I’ve lost track of the number of articles, online and off, that try to decide if eReader X or eBook reading app Y will be the “Kindle Killer.”

Meanwhile, it seems to me that Amazon just keeps pushing the eBook envelope and selling more eBooks through its Kindle Store. Including to people who don’t even own a Kindle, thanks to their many Kindle apps — for the PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, Android, etc.

This past week, Amazon announced that, over the past three months, sales of Kindle books outsold sales of hardcover books. Everybody’s trying to dissect that information to figure out what it really means.

The Wall Street Journal posted a short online article that begins:

Now we know why Amazon.com Inc. announced a few days ago that sales of e-books now exceed sales of print volumes. The e-tailer didn’t want the news to be overshadowed by its earnings miss.

Of course, the WSJ misstated the Amazon announcement, which dealt only with hardcover not all “print volumes.” It would be interesting to know how many trade and mass market paperbacks were sold in comparison during that same period.

The Amazon Advantage

I currently have five eBook apps on my iPad — Apple’s own iBooks, Amazon’s Kindle for iPad, B&N’s reader, Kobo’s reader, and the Ibis Reader.

Which one do I prefer? Usually, the Kindle app.

Why? Because the selection is so much better in the Amazon Kindle Store, and I see little real reading difference among those five reading apps. The iBooks interface is nice but much of it is little more than bells and whistles that are cool…but only for a while. The B&N and Kobo readers are OK but not a major improvement over anything else.

Any well-formed Kindle book will look great on the Kindle for iPad app. And if you want to find a new book to preview or buy, you’re far more likely to find it via the Amazon Kindle Store than any of the other outlets.

The other eReader apps all support ePub, which does allow more latitude in design and layout than Kindle’s rather limited MOBI format. Of course, Amazon has already begun expanding the capabilities of that format (such as allowing video and audio and accepting higher resolution images), and I see no reason to assume they do not have many more possibilities lurking just around the next eCorner.

Kindle vs. iPad

The iPad is great for reading eBooks and works just as well for Kindle books as for any of the ePub possibilities.

So, does that make the iPad a Kindle killer? Depends on what exactly you mean.

Will it seriously cut into sales of the Kindle devices? Maybe…unless Amazon continues to improve that device’s capabilities and continues to release new, more capable devices (maybe even color eInk displays).

Will the iPad result in fewer eBooks being sold by Amazon? I sincerely doubt it.

Amazon has such a head start with its digital catalog, sales platform, and brand loyalty that I’d be surprised if Apple can overtake them. Oh sure, iPad sales will almost certainly continue to accelerate and saturate the tablet computer market (with some much-needed improvements, I hope), but the iPad is really only peripherally an eBook reader.

I expect Amazon to continue dominating the eBook market by selling them for any device that crops up. Maybe even in ePub format eventually (after all, you can now read PDF documents on your Kindle 2/DX and pan and zoom them).

I think it is more likely that Amazon’s own apps will do more to reduce Kindle device sales than anything any other company comes up with. But, at the same time, sales of Kindle books will continue to increase.

And then there is the upcoming (I hate to have to type this) Google Editions. I only hope that does not prove to be the future of ePublishing, as that would greatly sadden me.

What do you think?

This post was originally published at View From the Publishing Trenches and has been reprinted with Mr. Shiel’s permission.

Walt Shiel is Publisher, Slipdown Mountain Publications LLC, and Managing Partner, Five Rainbows Services for Authors & Publishers. He is also an author, and commentator on books, publishing, authors, words, marketing, reading, relevant technology, etc.

By Richard Curtis, President of Richard Curtis Associates, Inc.; founder of E-Reads

Revolutions produce unlikely heroes, and the Digital Revolution has produced a very unlikely one in the form of a man that many believe is so wanting in ethical principles that he is nicknamed The Jackal. Yet it is on literary agent Andrew Wylie’s fangs and claws that the populist dream of a fair e-book royalty rests as he dares the world’s highest profile trade book publisher to do something about the slap he has administered to its face.

The smart money is on The Jackal, and to understand why you have to think like a jackal. While pundits debate contract law and publishing ethics, the real war is being conducted on a less visible battlefield. But it is one on which Wylie holds the high ground.

To understand Random House’s reluctance to protect its rights from Wylie and other marauders you need to understand a number of not so obvious factors. The most salient of them is this: Publishers are loath to sue authors (or the widows and children of authors).

Let’s see how these factors play out in the power struggle unfolding before our eyes.

Random House not confident of its legal position

In 2001 Random House sued Rosetta, an e-book startup that acquired directly from authors the digital rights to books by such Random House lions as Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Robert B. Parker and William Styron, books that were still in print in paper format under Random House imprints. Random had published them before there was such a thing as e-books, but nevertheless considered a book is a book is a book whether in tangible or digital form. The courts however rejected Random’s position, denying their request for an injunction against Rosetta. Random filed an appeal and the court turned it down. A second appeal was rejected too, forcing Random to work out a settlement with Rosetta.

The critical issue – what is a book? – remained unlitigated and left Random uncertain about its legal position.

Random Backs off from Open Road Threat

When publishing superstar Jane Friedman launched her Open Road e-book venture she declared her intention to start with several works by Styron including Sophie’s Choice and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Confessions of Nat Turner. The problem was, Random House claimed it owned those rights (presumably having recovered them from Rosetta as part of the settlement) and it issued a stern warning to all “third parties” without naming Friedman specifically. Authors, stated CEO Marcus Dohle, are “precluded from granting publishing rights to third parties that would compromise the rights for which Random House has bargained.” By drawing a line in the sand, Random expected Friedman and other potential interlopers to back off or face the full wrath of the publisher’s litigators. (see Random House Serves Notice on Would-Be E-Interlopers)

It is a fundamental business principle that you don’t make threats you aren’t prepared to act on. And that is why we were flabbergasted four months later to learn that Random House had released e-rights to the Styron estate (See Random Returns Sabre to Scabbard in Styron E-Book Standoff).

What was that about?

“The decision of the Styron estate is an exception,” Random executive Stuart Applebaum explained. “Our understanding is that this is a unique family situation.”

Why, after rattling its saber so truculently, did Random give in? In our estimation it’s because ultimately, to make good on their threat, they would have had to sue Styron’s widow and children. And that would be a public relations disaster.

