Digital Media Buzz > The eBook Revolution: Innovation Saves Book Industry

The eBook Revolution: Innovation Saves Book Industry

By Moria Byrne

[New York] One innovation of the future will be real-time novelists who craft their stories online as readers interact with the writer and each other, commenting, questioning and pleading for their favorite characters to achieve deserved greatness or avoid gruesome death, says Jonah Hurwitz of Coral Springs, Fla., winner of the Google Books challenge.

If Google Books and other eBook distributors bring the reader closer to the writer and the stories, publishers should be confident that the book industry has been saved by technology and the eBook revolution. Right?

This was the one of the many questions posed to publishers and electronic publishing innovators at MediaBistro’s eBook Summit held here last week.

After publishers, agents and writers tackled the future of digital publishing both the business opportunities and challenges, Steve Wasserman CEO of Keerim & Williams, only found one option — wait and see.

“I don’t think we fully know where our customers, in this case, your readers, are going to want to read. I don’t think we necessarily want to narrow it down to one technology,” says Brendan Badger, product manager of Google Books at the Summit.

Greater innovation and variety could create more competition. “There’s a lot of innovation happening right now,” Badger says. He cites the use of smartphones in accessing and downloading information, Sony, Amazon and Barnes and Noble’s eBook readers, and the new innovation of E Ink devices, or high-resolution digital text without the eye-searing white screens. Border’s has a contract with a third-party content management company and eBook distributer, Kobo Inc. He also predicted that there are will be even more eBook designs launching next year.

“We must do everything in our power to uphold the value of our content against the downward pressures exerted by the marketplace and the perception that ‘digital’ means ‘cheap,’”  says Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy.

In the digital era, all things may be possible, says Brendan Cahill of Open Road Media, a content marketing company, but he wasn’t convinced that they may be necessarily be profitable.

If innovation doesn’t necessarily mean added value, can growth and diversity in the market place create greater competition? Steve Wasserman of Keerim & Williams, sent a Twitter message that explains publishers’ overall outlook about eBooks. “I suppose we could sum up this entire two-day conference under the headline ‘too early to tell,’” he says.

Fourth Story Media, an interactive publishing company for adult and children’s literature, combines books, Internet, multi-media into the reading experience. The website describes it as “soap operas, role-playing games, books” all in one.

Recently, Fourth Story Media launched The Amanda Project. This is part of an eight-book series that allows girls, ages 13 and up, help the other main characters find their missing friend, Amanda. By signing up and participating, the reader has a chance to have her writing featured in one of the books or in the online magazine, Zine. Fourth Story Media provides authors and publishers with an opportunity to market books and brand them through reader participation. Allowing the reader to contribute to the conversation about a book and using her voice as a marketing tool is possible through eBooks.

What’s also different about eBook publishing is that eBook companies offer online, digital, video, audio marketing and often an opportunity for eBook users to read excerpt from books before purchasing.

“We believe the technology has to be married with the marketing services,” says Andrew Malkin, vice president of Book Content, Zinio. “We can’t put something very shiny and dynamic up on their website without driving the consumers to it. We are promoting it through their website, their e-newsletters, through our source of media.”

Zinio had great success with a craft book recently and all because of the book contributor’s blog. This was before Zinio launched a formal marketing campaign. The contributing writer decided to embed a link to Zinio on her blog.

Her blog “contributed to a lot of (the) traffic,” according to Zinio tracking reports.

A more traditional marketing approach for online books might be to provide a free companion piece online. Daily Lit, a free serial content management and distributor, ran a collection to tips taken from the book, The Organizer for the Disorganized Child. The author wrote this companion piece in the form of daily tips sent to Daily Lit subscribers.

eBook companies also use interaction with the audience to help publishers sell books. Open Road Media plans to market heavily through social media channels. Susan Danziger, Daily Lit’s CEO, found Twitter a fruitful approach in gaining users. Members of Daily Lit can link their account to Twitter. The account sends automatic updates through Twitter whenever the member starts a new books or posts comments on a book. ” It’s a great way to virally get the message out,” she says.

Another way to create buzz is to create contests for customers. Borders posted an excerpt of Michael Stanley’s new novel online for the purpose of prompting online readers to continue the story. The five top entries will receive one of five signed copies of Stanley’s new book.

As Daily Lit doesn’t charge for its content, the company’s goal is to gain an audience and the participation of top writers. The month of December, Daily Lit is running a creative challenge with Anne Rice, who is promoting her upcoming book, Angel Time. The challenge is about an encounter with an angel. Participants submit a 50-word essay on an encounter with an angel and Anne Rice picks the winner. Daily Lit received 51 entries so far. Contests are a common marketing strategy to engage customers, but aren’t the only way readers can engage with authors and other readers. Publishers and content management companies are actively using social media channels to sell eBooks. Scribd has an eBook store with more than 150 publishing houses including Simon & Schuster and O’Reilly Media. PDFs downloaded from Scribd can be read on a Kindle, Sony eBook reader, or directly from the Web in Scribd Flash viewer. Other top self-publishers include: Smashwords, Lulu and iUniverse.

Although only time will tell whether eBooks succeed in bolstering the publishing industry or forces it to sink. The eBook summit buzz suggests that publishers should keep up with the eBook trends but be wary of unknown challenges. In the end, the reader decides the path publishing takes next.