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The panel discusses the ebook
Absolutely not a place to be had at this event. People hovering in corridors, others perched on tables. I’m actually sitting on the floor as i’ve arrived too late to get a place on a bench! Not surprising really given the line up of Victoria Barnsley (Chief Executive and Publisher of HarperCollins UK), Richard Charkin (Executive Director of Bloombury Publishing), Andrew Savikas (Vice President of Digital Initiatives, O’Reilly Media), and Ronald Schild (Managing Director of MV8 Marketing).
So plenty of food for thought and lots of questions to pose at this session, starting off with ‘What is an ebook?’ or maybe even, what does the word ’book’ itself mean nowadays? One answer was that books are actually no more than a ’device’ and have been for centuries. The general consensus at this event is that there should be plenty of room for digital content alongside the book as we currently know it, ie they shouldn’t compete, but rather they should compliment each other.
Pricing of the ebook and digital information are also hot topics. Richard Charkins’s view is that what it boils down into is value - if you throw in the digital content for a tiny sum, it devalues the product you are trying to sell. He believes that digital is a different product and it shouldn’t be thought of in the same way as the printed book. It’s just not the same. Andrew Savikas points out that when you are selling books you are competing against other ‘products’. Victoria Barnsley agrees about variable pricing but points out that publishers are currently arrogant. Prices really need to be decided by the consumer who expect the value to go down. Andrew points out that in the US retailers are taking control of pricing from the publishers but that in the UK it is the publishers who are taking control. He also flags up that more consumer research and media research is needed because we simply don’t know the answers at the moment.
Victoria then brings up the fact there are currently lots of different models to consider. Should we follow the rental model, for example, or the subscription model? And she stresses the difference between books and say music. How many people read and re-read books time and time again? Unlike with music, when you might want to listen to the same track time and time again, once you’ve read a paperback it may be some time before you go back to it again. She suggests that maybe going to a rental model is the answer. Richard is not sure he agrees as some books, he points out, have never been read at all! Now is a time for experimentation, he says, it’s a question of doing lots of things wrong and occasionally getting things right.
The key thing here is that we don’t know what model the consumer is going to choose. And when it comes to Digital Rights Management (DRM) the panel ask - is it necessary and does it work? Ronald Schild thinks it doesn’t work and encourages piracy. Even if the publishers apply it customers, if they want to, will ignore it anyway. Victoria uses the example of what happened in the music industry to show how it won’t work. Richard responds that anything with an acronym he doesn’t understand is generally obsolute in about 3 years anyway!
We then move on to the Influence of Apple. Andrew says that a part of it is sheer numbers, and Victoria agrees that we should be expecting something very exciting from them very soon. At the end of the day we want as many devices as possible. Richard urges us not forget the PC. Delivering to that right now is just as important as to a hand-held device. Ronald says that in the academic market he can’t see the future for large devices. What we all want is full access to all your PC functionalities. Richard then comments that lots of digital content actually still printed out and he tells us that we shouldn’t forget the stapler for holding all the bits of paper together!
So what’s the optimum ebook? And what is the optimum venue? Ronald says that of course the advantage of a printed book is that it’s nice to have it in your hand. But in some events the ebook is just more practical. Andrew ask whether the book is just a question of habit, and the context in which we know. The way we are brought up. Text is a great means of communication and text still matters, but when it is connected to the web it’s got to behave like the web. Victoria says she thinks that the numbers of beautifully produced, higher priced books, will probably increase, especially in the gift market,
This is a great event. Those attending have really engaged and are up for the debate. We may not have necessarily come up with the solutions but the panel have definitely made us think about the alternatives.
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