Whether Styron was truly an exception or Random blinked, one thing was clear to publishing professionals: sooner or later there would be further tests of the publisher’s determination. How would Random react the next time?

We’re about to find out.

Don’t Bother Suing Agents

Claiming that he hates the low e-book royalties paid by traditional publishers (see Random House Changes E-Book Royalty Policy), agent Wylie, representing hundreds of distinguished authors such as Salman Rushdie, Martin Amis and the late John Updike, announced that he is starting his own e-book publishing venture and intends to launch it with books published by Random House and other trade book publishers.

"We will take our 700 clients, see what rights are not allocated to publishers, and establish a company on their behalf to license those e-book rights directly to someone like Google, Amazon.com, or Apple." - Fifteen Percent of Immortality, Harvard Magazine

Does he have the right to do that? Wylie says he does: “The fact remains that backlist digital rights were not conveyed to publishers, and so there’s an opportunity to do something with those rights,” he declares.

Despite what happened with Open Road, some industry observers expected Random House to threaten to sue Wylie’s ass into pebble-sized pieces. But Wylie knows they won’t, because, generally speaking, agents are not legally liable for breaches of contract committed by their clients. A lawsuit against Wylie would in all likelihood be thrown out of court, and the judge would tell Random that if they have a beef it’s with Wylie’s authors, they’ll have to sue Wylie’s authors.

Which brings us back to our thesis: Publishers are loath to sue authors (or the widows and children of authors).

So? How does Random intend to punish Wylie? “Regrettably,” Applebaum declared, “Random House on a worldwide basis will not be entering into any new English-language business agreements with the Wylie Agency until this situation is resolved.”

This is known as the We’ll Cut Off Our Nose to Spite Your Face ploy, and it will avail Random nothing. Wylie’s clients are so coveted by Random’s rivals that if Random made good on its threat you’d see the greatest migration since the Aleuts crossed the Bering Land Bridge. Jackals are standing by!

Buyer? Seller?

Though legal threats won’t faze Andrew Wylie, handling the challenge of being both an agent and an e-book publisher might. A number of knowledgeable people like Macmillan’s John Sargent have not only deplored Wylie’s decision to put all his authors’ eggs in Amazon’s basket but have questioned whether it’s in the best interests of his authors. There is arguably more money to be made selling not just to Amazon but to Sony, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, and other retailers.

Navigating the shoals of conflict of interest between buyer and seller is another daunting task. Even if he is able to build a “Chinese wall” insulating the two functions from short-circuiting each other, Wylie’s own clients will reasonably want to know how it’s going to work: “If my agent is now my publisher, who am I supposed hire to negotiate with him?”

Will Wylie’s stratagem succeed in forcing publishers to raise their royalty rate? Not a chance. E-book royalties will eventually go up, but it will be no thanks to Crusader Wylie. But we thank him for articulating the dissatisfaction of authors and agents with low royalty rates and for so fearlessly acting on his convictions.

This post was originally published at E-Reads.com and has been reprinted with Mr. Curtis’ permission.

Richard Curtis, president of Richard Curtis Associates, Inc., is a leading New York literary agent; founder of E-Reads, an electronic book publisher; and a well-known author advocate. He is also the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction including several books about the publishing industry and is a former president of the Association of Authors’ Representatives.

Amazon.com customers now purchase more Kindle books than hardcover books–astonishing when you consider that we’ve been selling hardcover books for 15 years, and Kindle books for 33 months.”

Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon.com

Depending on where you get your news, and how far beyond the tweets and catchy headlines you tend to read, yesterday’s well-timed press release from Amazon (they release their 2Q report on Thursday) either came as a shocker (TIPPING POINT!) or an interesting soft data point in need of further clarification.

Amazon Says

“We’ve reached a tipping point with the new price of Kindle–the growth rate of Kindle device unit sales has tripled since we lowered the price from $259 to $189,” said Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “In addition, even while our hardcover sales continue to grow, the Kindle format has now overtaken the hardcover format. Amazon.com customers now purchase more Kindle books than hardcover books–astonishing when you consider that we’ve been selling hardcover books for 15 years, and Kindle books for 33 months.”

Recent milestones for Kindle books include:

• Over the past three months, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 143 Kindle books. Over the past month, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 180 Kindle books. This is across Amazon.com’s entire U.S. book business and includes sales of hardcover books where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the number even higher.
• Amazon sold more than 3x as many Kindle books in the first half of 2010 as in the first half of 2009.
• The Association of American Publishers’ latest data reports that e-book sales grew 163 percent in the month of May and 207 percent year-to-date through May. Kindle book sales in May and year-to-date through May exceeded those growth rates.
• On July 6, Hachette announced that James Patterson had sold 1.14 million e-books to date. Of those, 867,881 were Kindle books.
• Five authors–Charlaine Harris, Stieg Larsson, Stephenie Meyer, James Patterson, and Nora Roberts–have each sold more than 500,000 Kindle books.

Reading Beyond the Headlines

Publishers Lunch attempts to put the numbers in context:

• Amazon Inches Closer to Releasing Kindle Stats That Actually Mean Something: So let’s start with the data: jumping on last week’s announcement that James Patterson had sold 1.14 million e-books to date worldwide, Amazon says Kindle books account for 867,881 of those sales. (Of course, with print sales totalling more than 205 million copies, that Kindle figure accounts for roughly 0.4% of overall sales.) By the same token, four other blockbuster authors – Nora Roberts, Stieg Larsson, Charlaine Harris, and  Stephenie Meyer – have also sold more than half a million copies each of Kindle books, which is still a blip compared to print sales but clearly significant enough, especially compared to this time last year, as Amazon reports a tripling of Kindle book sales from 12 months ago.

At Daily Finance, Sarah Weinman adds further perspective:

• E-book Sales Surpass Hardcovers at Amazon: The caveat? Each of these authors sell tens to hundreds of millions of print books around the world, so total e-book sales don’t even approach 1% of print sales, and Amazon won’t break down e-sales by specific title. Consider, too, that 630,000 books in the Kindle Store is but a fraction of the millions of copies of print books Amazon offers for sale. It’s clear e-book market share continues to climb, but the medium still has a long way to go to catch print — even for the company with the most dominant digital share of all. Still, today’s news made Wall Street happy: Amazon shares rose 0.9% to $120.99.

