Will print books ever fully disappear? While some critics say not likely, others are beginning to worry. Just this summer, the ratio of print to ebooks sold was 1:1. And, “just [after] three years Amazon has positioned itself to triple its overall share of the U.S. book business for all formats. [And] before the end of 2012, Amazon could own more than half of the U.S. book business across all formats.”[1] But what does this mean for the future of books, as well as the ebook? There are a variety of things about ebooks themselves, as well as the business and culture surrounding the ebook that you probably didn’t know. Well, now is your chance to find out.
2011 Digital Book Convention, NYC
The concept of the ebook began in 1971 when Michael S. Hart typed the Declaration of Independence into a computer, and began “Project Gutenberg,” a voluntary effort to catalog, maintain, and distribute free public domain materials. Today, Project Gutenberg offers 36,000 free ebooks, which are accessible with almost any reader device.[2] While Project Gutenberg abides by its mission to distribute free materials, the increase in technology and data transfer since 1970, has allowed for an entirely new market to emerge – the market of the ebook.
The ebook craze, as I like to call it, has swept up the nation and the world. Ebooks not only cut the time needed to go to the bookstore, but also vigorously decrease the time and money that publishers have traditionally taken to produce books. Since retailers and publishers don’t need to pay for storage, shipping, or printing, where more than 50% of the cost of a book comes from, they can offer ebooks at a much lower price than a printed book, while still making the same money off of the marginal increase in price.
But at the same time, how do these lower costs and lower prices affect the publishers, editors, and authors? What effect do giant wholesalers, like Amazon, have on the publishing industry? Thus, there are two huge issues with the creation and distribution of ebooks, one is the different types of e-books, formats, and the other is collusion. I will discuss the issue with formats first.
The myriad of ebook formats are sometimes collectively referred to as the "Tower of eBabel,” a biblical reference to this tale: people of different lands tried to reach the heavens, but the gods confused the languages and separates the lands into different parts of the earth[3]. And as David H. Rothman cofounder of the OpenReader Consortium notes:
“The Tower is the bane of publishers, online retailers, librarians and book-lovers. In the past few decades, at least 20 clashing e-book formats have popped up, including the infamous Microsoft Reader, limited to Windows, the Gates-blessed operating system, and no format has performed strongly enough to crush the others. Big tech companies so far have not agreed on a genuine standard that would allow e-books to be as easy to enjoy as CDs or VHS video tapes. The big companies' unkept promises go back at least as far as 1998, when Microsoft and others said they would avoid a VHS/Beta—style war. Unsurprisingly, the agreement ended up a joke among the e-book cognoscenti.3”
This is where the competition and the collusion comes in. Because, while there are over 20 formats for ebook publication, Amazon holds the market share of ebook and ebook readers sales, thus dictating ebook formats, as well as price. Since 2007, and the release of Amazon Kindle, the #1 ebook reader in the U.S., Amazon has held the market share of ebooks – thus maintaining the capability of selling their ebooks in formats specifically for their Kindle Readers. While the Kindle will read certain formats, the fact that the kindle does not read all, incentivizes consumers to buy books via amazon.com.
Because Amazon is such a corporate giant, it essentially has a monopoly over ebooks, and as Andrew Savikas, the Chief Executor of Safari Books Online noted:
“Here's the key takeaway: our original ebook vision was of a world in which ebooks would be published in standard formats and could be read on any device, and where dominance of a particular piece of software or a particular e-reading device would not lock people in. We wanted reading to remain as open as it did when printed books ruled the publishing world. When the web took off, we thought that battle had largely been won. But the new world of dedicated e-reading devices with proprietary formats has brought back the specter of a single company having a monopoly on the tools for reading - and publishing - long form content.[4]”
There must be something to be done about Amazon’s control over the ebook market. However, the question is, in whose hands does the responsibility lie to putting Amazon to a stop?
