The eBook market doesn’t sound the most exciting topic of conversation, but it’s one which looks like it could become an everyday part of our lives very soon. The boring but important infrastructure for us to buy eBooks is being being in the background while we muse over the latest gadgets like the Apple iPad or the new Microsoft Windows 7 devices announced today.

Dealing with ‘rights’ for most of my working day, I know how important the discussions in the article below are in the future of the publishing as it becomes increasingly digital and decreasingly printed. Authors and publishers are dealing with a market about which they are not certain. eBooks are a small market now. In five years, the market could be huge.

This article was written by Alison Flood, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 12th July 2010 16.22 UTC

The chair of the Society of Authors, Tom Holland, has hit out at publishers’ attempt to seize control over electronic rights, calling ebook deals that lock authors in for the duration of copyright “not remotely fair”.

Speaking at the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s annual conference last week, Holland urged authors to push for ebook royalties that are “considerably higher” than the standard of around 25%. Although Holland said the market for ebooks is only about 1% of the total UK market, it is “growing fast” and the Society of Authors believes that, given publishers will eventually have much lower warehousing and distribution costs for ebooks, royalties should be divided 50/50.

“Most publishers are insisting they should control ebook rights and this will be written into standard contracts. I think it’s an entirely reasonable position to take, so long as the royalties and returns on ebooks are fair and proper and reasonable. If they are not, I suspect we may well find very big-name authors, such as JK Rowling or Dan Brown, will go their own way,” said Holland. “It’s a danger publishers need to recognise and a danger for writers as well. If JK Rowling controls her own ebook rights [then] there’s less money for her publisher to invest in new authors. We could face a situation of very big-name authors pulling the ladder up after them [and] we have a stake in seeing a healthy publishing industry.”

Although publishers “are inclined to dismiss the argument that costs are reduced on ebooks”, Holland said: “Once a system has been set up, publishers won’t be paying for warehousing, distribution and printing, and we have to ask ourselves what are they spending the money on?

“We accept that publishers have been investing heavily in digital infrastructure and at the moment they are losing money on ebooks because sales are so low. I can sort of understand their reservations over higher royalties at the moment, but nevertheless a contract that lasts for the duration of copyright is a hugely long time. Publishers in negotiations with Amazon, or whoever, say they want two-year contracts because there’s such flux, but at the same time are asking authors for the duration of copyright. It has to be wrong – it’s not remotely fair,” he said.

“Twenty-five per cent might be reasonable as the infrastructure’s set up but only for two years. The risk if we don’t do that is that the rate will essentially be set in concrete, it will freeze and be taken as the norm, not just for two to three years but for two to three decades. If we don’t fight it now, we will lose our chance to present and make our case, and that will be it.”

Katie Fforde, bestselling novelist and chair of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, agreed that a 25% ebook royalty “would be perfectly fair if it was for two years, or a limited period, and then could be renegotiated”. “We don’t want to go on and on paying for the set-up costs,” she said. “I think a 50/50 split is greedy, but if you don’t ask you don’t get, and I imagine that might raise the negotiations.”

The Samuel Johnson prize-winning historian Antony Beevor believes the Society of Authors is “absolutely right”. “To begin with, publishers were trying to set a royalty of a lot less than 25%, they were trying to get around 12.5-15%. Fortunately the agents have taken a pretty strong line and so has the Society of Authors, and I fully support it,” he said. “Publishers are suffering badly themselves [at the moment] but it’s a bit like Tesco and the farmers – the author as the producer will be squeezed the most.”

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

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I can quite see why Apple has sold over a million of them since March.

By chance, yesterday I had the chance to play with an Apple iPad. A colleague from the USA had bought one for himself and had it with him when he had flown over for an important meeting in London. Funnily enough, he said “I have good reason for justifying why I spent over $700 on the iPad, but I’m glad I did”. His version was the 32GB version with Wi-Fi and 3G.

My first impression of the iPad was the size. It was slightly smaller than I had expected. It’s more compact than a netbook and it is larger than a Sony Reader. The next thing I noticed that it has looks of simple elegance. The screen is clear and sharp.

When I handled the iPad it was heavier than expected but that was reassuring in so much as that it is well made and it would appear to have some ‘good kit’ inside the casing. Not being an iPhone owner (yet) I was not used to the ease at which you can navigate around it through the apps and in the apps.

The on-screen keyboard was a lot bigger than I had expected too. It is certainly usable. The only challenge is the angle at which you type compared to seeing what you are typing. Because it is flat, you will either need the purpose-made case to enable you to put it at an angle so you can see what you are typing, or you will need to lean the iPad up against a book!