At Jacket Copy, Carolyn Kellogg makes the music industry connection most tend to miss:

• What does Amazon.com’s rosy ebook news mean? But what isn’t being said is that these aren’t necessarily new books; most of these authors have an impressive backlist… When CDs began to outpace vinyl, music companies realized that they could sell the same original works to fans a second time, in a new format. How much of Amazon.com’s Kindle sales are an echo of this –  readers purchasing much-loved favorites in a new format — is impossible to say without seeing sales figures based on specific titles. And that’s something that no companies, neither publishers nor Amazon.com, seems interested in releasing.

And finally, the Wall Street Journal digs into the real question (albeit buried at the end of their article):

• Amazon Says E-Book Sales Outpace Hardcovers: Still, the hardback comparison figure doesn’t necessarily mean the end is near for paper books. Amazon said its hardback book unit sales also continued to increase. Moreover, while Amazon has become one of the largest booksellers in the U.S., it still attracts an online audience that is more inclined to be early adopters of new reading technology. As for the effect on paperbacks, Madeline McIntosh, president, sales, operations and digital at Bertelsmann AG’s Random House Inc., said: “Our conclusion is that there’s no data to prove any connection—good or bad—between growth in e-books and the growth or decline, in trade paperback sales. … If anything, we may be seeing a positive effect in which the steady pace of e-book sales helps to keep a book in front-of-mind for a growing number of consumers after hardcover momentum slows.”

The Takeaways

Beyond the obvious — “eBooks are an increasingly popular format for reading books!” — three interesting takeaways stand out for me.

First, as The New York Times reports, “Amazon’s latest sales figures are ‘clearly an indication that the iPad is complementary to the Kindle, not a replacement,’ said Youssef H. Squali, managing director at Jefferies & Company in charge of Internet and new media research.” Despite 3 million iPads and 5 million iBooks downloads, Amazon’s significantly larger inventory of eBooks (paid and free), their full embrace of “Buy Once, Read Everywhere” (including the iPad), and their long-standing relationship with book buyers is a tough combination to compete with. For Amazon, it’s not about the device and never has been; the long game was always about leveraging their existing customer base and becoming the dominant seller of eBooks.

Second, eBooks fit perfectly into Amazon’s long tail strategy, and only Barnes & Noble comes close to having the kind of built-in advantage they do to capitalize on a CD/MP3-style digital transition as many readers re-purchase their favorites in eBook format from the path of least resistance: the retailer they currently buy their print books from, who already has their credit card information and the ability to make targeted recommendations based on their purchase history.

And finally, Amazon chooses its words carefully; in the midst of the Kindle hype, Bezos made a point of noting that ”our hardcover sales continue to grow.”

A significant percentage of the eBooks Amazon offers for sale were NEVER published in hardcover format; many more are from independent publishers and authors taking advantage of the lower barriers to entry. The room to grow is exponential. Genres and niches that get limited shelf space in the brick and mortar book world are perfectly suited for the digital book world. New authors can be bundled with popular authors in digital-only anthologies and samplers to expose them to a wider audience.

With a bit of creativity, strategic print + eBook bundles can even lead to the holy grail: publishers having direct contact with their readers via email.

eBooks undoubtedly offer the opportunity to expand overall book sales and direct engagement with readers, but only if publishers can get above the trees and take a look at the forest.

Publishers are just recovering from the earth-shaking impact of the iPad release and the next tremor may already be on the way.  It has been widely reported that Google will be releasing their “cloud bookstore,” known as Editions, sometime this summer with upwards of 4 million books available. 

Such staggering volume begs the question − what do we know about Google Editions? The answer, unfortunately, is not a heckuva lot.

This article summarizes what those “in the know” are saying, what the rumor mill is spinning, and what Google, with its tight lips, has inferred.

Which Books?

It is assumed that initially Editions will cover only books submitted by publishers, probably launching with 400,000 to 600,000 to start, many more than Apple currently has in the entire iBookstore. The settlement between Google, authors and publishers over Google’s scanning of books that are in copyright but out-of-print (aka Google Books) has not yet been approved by the courts.  Whether Google plans to sell the out-of-copyright books has also not been announced, but it is assumed that they may be available to readers through Editions.

Platform

Google plans for the books to be read through a web browser rather than a specific reading program or device.  They have also mentioned the possibility of building software to optimize reading for certain devices, like the iPad, but haven’t announced any specific plans.  Since books are read from ‘the cloud,’ it is assumed that you must have internet access.  What’s not clear is what the browser requirements might be and whether an on-device browser, like the Kindle’s, will support Editions.

Partners

While Google has said that nearly all U.S. publishers (20,000+) will be included in the Editions bookstore, no publishers have yet publically announced their participation.  Since most publishers favor having as many outlets as possible, it is safe to assume that many of the large ones will be on board when the time comes.  Editions is planned in such a way that book retailers, including independent booksellers, can use Editions to sell books from their own websites and keep most of the revenue.

Google Editions & EPUB

There hasn’t been any announcement that specifically states that Editions will support the EPUB standard.  However, in an interview at BookExpo America this May, a Google manager stated that books that are downloaded, rather than cached, would be available using Adobe ACS4 DRM.  ACS4 supports PDF and EPUB.  So we can speculate that there may be EPUB support.  Google Books also supports download of books in the EPUB format, so there is a precedent.

Cost & Price

As is typical, Google plans to derive most of its revenue from Editions through advertising, and hasn’t alluded yet as to what prices books will be sold (competitive is the best estimate right now), what pricing model they will use, or what cut they will take.  Several sources have reported that publishers will be able to name their own price for their Editions books.  Other sources have reported that Google will give publishers 63% of revenues from eBooks sold directly to customers, and 45% for those sold through retailers, with a small share going to Google.

Enhanced Ebooks

At this time it appears that multimedia will not be supported within Google Editions, and it is not clear whether live links will be supported.

Print on Demand

Google has been quoted as saying that they would like to provide this capability, but it will be largely dependent on publishers as to whether it will be supported on a book by book basis.

gPad?

The last wave of articles about Editions included new rumors that Google was exploring the idea of building their own tablet.  The speculation that it will be supported by Verizon Wireless has recently been confirmed in several articles, including by Verizon. It’s not known if the tablet will be based on Android or Google’s new Chrome OS, although most guesses are with Android.

