The State of Sourcing

There has been quite a brouhaha over the impact of tablets and e-book readers in our lives over the past couple of years. With the iPad series being the clear front-runners, the other game-changers are Amazon’s Kindle series and the Nook by Barnes & Noble. All the potential talk over how these will have a massive influence on media, marketing and publishing is explained by the fact that Amazon and Barnes & Noble have each decided to put another 4-5 million tablets each into the market in 2012.

This holiday season, consumers are looking at buying and gifting another transformational format for the media and entertainment industry – the e-book. With the foundation being built slowly over the past two years, the e-book industry is now unleashing its full marketing potential to convince tablet owners to make the “digital switch” from traditional hard covers and paperbacks to its electronic form. Amazon and B&N have already established their proprietary e-book formats and dozens of other publishers are getting on-board to digitize their output.

Continue reading ‘Holiday season cheer for publishing outsourcing with meteoric rise in demand for e-book services’ »

• Four in five publishers globally are already producing digital content
• PDF continues to be the most popular digital format, with a majority of publishers indicating that ‘universal’ accessibility was a driving factor for choosing formats
• Third-party bookstores/channels such as those offered by Amazon, Apple, Google and Sony  are preferred, but there is a growing need to develop online bookstores

These are some of the salient findings from our research on the state of digitization in the publishing world. The publishing industry underwent some drastic changes in the last couple of years – because of the global economic crisis and also, because of the rise of the digital market. This phase is also quite exciting. The report, sponsored by Qbend, has provided us with comprehensive insights on various aspects on how publishers are addressing the digital market. Based on over 200 responses from professionals working in the publishing industry, this report talks about the production, distribution, digital rights management and pricing of digital content.

Continue reading ‘New ValueNotes report: The current state of digital content’ »

In August 2010, the attorney-general’s office in Connecticut, US began investigating pricing of digital content by Amazon and Apple – expressing concern over pricing agreements with publishers and its possible implications on consumers. The attorney-general’s office went on to find identical prices for titles distributed by Amazon, Apple, Borders and Barnes & Noble. So, what’s the deal with e-book pricing?

How do publishers price their digital content?

Continue reading ‘E-book prices set to drop’ »

On Monday, the 19th of November 2007, Amazon released its first generation Kindle – an event that shaped the digital market. Since then, large corporations such as Sony, Barnes and Noble, Google, and more recently Apple, have been giving the digital content market significant attention – adding credibility and more so, validating the digital market as a strong revenue source. It is this potential that is transforming the publishing industry today.

In the last few years, the publishing industry witnessed tremendous change – a change that centred around revenue and cost challenges. For publishers, the digital market presented a holistic solution – one that opened a channel of revenue with non-linear growth, while ensuring minimal costs of production & sales. Publishers worldwide are either producing digital content or are considering it as a service area.

Continue reading ‘Survey: The Current State of Digital Content’ »

From releasing a new Kindle application for Android devices to allowing customers to exchange textbooks for a gift card or announcing Facebook and Twitter support in Kindles – the past few days have been quite eventful for Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN). While these new developments reflect the inherent dynamism in the book distribution market, the possible launch of Google Editions or DangDang.com planning an IPO are indicative of the competition that the market is witnessing.

But of all the news items, what I found most interesting has been the announcement of AmazonCrossing. AmazonCrossing will use customer feedback and data from other Amazon sites to identify non-English best sellers. Once identified, Amazon will acquire and translate the book for consumption by the global English-speaking audience. The move leverages Amazon’s existing distribution networks that contain multiple channels, formats, stores and partnerships with independent book sellers.

Continue reading ‘Amazon translating into more business’ »

For an industry that has been questioning the way it has been functioning for the past decade, the publishing industry seems to be rejuvenated with the potential of the digital market. While publishers look to overcome the decline of print by developing digital market as a revenue source, it becomes even more important to have the right vision while addressing it.  Venturing into potentially unchartered waters, require the publishers to adopt a steep learning curve that means not only operating like a Net company but also creating a strong value proposition.

A significant section of publishers addressing the digital market have relied on partners. Right from producing books, adapting them to various devices or distributing them to readers, publishers have seen the merits of depending on partners. Take for example the Apple iPad. Publishers look at this piece of gadgetry with the same glee that the music industry did when the iPod was released. Some have gone to the extent of proclaiming the iPad as the backlit beacon of hope for the publishing industry. I do not think so!

Continue reading ‘Will the iPad help the publishing industry?’ »

In one of my previous posts, I had written about the rise of Google in the ebook market and its implications. But are ebooks as important an offering as the publishing industry is making out to be? Will ebooks be a one fit solution for publishers? Can a publisher ultimately sustain on revenues from ebooks?

So will ebooks address the  challenges faced by the industry today?
Continue reading ‘Can ebooks sustain publishers?’ »

A lot has been said and written about ebooks, ebook readers and the stimulus that the publishing industry has been giving to anything and everything digital. The arrival of a technology behemoth such as Google just goes to validate that the market is in fact, worth it.

What about Google?

For starters, Google stunned the publishing industry, with the launch of Google Editions at the recently concluded Frankfurt Book Fair. The company is launching an online service for booksellers and will let readers buy books and read them on a range of devices – from computers to cell phones. Continue reading ‘Don’t be e-vil’ »