1. Going Large with e-Books
Can you do it all?
Andrea Powell, Executive Director, Publishing, CABI
SSP Annual Meeting, 29th May 2008

2. E-books: the up-side
In addition to new revenue, e-books can drive other benefits:
● DOI deposits can lead to much greater traffic and exposure
for your content
● E-books can be abstracted and indexed more easily than
printed books, again increasing exposure
● Secondary revenues through licensing re-use of digital book
content can add to bottom line
● Content drives traffic, which opens up other revenue
opportunities, including advertising
● Online availability of books can help to drive up print book
sales (in the short-term, at least) – especially if you show the
cover!

4. E-books: what the hype doesn’t
mention…
Decisions need to be made about:
● Technology (internal and external)
● Business models
● Sales & distribution channels
● Content
● Back-office administration
● Relationship with printed product (if any)
● Cost of sales & impact on bottom line

5. Technology considerations
● Formats and functionality
● Delivery platform
● DRM
● Production of e-files and metadata
● DOI deposits
● Digital asset management

6. Business Models
● Purchase/perpetual access
● Annual subscription (but to how much content?)
● Fixed term rental
● Per chapter/page
● Collections
● Aggregated databases
● Consortia
● Bundling print+e (or e+print)

7. Sales & Distribution Channels
● Direct sales offer higher margins, but can you reach and
service all the markets that want your books? Who is going
to sell your own offering?
● Which vendors and distributors do you want to work with?
● Large-scale e-book aggregators (Netlibrary, EBL,
MyiLibrary, Ebrary….)
● Specialist subject-focused services (Books24x7, Safari
Books Online, Books@Ovid....)
● Traditional library suppliers (YBP, Dawson, EBSCO…)
● You can do all of the above, but you must accept the
administration needed to support them all – it’s not free!

8. Content
● How deep an archive to offer?
● Do you have the appropriate rights to all your
content?
● What royalty rates will you pay to authors?
● What re-use of digital content will you permit?
● How frequently will you update your content?

9. Back-office Administration
● Delivery of files to multiple vendors
● Sales reporting
● Cost of sales calculation
● Licensing agreements
● Payment of author royalties

10. Relationship with printed product
● Distribution channels – can your print book
distributors also sell your e-books?
● Bundled purchases – can you manage this if you
are selling through different channels?
● Timing of publication – which comes first?
● Will the print book refer to the e-book (and vice
versa?) Will they be identical?

11. Cost of sales & bottom-line impact
● Don’t forget the indirect cost of working with
multiple partners
● Digital products have different
discounting/commission structures to printed ones
● E-books attract VAT in the UK!
● BUT a simple e-book strategy does not have to
cost a lot – why not start with one or two vendors
and then build your business incrementally?
● Go into e-books with your eyes open!

12. And now onto the case studies…
● ALPSP E-Book Collection (AeBC) – Nick Evans
● O’Reilly & Associates – Allen Noren