The Customer is King at Digital Book 2008
by Craig Morgan Teicher -- Publishers Weekly, 5/15/2008 5:29:00 AM
“Give the customers what they want” was the message at Digital Book 2008, the annual conference sponsored by the International Digital Publishing Forum, held yesterday at the McGraw-Hill auditorium in Manhattan. On panels about e-book standards, new innovations, international digital publishing and the education market, publishers and technology developers sounded the same note over and over again, pointing out that the Internet has given them unprecedented access to consumer feedback, and that the way to grow the e-book market is to listen to what readers are saying. “Power is shifting to the consumer,” said Matt Shatz, v-p of digital at Random House.
This means new products and new ways of thinking about existing ones. Malle Vallik, director of Digital Content and Interactivity at Harlequin, talked about how, after seeing a comment on a blog from someone who was excited to be able to read Harlequin newsletters during lunch breaks, she began developing what she calls “nooners,” downloadable romance fiction just the right length for a lunchtime read. “You have to get out there and experiment,” she advised. Shatz, talked about the success of Random's customizable Pokey Little Puppy—from a Web site, a buyer can add a photo and a dedication to the book, which is then printed POD and shipped off under an agreement with Shared Book. An RH business book, Made to Stick, is being offered in individually sold downloadable chapters. RH is also trying an ad-supported model using Google’s AdSense to monetize their “House of Collectables” reference series. Sean Devine, CEO of CourseSmart talked about rethinking the textbook market, citing statistics showing that college students spend over $1,000 on books, and carry 20% of their body weight worth of textbooks.
Vallik also cited the e-book market in Japan as a model for Harlequin. Mikio Amaya, president and CEO of Papyless, a Japanese e-book e-tailer, gave a thorough breakdown of Japan’s e-book culture. According to Amaya, there is a $150 million annual e-book market in Japan. Sony debuted its e-book reader in Japan in 2004, and devices from Sony, Panasonic and mobile phone manufacturers drove the mobile e-book market to overtake the PC e-book market in 2006, said Amaya. According to him, there are currently 448 sites that sell mobile e-books. Amaya noted that comics, which are especially popular on mobile phones, have the largest market share.
While all the speakers seemed to agree that the book business has a long way to go before readers are as familiar and comfortable with digital books as they are with paper books, it was also clear that publishers see rapid growth in the digital book market and that the format is becoming an increasingly important part of their business.