While there’s no confirmation of its existence, Google has been posting mock-ups of what a tablet running Chrome might look like.  With more than 3 million iPads already sold, any new device will have to be pretty special to catch-up, let alone overtake it.  That being said, the Android OS is giving the iPhone OS a run for its money, so anything is possible.

What does this mean for publishers? Most of the money being spent for iPad apps will need to be spent again if they want to support apps on a Google tablet.

To reduce or prevent this, proactive publishers and their partners should start developing enhanced eBooks and apps in ways that enable reuse and multi-platform support.  This includes the use of open, non-proprietary standards (e.g. HTML5 instead of Flash, MP4 or OGG instead of QuickTime, etc.) among other things.

Tune in to the upcoming DBW WEBcast, eBooks vs. Apps: The Pros, Cons and Possibilities, to learn more about creating enhanced eBooks and apps with an eye to the future.

Eric Freese is a Solutions Architect with Aptara, which provides digital publishing solutions that deliver significant gains in quality, time-to-market and production costs for eBook publishers.

CASE STUDY

Exporting Sidebars from InDesign to ePUB

ePUB TOOLKIT

• InDesign CS4 to export
• Springy Archiver to open the ePUB file
• Dreamweaver to edit the CSS
• Adobe Digital Editions to preview

LAYOUT CHALLENGE

One of the requirements of producing an ePUB file from InDesign is that all content must be anchored and threaded. Put another way, any design elements, art, or sidebars you want to export from InDesign to ePUB must be anchored in the text, and all of the text must be threaded in the correct order. A simple anchor requires nothing more than hitting return, pasting an element to the return, and adding space above or below the return. A simple text thread will also work.

Here’s an example of sidebars that are to the side of the main text flow, but because all of the text boxes are threaded together, the export to ePUB will still work fine:

However, not all layout grids are so straightforward.

Recently, a grid in InDesign presented a challenge for me when I thought about the export to ePUB. In this particular layout, the sidebars (1) floated outside the text margins, and therefore (2) required the “text wrap” palette. Could this layout be optimized for ePUB export?

Here’s the layout:

And here’s the “before” – the ePUB result when the text in the sidebars were separate from the text flow:

Of course, since the text was not threaded, nor were the sidebars anchored, the sidebar text was pushed to the beginning and end of the ePUB file.

SOLUTION

Here’s the after – the ePUB result when the sidebar boxes are anchored into the flow of the text:

It worked!

The issues are that (1) the text wrap will not take effect before an anchor; therefore, the anchoring position must be carefully considered and (2) the text wrap must be applied to the anchoring box, not the sidebar element itself. Using “object styles” can apply the text wrap quickly to the anchoring box.

QUESTIONS

Another aspect of this issue is that multiple sidebars in an ePUB file are not ideal. In a print layout, sidebars are called out in order to give design interest to the layout and highlight interesting information. Most of the time, the design of sidebars makes them look separate from the text and the text flow makes it possible for the reader to skip them.

In the ePUB file, the sidebars break up the text flow. The design tools available in print are stripped away (reversed text, sidebar tints, text wrap) and we are left with sidebars that look like part of the running text, resulting in running text / sidebar / running text / sidebar. It makes for a jumpy reading experience.

In this particular case, the content cannot be rewritten due to deadline restrictions; therefore, this is the way the content will be presented. But it brings up interesting questions regarding digital production: Should content intended for print be re-written for ePUB reading? Are there better ways to set off sidebar content in an ePUB file besides text size, indents, and white space?

One option suggested by Lindsey Martin, via the #ePrdctn group on Twitter, was a vertical rule to set off the sidebars.

Here’s the code:

border-color: black;

border-style: solid;

border-top-width: 0px;

border-bottom-width: 0px;

border-left-width: 3px;

border-right-width: 0px;

padding: 0.75em;

I accessed the ePUB file in Springy, opened the “template.css” file in Dreamweaver, and pasted this code into “div.sb-box” and “div.bt-box” — these styles were built upon the export from Indesign to ePUB.

And here’s the ePUB result:

It worked! The sidebars are now easier to distinguish from the running text around it.

The next step in the QC process would be to view this file on multiple eReaders.

RESULTS

This case study demonstrates a layout that works for both print and ePUB export. The results are not ideal.

I, personally, would choose to ask editorial to rework the content so the sidebars would not interrupt the text flow so much. But since this is not an option in this case, the resulting ePUB is regarded as satisfactory. Sales numbers will determine if the ePUB version of this book “works” for the consumer as opposed to the PDF ebook version.

SAMPLE CREDITS

Welcome to Horneytown, North Carolina, Population: 15 by Quentin Parker, published by Adams Media, a division of F+W Media, Inc.

Aliens in America by William J. Birnes, published by Adams Media, a division of F+W Media, Inc.

FROM PRINT TO ePUB

The goal of this column is to explore the various challenges we at Adams Media have faced in everyday situations in transforming our InDesign print workflow to include an ePUB export process, and share the results and any best practices I uncover. The workflow for digital production is being created as we go along, and no one has the perfect, one-size-fits-all solution or all of the answers. Groups like #ePrdctn, hosted by Lindsey Martin (@crych) on Twitter, are working out digital production issues as we go along, and that group is the inspiration behind this column. Digital Book World also hosts the #ePrdctn group on LinkedIn.

Colleen Cunningham is the Senior Book Designer for Adams Media, a division of F+W Media.

Digital books are going to be a big part of the future of publishing. Everyone in publishing knows this, and many of us are embracing the opportunity to reach more readers in whichever formats they prefer.

For the print book designer, it’s an exciting, if somewhat scary time, as eBook production is being added to our workflows, and the variety of formats and digital platforms pose new and unique challenges. The fonts we choose, the grids we build, the design we cultivate — they’re all skills we have developed and refined in order to help make the meaning of the words come alive for readers.

“Export to PDF” has faithfully preserved our design choices in a static layout and stable context, but PDF eBooks are, for the most part, meant to be viewed on large, four-color screens. Good design, however, is being redefined in this new digital age, and as designers, our focus needs to expand to include the myriad ways readers might access our content beyond the printed page.

