Winners
Publishers and authors!
Ebook distributors/e-retailers/digital shelf owners/tool makers
Readers!
Ebook reading device makers
Losers
Tree growers, tree pulpers, ink/glue/printing press makers, printers, warehousers, truckers, oil producers, box makers, remainderers,
slow-to-adapt print publishers, print bookstores

Amazon eats lunch of big box bookstores 10 year percentage change in stock price, Amazon, B&N, Borders

How the market values Borders, B&N, Amazon
Market caps
Borders: $130 million
Barnes & Nobel: $1.2 billion
Amazon: $32 billion
AMZN 246X more valuable than Borders, 26X more valuable than B&N
P/S ratios
Borders: .04
Barnes & Nobel: .24
Amazon: 1.62
Every AMZN sales dollar 40x more valuable than Borders, 7X more valuable than B&N

Amazon positioned to control ebook market
Power over publishers
Devicemaker - Kindle
Mobile ebooks - Acquired Lexcycle (Stanza)
Amazon as publisher - Amazon Encore/Digital Text Platform/Booksurge/CreateSpace
Amazon as community provider - Amazon.com, Shelfari acquisition
Amazon audio books - Audible acquisition
Amazon as after-market aggregator - acquired Abebooks
Big squeeze - eliminated Kindle books from affiliate program
Proprietary lock in - Requires their DRM

Survival strategy for independent publishers
Work with Amazon
Develop alternative channels
Build closer relationship with customers
direct customers to publisher-friendly e-retailers
offer incentives for customers to form relationship with you
coupons for registration data
exclusive sneak peeks, author events
Learn to think like a software company

Publishers in the software business now
eBooks = software
selling digital bits
low cost duplication
no shipping costs
no after market
high profit margins
different ways to market, price and sell content
dealing with piracy
Multi-format is essential (see next slide)

Why Multi-Format Matters

How to do eBooks right
New thinking required
ebooks consumed differently than print books
liberate text from complex formatting and layout
don’t try to make e- look like p-
Straight form narrative works best
picture books, complex layout, more challenging
Use DRM-free as competitive advantage
lead the change, don’t be victimized by it
Explore new options for pricing, marketing and selling

Ebook pricing
Rethink fixation on list price and “revenues”
Profit matters more
Simple economics
High price = limited market
Lower price = larger market
Ebooks enable lower prices, higher per-unit profits, larger available markets

The power (and danger) of FREE
FREE as a strategy for sampling, seeding and audience building
Eliminates friction
Gets buyers closer to your product and brand
Conversion opportunities
Builds goodwill
But don’t go overboard!

Ebook marketing models
Go viral with social media marketing
community reviews (Librarything, Goodreads)
social networks (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn)
blogs
give customers tools to do your marketing for you
widgets (shareable, interactive ads)
coupons
sample sharing

Ebook sampling
Sampling, seeding, audience building
percentage sampling
via online readers
via file downloads
make samples shareable
free books

Ebooks selling models
Multiple selling models possible
a la carte
buffet
hors d'oeuvres
subscription
Radiohead - pay what you want
shareware - pay on the honor system
free?

Final words
Develop and implement an ebook strategy now
late movers face permanent disadvantage
experiment
launch quick, iterate frequently
rethink pricing
Physical shelves disappearing
leverage community to build digital shelves everywhere
Diversify distribution
Get closer to your customer

Questions
“ Electronic books are not going anywhere—they are already here."
4 Is there anything we can clarify for you? Where to find Mark Coker: Web: www.smashwords.com Blog: blog.smashwords.com Twitter: @markcoker Email: [email_address] Where to find Dan Poynter: Web: www.parapub.com Sign up for the FREE Publishing Poynters ezine Twitter: @danpoynter Email: [email_address]

Coming Attractions
Luncheon Keynote. 12:00 – 2:00 P.M. Today
Give the E-Readers What They Want—Content Delivery in a Digital Future
Presented by
Mark Coker, Smashwords
Neelan Choksi, Lexcycle
Daniel Albohn, Sony
Tricia Roth, ReadHowYouWant
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Dan Poynter - Mark Coker Presentation: Print Books to Ebooks

by Smashwords, Inc. on Jun 14, 2009

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Dan Poynter - Mark Coker Presentation: Print Books to Ebooks Presentation Transcript