Are there any ways for publishers to control where users go for their ebooks if Amazon can offer the best prices? There have been allegations that the big six publishing houses have colluded on ebook prices, thus attempting to battle with the somewhat legal monopoly that amazon has created surrounding ebooks. There have been charges filed, and NPR’s Martin Kaste reports:
“A year and a half ago, five big publishers announced they would start setting the price of their e-books, instead of retailers, like Amazon, which had been selling e-books below cost to attract people to the Kindle. It's legal for publishers to set the price unless they conspire to do so.”
However, Steve Berman, a class action litigator, says that the publishing houses did conspire to set a price, with the help of Apple and the new iPad. Thus, if true, the six major publishing houses would be guilty of collusion. The companies won't comment.[5]
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But how else are ebooks changing the publishing industry?
In the past few years, since ebooks have been introduced and as their purchases have increased, for the first time in a very long time, publishing houses are beginning to see big increases in profits. But, publishing houses must be weary, as can be noted with the class action litigation, because if they put too much power into Amazon’s hands, they could wind up being crushed – like Borders, for example.
Ebooks also have serious international implications. Whereas previously publishers coulnd’t reach certain countries, or would have to retain the rights to sell a book in certain countries, people internationally can access and purchase books via the web. Though book availability may differ according to country (amazon u.s. vs. amazon uk, etc.) the notion of the connections that the web brings demonstrates that people can access these books much more easily than they could otherwise. [6]
Furthermore, we must think about how ebooks change the way we read. Books are a user interface to information, but what if there are programs, like apps and interactive ebooks, that expand and improve upon that information? Will dictionaries cease to exist? Flat pages are no longer the surface for how a story is told, but rather, the interaction of the reader and with video and graphics allows for much more creativity in terms of how information is presented[7].
[1] Windwalker, Stephen. "Amazon Positioned for 50% Overall Market Share by End of 2012 - Seeking Alpha." Stock Market News & Financial Analysis - Seeking Alpha. 3 Feb. 2011. Web. 5 Nov. 2011. <http://seekingalpha.com/article/250507-amazon-positioned-for-50-overall-market-share-by-end-of-2012>.
[2] Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg - Free Ebooks. Web. 5 Nov. 2011. <http://www.gutenberg.org/>.
[3] Rothman, David H. "Razing The Tower Of E-Babel." Publishers Weekly. PW Xyz, Inc., 25 Aug. 2006. Web. 5 Nov. 2011. <http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/columns-and-blogs/soapbox/article/8355-razing-the-tower-of-e-babel-.html>.
[4] O'Reilly, Tim. "Thoughts On Ebooks Triggered By The Appointment of Andrew Savikas as CEO of Safari Books Online." O'Reilly Radar. O'Reilly Media Inc., 8 Nov. 2011. Web. 8 Nov. 2011. <http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/11/thoughts-on-ebooks-safari-andrew-savikas.html>.
[5] Kaste, Martin. "Lawsuit: Apple, Publishers Colluded On E-Book Prices : NPR." NPR : National Public Radio : News & Analysis, World, US, Music & Arts : NPR. 11 Aug. 2011. Web. 5 Nov. 2011. <http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139517569/lawsuit-apple-publishers-colluded-on-e-book-prices>.
[6] Kellogg, Carolyn. "Digital Book World: CEOs Look at E-book Profits, Possibilities - Latimes.com." Blogs - Latimes.com. Los Angeles Times, 25 Jan. 2011. Web. 5 Nov. 2011. <http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/01/digital-book-world-sro-for-ceos.html>.
[7] O'Reilly, Tim. "Thoughts On Ebooks Triggered By The Appointment of Andrew Savikas as CEO of Safari Books Online." O'Reilly Radar. O'Reilly Media Inc., 8 Nov. 2011. Web. 8 Nov. 2011. <http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/11/thoughts-on-ebooks-safari-andrew-savikas.html>.
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