The applications I was very interested to see were the book apps. The iBook app is slick, easy to navigate and a clear reading experience. The Kindle app was as easy to read and use but you can’t have two pages open side by side like a paper book. A small concession. However, the Kindle syncs between the Kindle app on your iPhone and your iPad so it knows where you were last time you were reading between the devices. Clever.

The next impressive application is the built-in calendar. It synchronises with your work calendar or your Google calendar and it is beautifully laid out so you can see your schedule in detail and in general on the same page. You can also synchronise your work email (and personal email) through Microsoft Exchange too.

Overall, I was impressed with the iPad. It is pricey but I know it would be incredibly useful. It’s not something on which you would do a lot of hard-core office work on, but it is something I can quite see that I would have with me for much of the day, whether for reading books, watching films, listening to music or catching up on my emails and schedule.

I can quite see why Apple has sold over a million of them since March.

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If you want to do some serious research, don't just rely on search

In the same way that when people vacuum-clean their houses they say they are ‘hoovering’ it, people nowadays say they are ‘googling’ it when they are searching for information on the internet. By far and away the most popular search engine is, of course, Google. Until very recently, my perception was that all human knowledge (well, a fairly large proportion of it) was available to find on Google’s search engine. Therefore, if you want to do some research into, say, patents on a product your business is looking to develop, then you start and finish with Google.

Far more than just searching for information on websites around the world through Google, the search giant is now scanning books so that you can search across thousands of out of  copyright titles for the information you are looking for. This action in itself has created a large and heated debate in the publishing world as publishers and authors worry about their intellectual property and whether this is being abused. But that’s another discussion.

So, one might assume that carrying out market research, say, in the 21st century that you can rely on search engines to find what you need. You make the assumption that everything you are looking for is properly indexed and categorised. One might also assume that because what you searched for in Google appears at the top of the search results that that result is the most authoritative and well respected piece of information on the subject.

The reality is that serious researchers don’t rely on Google or other search engines to do their research. Much of the information is not indexed, categorised and reviewed by peers in enough detail for researchers to rely upon it to make decisions about whether to invest millions of pounds or dollars into a new product development.

Academic and corporate researchers use academic and corporate research libraries which, in turn, invest many thousands of pounds in information which is aggregated, indexed, categorised and tagged by hand and in detail, so that researchers can rely on the information to make the right decisions.

So, there is a big difference between search and research and people expect to have the same simple interface to find the information they need. It’s just that you need to trust the quality of the information you find which is not always the case when much of the results at the top of research results might well be there because someone has spent a huge amount of time optimising the content to be at the top. It might not be the best content, however.

So, if you want to do some serious research, don’t just rely on search.

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Download now or listen on posterous

Will speaking on BBC Radio about iPad 27 Jan 2010.mp3 (7461 KB)

It's barely been two days since the launch of Apple's new device, the iPad. The reactions to it are mixed. Publishers are very excited about it because they can see potential in it for selling their eBooks. Consumers appear to be unsure about whether it is any better than a netbook. 

Posted via email from digi-business.net

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Print on Demand is not a new initiative. It has been around for a number of years. But recent news that more new titles are being printed through Print on Demand (PoD) than through traditional printing methods shows how the PoD industry has come of age. It allows out of print books to become available again. It allows authors of new books to publish them themselves without risk and for custom books to be printed quickly to respond to demand.

Digital photography is prolific and free software enables people to create panoramas and 3-D worlds easily by stitching their photographs together quickly and easily. 

Will was recently on BBC Radio Linclonshire with William Wright talking about these technologies. To listen to the show, you canplay or download the podcast by clicking the link below. 

  
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Will speaking on BBC Radio – self publishing and photo stitching.mp3 (11897 KB)

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Will speaking on BBC Radio – eBooks.mp3 (7998 KB)

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This might be just one of the moments in time when all of the hype about the book and the Amazon device turn into reality. The twist in the tale is that the book is also set to become the most discounted book in history too.

Kindle edition outselling print version on Amazon.com | theBookseller.com http://ow.ly/pLC5

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Kettle calling the pot black?

When Microsoft comes out with a statement that Google is being monopolistic with its digital book initiative, you know that something big is afoot. Microsoft has been in the courts for many years battling against law suits to limit its power in the world of operating systems and web browsers. But more recently, Google has started to become a threat that Microsoft has taken seriously and this would appear to be sour grapes from them towards the search giant.

Publishers are up in arms at the prospect of Google scanning books to them searchable, available and commercial again. It would appear that the amount that Google has to pay publishers for the rights to some of those books is quite small in relation to the number of titles available.

On the other hand, the publishers may well be getting an income from books which were deemed uncommercial before Google became interested in them. Either way, this has to be a good thing for making books more widely available according to how customers want to buy and read them.

Microsoft brands Google settlement ‘wrong’ | theBookseller.com http://ow.ly/oDfw

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