Are they reading on their computers, laptops, or tablets like the iPad? If so, a PDF eBook remains a good option as our original design can be preserved and displayed as we intended.

But, what if they’re reading on an e-ink device, eg: Kindle, Sony Reader, or Nook, or via Apple’s iBooks app? This is where it all becomes murky for designers.

Should our design-driven books be simplified to fit the constraints of the ePUB format?

Publishers have to ask themselves if they have the skills, time, and resources to invest in reworking their content in-house, or if an outsourced solution should be retained.

And if an outsourcer is retained, is there a quality control process in place?

Savvy publishers will produce two versions of their books – PDF and ePUB – giving readers the option to choose their preferred format. PDF eBooks are still the format of choice for design-driven books, but with e-ink devices and iBooks commanding a lot of attention these days (especially since the Kindle and the Nook are driven by established book retailers), publishers must also consider putting resources behind the ePUB format.

When faced with this challenge (or opportunity — is your glass half-full?), print designers must quickly develop the skills that will enable them to produce a high-quality ePUB file that is accessible over a wide range of devices.

For print designers this creates a problem, because ePUB files are, in a way, self-contained websites. When we choose “Export to Digital Editions” in InDesign, we’re translating the content into HTML, and as every web designer knows, a web page is all about presenting content that can be accessed via a variety of web browsers.

With ePUB, our challenge is to produce an eBook that can be read on a variety of eReaders, with its information hierarchy intact and intuitive navigation that makes access to the content quick and easy, no matter what device it’s being viewed upon. It’s a significant shift in thinking, and the designer who wants to make the transition from print to digital must be able to let go of some design control and put content first, before design.

Adobe and InDesign have given print designers the ability to expand their skills to the digital realm with the “Export to Digital Editions” option. In our own experience in the Production Department at Adams Media (a division of F+W Media), we’ve welcomed this opportunity to bring our ePUB production in-house for a number of reasons, not the least of which is for better quality control. We’re also saving money by reducing our outsourcing budget, increasing our in-house digital capabilities, and becoming advocates of best practices within our own company.

However, the challenging side of this opportunity is the additional time it takes us to troubleshoot.

When a highly-designed book enters our print production schedule, we have to evaluate 1) whether it’s worth the time to create an ePUB file, and 2) how to manage the design and layout to facilitate the ePUB production process. Simply tacking a digital workflow onto the end of an existing print workflow is not efficient and there is no “easy button” for exporting a clean ePUB file. Ideally, when a title enters the publishing list, both print and digital formats should be planned out at the same time — content and design can be optimized every step of the way in order for the digital export to go smoothly.

In future posts, I plan to explore the various challenges we have faced in everyday situations in transforming our InDesign print workflow to include an ePUB export process, and share the results and any best practices I uncover.

A few important notes up front:

1. Our print workflow is based on InDesign CS4, so that’s where our ePUB production begins. Galley edits are made into the print InDesign file and to preserve the edits, our ePUB export must be done from InDesign.
2. Our ePUB toolkit consists of: InDesign CS4 to export, Springy Archiver to open the ePUB file, Dreamweaver to edit the CSS, Adobe Digital Editions to preview.
3. We are not coders by trade; we are print designers and print pre-press specialists, and are excited to incorporate digital production into our roles.
4. Our production schedule is tight, so our standards for what makes an ePUB candidate are narrow — straight text and minimal floating elements (sidebars, art) are preferable to highly-designed ePUB eBooks.
5. All of our books are exported as PDF eBooks, but only about 75% are considered ePUB candidates due to the design considerations discussed above.
6. We are concerned with deadlines, storage, transmission issues, and eReader limitations; therefore, we create one ePUB that is lightweight and content-driven, intended for every platform from the Kindle to the iPad.

That being said, we are open to challenging the limitations of ePUB and are hoping that technology will only make this process smoother, and that the design capabilities of ePUB will eventually be supported by all eReading devices.

Please join us as we explore “real world” scenarios that crop up as this print designer tries to export print files to ePUB. The case studies that will be presented are taken from actual print files, and we welcome any questions and feedback.

The workflow for digital production is being created as we go along, and no one has the perfect, one-size-fits-all solution or all of the answers. Groups like #ePrdctn, hosted by Lindsey Martin (@crych) on Twitter, are working out digital production issues as we go along, and that group is the inspiration behind this column.

You are welcome to join us for the ride!

Colleen Cunningham is the Senior Book Designer for Adams Media, a division of F+W Media.

A recent article at Inside Higher Ed, “Taming the Textbook by Market” by Steven J. Bell, takes yet another look at the ever-increasing price of textbooks and posits yet another solution to the problem. As he writes: “What if instead of being forced to buy a $160 textbook, your students had access to a compendium of online resources handpicked and customized by you [the instructor], and available at no cost to them, unless they preferred to purchase a low-cost, print-on-demand copy?”

What if, indeed?

Typically these discussions about textbook prices take place around the beginning of the fall semester and in the past have focused on a couple of standard, ever-recycled solutions:

• Legislate textbook prices (good luck with all that!)
• Require teachers to use any given textbook for at least three years before adopting a new one/edition (doubly good luck there!).

But Bell is onto something;: with the proliferation of digital content online it seems reasonable to assemble Curricular Resource Strategies (CRS), a term popularized by Mark David Milliron, that would allow more flexibility in the classroom for teachers while offering reduced costs to students. I mean, really, what’s not to like? After all, as Bell suggests, textbook publishers and college bookstores will still have a piece of the instructional material revenue stream via students ordering print-on-demand copies of books as they feel the need.

Well, as an old college English teacher—that was my previous incarnation in my ten-year run-up to being a textbook publisher—I do have some thoughts on all this, much like many of the people who commented on Bell’s article upon its publication.

First, most faculty members want to spend their time actually teaching as opposed to assembling an ever-evolving set of online materials for use in their classes. Bell does admit that is a certain allure for teachers in being able to select a textbook and then move on to other more pressing concerns—grading papers, prepping for classes, endless committee meetings—but he feels a couple of hours effort by a faculty member should prove worth the effort.

The reality is, however, that the actual amount of time it takes to assemble solid instructional materials is not hours but, rather, weeks or months.

