The Open Author

Whenever new technology comes along, a couple of things can happen. The new technology might look good on paper, and may honestly be a good thing, but people just don’t buy adopt (think betamax).  The other thing that can happen is the new thing may not seem to appeal to folks—people may even shun the new technology–and yet slowly and surely (sometimes not so slowly) everybody suddenly adopts it (think Twitter).

E-books might be the latter. This straw poll seems to indicate that a lot of people don’t think much of e-books. And yet the sale of e-book readers are on the rise. The sale of E-books themselves are on the rise. More and more people are warming up to the idea.

Technology moves quickly. Think of how long it took for the automobile, radio or television to be widely adopted. Now think of how long it took for the people to adopt the iPod, Facebook and Twitter.

I think in three years we’ll all be surprised at how deep e-books have become entrenched in our lives.

Last year the Authors’ Guild threw a fit when they realized that the Kindle could read books to you. These rights are different than print rights, and they demanded Kindle to turn off this ability. Today, the iPad does the same thing, but the Authors’ Guild remains silent. Do they just not realize this funcionality? Or do they not want to mess with the Holy Apple?

http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/08/23/1715240/Authors-Guild-Silent-Over-iBooks-Text-To-Speech?from=rss

I came across a great infographic in Newsweek a few days ago. You can see it here. I’ll let you look it over, and then you can come back here for my few thoughts on it.

The first little tidbit that jumped out at me was that Kindle owners buy 3.3 times more books than those without e-readers. I know one of the concerns with moving to e-readers is will people stop reading. Just because people are buying more books doesn’t mean they are reading more, but it’s at the very least a good indication. And 3.3 times more books is a significant number.

I noticed that when people talk about print-books, they often mention the look and feel. I can’t help but wonder if anybody talked about the look and feel of an LP when we made the transition to CDs. I remember being mesmerized by Bill Cosby’s face as it went round and round on our old record player. However, he’s just as funny today on CD, and since I can take hours of him on my iPod, I’m willing to give up that hypnotic experience.

The Jane Austin comparison jumped out at me.  Seven Jane Austin books will run you $12.99. The Kindle version is free. That doesn’t seem like a huge deal, but maybe it sounds more impressive when you consider that for the same price on the Kindle (Free), you can get the complete works of Jane Austin, Mark Twain, Victor Hugo, William Shakespeare, Alexander Dumas, and more. This should provide enough reading (and some really, really good reading), all for the low, low price of nothing.

But my favorite part of the infographic is right at the top. The poster poses a question, “Does on have to win?” I say no. Remember, we’re not trying to kill literature; we’re simply giving it another medium. The book may fade over time, but it won’t go away for a long time.

 Long live the book. Long live the e-book. May they live in peace and happiness for many years.

The Kindle page on Amazon has changed. They went from a date in August, to September 10th, to now the 17th. The date has been pushed back because of high consumer demand. I’ve had my order in for about three weeks. No word if orders already in will be pushed back, or just the orders that go in from here on forward.

Kindle sells out in UK just two days after it’s release.

Is Apple coming out with a smaller iPad? The 7-inch screen will be closer to Kindle’s 6-inch screen. Folks are disagreeing whether or not this is a good idea.

A few tips if you want to get the most out of reading on an e-reader.

Sony e-reader is the first to drop below $100. Will it be enough to tempt people away from the $139 Kindle? I think not.

Are e-books the way of the future, or a passing fad?

Yesterday I wrote about e-books on campuses, and talked about how students might begin pirating textbooks beause of the higher prices. Today I find a story on Slashdot where this exact thing is happening. Although in this case, the person selling the book is doing it on Lulu, so the pirated book actually comes printed.

In high school, students get free textbooks. So you can imagine the sticker shock these poor students experience when they go to college and realize that textbooks are, on average, over $60 per book. Most students spend on average between $800-900 per year on textbooks.

In high school, textbooks cost between $500-$600 per student. As you can imagine, in an economy where schools are forced to slash budgets, administrators are looking for ways to save money.

Enter e-books.

There is a movement in higher education around Open Educational Resources (OER). These OERs might be a flash tool, an entire course, or a textbook. The only caveat is that they be open, or in other words, free to use, reuse and distribute. Business models are springing up around these OERs, and one of the most interesting for cash-strapped schools should be open textbooks.