Also, there is a permanence in hard copy texts that isn’t available when a) hooked to an electrical outlet or b) on a Web site that can be here today and gone later today. Finally, one reason textbook publishers exist is because they are vetting the material included in any book, and that keeps instructors from having to find and check every single source of information from scratch.

Second, Bell also supposes that textbook publishers and college bookstores will have a place in his envisioned CRS world via selling POD copies of textbooks for $25-$30 each when individual students feel the need to buy a hard copy. The simple truth is that neither publishers nor bookstores can survive on the margins from selling POD books, especially given the significantly higher unit cost for a POD book vs. one produced as part of a larger offset print run. (Plus, the greatly reduced margins from selling POD books guarantees that publishers would have no money at all the develop digital materials in any way, shape, or form.)

Sure, Flat World Knowledge is trying something exactly along these lines—digital editions of books are free while POD copies are available to buy along with study-guide ancillaries—but, to be honest, a close look at their business model just doesn’t reveal it to be self-sustaining. To me and my textbook publishing colleagues, they seem more like a start-up designed to get a visible name in the market before being sold out to an established publisher to flesh out their own digital offerings.

Third, there is also the tacit assumption that publishers and bookstores work together to set the obscene prices that students have to pay. Unfortunately, publishers have no control over what bookstores charge for books . . . so any book, even a short-run POD edition, can have the price jacked up once it reaches the bookstore.

For example, we recently worked with a local college to produce a textbook bundle—textbook plus date planner—that would have a retail price of $60. This means we would discount the book 20% to their on-campus bookstore (owned by a national chain) to $48 which they would turn around and sell for $60. Instead, the bookstore immediately marked up the retail price to $82, 70% more than wholesale and 30% above suggested retail. So, really, everyone in the chain here got the short end of the stick except for the bookstore.

Fourth, Bell suggests that both scholarly publishing and textbook publishing are a process by which faculty give away their content just to buy it back via periodicals in the library or textbooks in their classes. Now, I would not argue that periodical subscription rates are a problem almost as great (or even greater) for university libraries as textbook prices are for students. However, the payoff for scholarly publishing while not financially-based in the short run is exactly that in the long run as it allows professors to earn tenure (that is, keep their job). And, as well, in textbook publishing instructors are paid on either a work-for-hire or royalty basis, the return on which—even when selling several hundred or more copies a year—is a real incentive to develop these materials but not give them away.

Altruism tends to work on a haphazard case-by-case basis whereas instructional materials and/or curriculum need to be done with a comprehensive scope and scale on an ongoing basis.

Finally, one last thing I have to ask is, what’s so wrong with the individual voice of one subject matter expert?

As Matthew Crawford notes in his Shop Class as Soulcraft there is this ever-popular idea that the collective wisdom of the crowd—such as having a million snippets of information bundled together—is inherently preferable to one well-versed subject matter expert who has spent his/her entire life immersed in a particular subject. You know, when higher education costs as much as it does, I don’t particularly want a “guide on the side” who “facilitates” my teaching of myself as opposed to the “sage on the stage” who provides a depth and breadth of knowledge that’s taken a lifetime—not an afternoon browsing Google links—to gain command of.

This is also one of my gripes with one of the central ideas of Disrupting Class which thinks the textbook industry will be unraveled by teachers/kids/parents generating tutorial apps for students to use: just like posting a rant to a blog doesn’t make you a polished writer, thinking your child isn’t getting a good (enough) education doesn’t make you an expert in either a given subject matter or pedagogy or digital instructional design.

Look, hats off to Steven Bell for attempting to formulate a solution to a real problem and start a new conversation using his outsider’s perspective as a librarian. (And I would highly recommend his blog The Kept-Up Academic Librarian.) However, it’s that same perspective—one that is not versed in the realities of book publishing or the quotidian realities of instructors—that has led to some errors in analysis in his argument.

So what do I think is going to happen?

First, the big textbook publishers have too big a financial interest (and too many resources and too much leverage) to just watch their market (and $$$) evaporate right in front of them. Rather, I think enhanced eBooks—there’s a phrase that’s all the rage these days!—will allow publishers to keep their market share while doing something that they’ve craved for a long time: cut bookstores out of the equation completely by way of having students buy directly from publishers themselves.

Will prices ultimately go down? Not a bit . . . but profit margins, once again, for publishers will go up.

And hey, why not?

That’s just Economics 101.

This post was originally published at TSTC Publishing’s Book Business Blog, and has been reprinted with Mr. Long’s permission.

Mark Long is the Publisher in charge of TSTC Publishing, the publishing arm of the Texas State Technical College System. A long-time college English instructor, he oversaw the formation of TSTC’s book publishing division in 2004 whose charge is to produce low-cost (and high quality) technical and academic textbooks, technical career guides, and emerging technology forecasts in areas projected to impact higher education in Texas.

In April, we wrote about the possible implications of Apple’s then just-released iPad. Sixty days and two million units later (that’s one sold every 3 seconds), the new tablet device has undoubtedly changed the publishing industry’s focus on eBooks, but whether it’s the catalyst for a permanent shift remains to be seen.

So let’s examine the topics we feel are most important in arming publishers for the new media opportunities afforded by the iPad.

1. eBooks vs. Apps

Before the iPad, most publishers were content to produce basic eBooks for the plethora of devices available. Now, however, many seem to feel that apps developed specifically for a particular publication might be better. App development is more costly than eBook production, since it involves custom programming; they’re also not portable between platforms (e.g. iPad and Android), meaning additional development costs for multi-device support.

The dilemma facing publishers is whether the on-screen presence that an app provides is worth the cost, versus simply being an eBook in the iBookstore. There are now over 225,000 apps available in the App Store, approximately 8,500 of which are dedicated to the iPad. It will be difficult for publishers to differentiate their apps within such a large ecosystem, although some print-based apps have broken through (e.g. The Elements, Alice, Wired Magazine).

2. Enhanced eBooks

Along with the eBook vs. App discussion, a great deal of attention is being paid to the topic of enhanced eBooks. What constitutes “enhanced” is subjective. In general, enhanced eBooks include functionality beyond simple page turning, such as annotation and dictionary lookup. They might include links to websites, or embedded or linked audio and video. Developers such as Aptara have methods for enhancing eBooks based on the ePUB standard using HTML5, which allows audio and video to be included within an eBook and played/displayed without leaving the iBooks app. The upcoming release of iPhone OS 4.0 (now known as iOS4, to include the iPad and possible future devices) will also make enhanced eBooks simpler to use, since multiple apps can be open at one once (although only one can be fully active).

3. The Common Platform

The iPad has become a common platform for other eBook retailers to sell their products. Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kobo, among others, have released apps that allow iPad users to purchase, store and read their proprietary eBooks. This is an interesting strategy since the aforementioned booksellers also have individually branded eBook reading devices. Industry analysts will be watching to see whether the creation of multi-platform apps will increase eBook sales without significantly cannibalizing sales of reading devices.

As a side note, Borders has also jumped into the eBook reader market, but instead of marketing their own reading device, they are selling several different devices with various price points. And Google will be launching Google Editions shortly which promises eBooks that are stored in the cloud and can be read anywhere, on any device with a browser.

4. ePUB Update

The IDPF (International Digital Publishing Forum) has chartered a working group to update the ePUB standard to allow for more functionality and interchange of eBook data. There are 14 main improvements that the working group is tasked to address including language support, enhanced support of metadata, rich media, navigation, mathematics, annotation, and interactivity. The working group is chartered through May 2011 with drafts due to be released between September and December 2010.

At this point, the devices/platforms are several steps ahead of the ePUB standard in terms of functionality.  Hopefully, the next version will enable standardized ways to create enhanced publications (books, newspapers, magazines, etc.) across devices and eliminate the need to develop proprietary extensions.

5. Getting eShelf Space

Many medium and small publishers continue to encounter barriers in getting access to the various eBook stores. There are many reasons, including exclusivity requirements and revenue sharing agreements, to name a couple. These publishers are looking for partners to assist them not only in preparing eBooks, but also in getting them into online outlets. Some outlets are looking to aggregators to act as intermediaries between themselves and smaller publishers and self-publishers. As more and more online outlets emerge, the role of these aggregators will increase, possibly creating a new service category within the eBook publishing industry.

How Far We’ve Come… in Just Two Months

Below are updates on some of the statements and speculations we made immediately following the iPad’s launch:

• “It appears that Apple’s iPad can provide a one-stop-shop solution to content publishers through their online store, reader software and DRM − which can only serve to simplify mobile content delivery.”

While it is true that content publishers do have a new market outlet, it resembles Amazon’s and Barnes & Noble’s. Whether delivery is simpler still remains to be seen.

• “Aptara is in the process of examining the iPad SDK (software development kit) to fully understand the iPad’s impact on eBook applications. We will keep you updated as our evaluation continues and we have more information to share.”

Aptara is now helping publishers bring their content to life by developing interactive iPad apps, as well as enhanced eBooks for the iPad (and other eReaders and smart phones). In fact, some of the most successful apps being produced, by Aptara and others, are those based on content that had previously appeared only in print. See above for more information on eBooks vs. Apps vs. enhanced eBooks.

• “Some have predicted that the iPad may be the textbook of the future. Until Apple releases more details about the capabilities of the iBook and iBookstore it’s hard to know for sure what the possible applications might be.”

Many educational institutions have ordered iPads for their staff and students, including Illinois Institute of Technology, Seton Hall University, George Fox University and Abilene Christian University.  These institutions are being closely watched to gauge whether the iPad is indeed the textbook of the future (some of these universities previously attempted to integrate the iPhone and iPod Touch into classes, with varying degrees of success).  The hope is that the iPad’s larger screen will enhance learning aids and therefore the learning experience.

In comparison, a previous study to evaluate the Kindle DX at Princeton found that regardless of the form factor, “learning comes from a physical interaction with the text: bookmarks, highlights, page-tearing, sticky notes and other marks representing the importance of certain passages — not to mention margin notes”.

Speed was also an issue with the Kindle.  While the iPad is fast, has a color screen, and thousands of apps, its iBook reader does not support most forms of physical interaction just described.  (NOTE: At the recent WWDC 2010, Steve Jobs announced updates to the iBooks app that will allow for bookmarks, highlighting and notes, as well as for support of PDF within iBooks. The iBooks app will also be available on any device capable of supporting iOS4, including the iPad, iPhone 4, iPhone 3G and 3GS, 2^nd/3rd generation iPod Touch.)

Other reader apps do provide some of these abilities, but cannot open the Apple DRM files. Some eTextbook apps are starting to emerge, but are priced based on a limited-time subscription.  Once the subscription expires, the book is no longer available, though personal notes are.

The bottom line is that the iPad’s app capability presents an incredibly large and clean slate for exploring how static content can be brought to life as new and powerful learning aids, though apps are significantly more expensive and less portable than converting textbooks to e/iBooks.  This reality, combined with the results of the Universities’ testing, will significantly influence the ultimate use case for iPads in schools.

• “Undoubtedly one of the most promising aspects of the iPad announcement is their impending growth in size and scope of the eBook market − thanks to the power of the Apple brand.”

There is no question that the eBook market has many new entrants (consumers and publishers) thanks to Apple’s new device. After just two months, more than 5 million eBooks had been downloaded from the iBookstore.

So Where to From Here?

As Bob Dylan said, “The Times They Are a-Changin’.”  The publishing industry is evolving before our eyes on several fronts (devices, standards, business models, etc.).  Who could have predicted the rate of adoption and change we’ve witnessed in just the past two months? The next few months will likely be a continuum

Bring your seat forward, put your tray table up, ensure that your seat belt is securely fastened, and enjoy the ride!

As CTO, Samir Kakar is responsible for Aptara’s technology products and processes in support of key customers such as Cambridge University Press, Random House and Amazon, and Oxford University Press.  His technology portfolio includes the patented web-based XML authoring solution, PowerXEditor, and eGen, Aptara’s eBook Production Platform.

“Five of the six biggest publishers in the US, who have their books on the iBookstore tell us that the share of eBooks now that are going through the iBookstore, is about 22%.

So iBooks market share now, of ebooks from 5 of these 6 major publishers, is up to 22% in just about eight weeks.”

-Steve Jobs, WWDC 2010 : June 07, 2010

From consumer demand, to devices and DRM schemes, to piracy concerns and reliable sales data, the nascent but undeniably booming eBook market is becoming a smoke and mirrored mess for anyone looking for straight answers.

During Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference 2010 on Monday, Steve Jobs added the latest puff of smoke with his carefully worded statement on iBooks’ eBook market share that many media outlets took out of context, paying more attention to his visuals than his words, gleefully “reporting” that Apple, in only two months, had miraculously cornered more than 1/5th of the market with their relatively minuscule selection of eBooks from only a handful-plus of publishers.

One of the most glaring instances is the sensationalistic Motley Fool article, Apple Will Eat Amazon Alive, in which they engage in the kind of “analysis” that enabled little things like Enron and the sub-prime mortgage crisis:

That’s good enough for a 22% slice of the e-book market, according to Apple’s publishers.

Now, before we begin shrugging our shoulders at a 22% sliver of the nascent digital book market, or musing on how many of those 5 million books were public domain freebies, let’s consider how remarkable an accomplishment this actually is…

If you’re Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) or Sony (NYSE: SNE), throwing in the digital towel doesn’t seem like such a crazy idea at this point.

This isn’t Mashable or even Publishers Weekly getting it wrong, but a notable financial news and analysis outlet that claims to be “The World’s Greatest Investing Community” ignorantly pushing a lie that could adversely affect both Apple’s competitors and their publishing partners.

Even Allen Weiner, a research VP for Gartner, was misled by Jobs’ discordant visuals and heavily nuanced statement:

At the Apple World Wide Developers Conference, CEO Steve Jobs announced that in 65 days, five million e-books have been downloaded for the iPad. Using some sort of voodoo algorithm, he claims that amounts to 22% of all e-book sales. I am not sure how he calculated that given many of the e-book retailers are private and publishers are loathe to share those sorts of figures. Nonetheless, the take-away is that Apple is selling lots of e-books for the iPad.

This is important for a number of reasons, the most apparent one being that reading books on mobile, digital devices are real. The other notable revelation could be that consumers are OK with reading e-books on an LCD screen (iPad) even though it offers a less optimal (read, harder on the eyes) reading experience than e-paper devices such as the Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, etc.. This early in the e-reader evolution, perhaps consumers are willing to trade a less optimal e-reading experience for the added bonus of video, games and other applications available for the iPad.

UPDATED: Just saw this over at Publisher’s Lunch (registration required):

In another sign of how sentiment is running on Wall Street, yesterday Bank of America-Merrill Lynch lowered their price target on Amazon.com, from $155 a share to $150. Of course that’s well above the company’s current trading price, and the day before Goldman Sachs analyst James Mitchell had raised his target to $190 a share, basd on an expectation of growing sales in China.

So there’s plenty of opinion out there–but Amazon is more than 20 percent down from a recent high of 150 a share in April and with a high price-to-earning ratio of over 51 may be more sensitive to changes in investors’ growth expectations.

As I noted two weeks ago, reflecting on the hiccup in eBooks sales growth in February and March, the second quarter of 2010 will offer a new benchmark to watch as the effects of Apple’s claim of 5 million eBook downloads (not sales, downloads) via iBooks will finally move beyond speculation and spin and into [still somewhat speculative] measurable data.

A few questions that need be answered, and fast, are:

1. How much of the decline in February and March was attributable to Macmillan’s [and Penguin's, et al] eBooks being removed from Amazon during their dustup over eBook pricing and the move to the “agency model”?
2. Will April sales spike upwards, and will it be thanks to iBooks or the iPad’s relatively open platform that allows Amazon, B&N, Kobo and others to play along?
3. Will the Nook have any impact at all, and if so, will anyone acknowledge it?

Of course, the $100,000 $1,000,000 Question is will Amazon or any publishers come forward with hard data on their eBook sales to confirm any of the answers that are offered to the above questions?

And if not, why not?

NOTE: On Twitter, The Motley Fool responded, somewhat coyly, to my questioning their analysis: “Well, that’s why we have ‘Fool’ in the name. (: We’ve passed your observation on to the writer of the piece in question.”

Considering the writer, Rick Aristotle Munarriz, hasn’t bothered to respond to any of the comments left on the article itself, some questioning his “analysis”, I’m not holding my breath.

“Book sales tracked by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) for the month of March increased by 16.6 percent at $458.2 million and were up by 8.0 percent for the year…

E-book sales jumped up 184.8 percent for the month ($28.5 million), reflecting an increase of 251.9 percent for the year.”

AAP Reports March Gains in Publishing Sales

The Association of American Publishers has closed the book on the first quarter of 2010, with both overall book sales and eBook sales showing year-over-year increases of +8% and +251.9%, respectively.

• Overall Trade Book Sales, Q1 2010: $1.76 Billion
• Adult Paperback Sales, Q1 2010: $332.7 Million
• Adult Hardcover Sales, Q1 2010: $228.1 Million
• Adult Mass Market Sales, Q1 2010: $159.4 Million
• Overall eBook Sales, Q1 2010: $89.3 Million
• Audiobooks Sales, Q1 2010: $31.6 Million

eBook sales “soared to $31.9 million” in January — presumably spurred by Amazon’s claims of “record-breaking” Kindle sales in December, and “more Kindle books than physical books” being purchased on Christmas Day — but they declined slightly in February and March, with estimated sales of $28.9 million and $28.5 million.

By comparison, Adult Paperback sales ($103.2m, $106.3m, $123.2m) had monthly increases and are up +23.5% over last year, and Adult Mass Market sales ($56m, $49.8m, $53.6m) saw monthly fluctuations and are down -6.6% vs. last year.

While the usual focus has been on eBook sales’ exponential (and unsustainable) year-over-year growth, the second quarter of 2010 will offer a new benchmark to watch as the effects of Apple’s claim of 1.5 million eBook downloads via iBooks will finally move beyond speculation and spin and into [still somewhat speculative] measurable data.

A few questions that will hopefully be answered this time next month include:

1. How much of the decline in February and March was attributable to Macmillan’s (and others) eBooks being removed from Amazon during their dustup at the end of January over eBook pricing and the move to the “agency model”?
2. Will April sales spike upwards thanks to iBooks and/or the iPad’s relatively open platform that allows Amazon, Kobo and others to play along?
3. Will the Nook have any impact at all, and if so, will anyone acknowledge it?

Of course, the $100,000 Question is will any publishers come forward with hard data on their eBook sales to confirm any of the answers that are offered to the above questions?