Several open textbook movements are starting to surface. Imagine a high school student who only needs to carry around one Kindle with all her books on it. She can take notes right on the device. With the price of the books effectively zero, the school could buy the device instead.

Sound like a pipe dream? Let’s look at the numbers. Texas spends over 600 million dollars on textbooks each year. There are roughly 4.2 million high school students in Texas schools. If you were to buy every one of them a Kindle, it would run you 583 million. You’d come out saving 17 million dollars. But if the students kept the Kindles for all four years of high school, you’d save 1.8 billion in textbook costs.

Now some may not like the switch. In fact Amazon ran a pilot with 80 college students, and the result were less than stellar. However the challenges were fixable, and it will be interesting to see if Kindle implements the feedback.

But even if you offered an alternative, it’s basically sixes either way. You can provide e-books at roughly the same cost as print books. Think of the environmental savings you’d be looking at.

Even if school districts don’t make the switch, I’ll wager students will, especially college students. Think of the ‘classics’ that you have to read in English, political science, history, and more. By the time you add up those books (anything before 1923 is in the public domain, and free to get), you can probably pay for your kindle.

And how long do you think it will be before current textbooks are scanned in and pirated? Can you say Napster? Or maybe more appropriately, can you say Book Liberator?

Either way you look at it, students pay a lot for books. You have a very poor target population, and a huge potential savings. Watch for first piracy, then the publishers coming in with more rational prices in a hopes to stay relevant.

Sources
http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2010-08-16/e-books-may-be-future-schools
http://www.back2college.com/shock.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textbook#K-12_textbooks
http://www.edweek.org/media/texas_eperc.pdf
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8540381/

I’ve written about the Long Tail before, but I wanted to give a more concrete example.

I’m a boardgame fan. And when I say fan I mean fanatic. I think nothing of paying $50 for a boardgame, and I’ve spent over $100 for a game before (and didn’t regret it). I’m passionate about the topic, and can’t seem to get enough playing time in.

With the purchase of a new house, I’ve also got a longer commute. I’m in the car for 60 minutes every day. Ten years ago I would have listened to KSL, a local radio station that covers the day’s news, and also talks about local topics. But not any more.

You see, KSL has to attract as many listeners as possible. The more people listen to their show, they more they can charge for advertisements. So their programs have mass appeal. Guess what? Mass appeal doesn’t include boardgames. I don’t think I’ve ever heard any mention of my favorite pastime on the radio.

But I have podcasts. Podcasts are like radio stations, but they’re recorded and sent out via RSS. There are podcasts on thousands of topics. Anything from writing, to boardgames, to taxidermy, to zombies. These niche podcasts are run by people who are passionate about the topic as well. They don’t have the hundred-thousand dollar studio and equipment, but I don’t mind. They’re talking about my kind of thing. As long as the poor equipment doesn’t get in the way of the topic, I’m fine with it.

Compare this to books. There are niche markets out there that have been historically undeserved. Have you ever heard your book is great, but not marketable? What that means is that the publisher can’t sell enough copies to make a return on their investment. But if it really is good, you’ll likely find ardent fans waiting for you out on the long tail.

Before digital books those fans were out there, but you had no way to market and distribute your book. Amazon, apple, and others have taken care of that for you. If you book doesn’t have wide appeal it may not make you a million dollars, but there is a good chance it will bring you something. Why not throw it out there and see what happens?

More and more people are looking at the environmental impact of print books versus e-books. Looks like e-books might have the slight advantage, even more if old e-readers get recycled.

E-books have a pretty high carbon footprint, but you’re only looking at one of them. There is a higher upfront cost, but you could buy 100 e-books, and you’re not looking at the cost of printing and shipping all of that weight. From the article:

“To reduce your reading impact, you need to actively use e-books in place of printed books. The Cleantech report stresses that an e-reader device would have no overall environmental benefit in its first year of ownership for the typical user, but that every year of use afterwards would compound its benefits. Overall, it calculates that using a Kindle could save you an average of 168 kg of greenhouse gas emissions a year.

“So before investing in an e-reader, think carefully. Ensure that your model has E Ink; use it in place of books, newspapers and magazines; investigate greener ways to charge the battery; hold onto the unit for as long as possible; and ensure the device is recycled at the end of its life”