How Publishers Should Prepare for EPUB 3

By Jeremy Greenfield, Editorial Director, Digital Book World, @JDGsaid

http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2012/how-publishers-should-prepare-for-epub-3/

The future of e-books is now.

The approval of a new coding language for e-books, developed by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), a global trade and standards organization for the promotion of electronic publishing, means that soon it will be a relatively simple matter for e-books to contain video, audio, dynamic content and all sorts of interactive features.
The catch? Many of the features of EPUB 3, as it’s called, can’t currently be rendered by most e-reading software. Meaning, if a book publisher created a new e-book using EPUB 3 to embed a Google map or a Twitter feed, the book wouldn’t work properly on most e-readers.
But that’s all about to change.
“2012 will be the year when retailers adopt EPUB 3,” said Bill McCoy, executive director of the IDPF.
For instance, Ingram Content Group, the country’s largest distributor of digital and physical books, said that its e-textbook reader, VitalSource Bookshelf, which is available as an application for the iPad, iPhone, Mac Windows, browsers, iOS clients, and Android in the near term, will begin to support EPUB 3 in April.
“VitalSource works with 200 education publishers, most of which are gearing up for EPUB 3,” said Rick Johnson, chief technology officer for VitalSource.
As more e-reader software supports more of EPUB 3, publishers need to prepare for changes in creative capabilities, workflow, hiring and, maybe most important of all, their relationship with booksellers.
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Hear more about EPUB 3 and what publishers should do about it at the Digital Book World Conference + Expo in New York City from January 23 to 25.
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The Coming Battle With Retailers
First the tech jargon, then the plain speak: EPUB 3 is built on HTML 5, which means that publishers can build JavaScript into their books.
This is significant, because JavaScript can theoretically be used to track e-book reader behavior, information publishers have coveted since the dawn of the Kindle age – and that retailers have refused to share.
“Retailers, like Amazon, are known for not disclosing certain information,” said McCoy. “Publishers would love to know that information.”
With EPUB 3, publishers should be able to build software into their books that tells them how much a reader reads, when they read and for how long, for starters.
While publishers should push hard to gather all the information retailers will allow, retailers may resist, citing security risks and privacy concerns, said McCoy.
But the terms of the conflict might change when retailers allow books to fetch remote data, like a dynamic Google map or an ad that changes at the whim of the publisher.
“Once you allow that, it’s very hard to limit,” said McCoy. “Some distribution channels will enable that kind of remote data access early in 2012. The question is when the top-end vendors do that. That will depend on competitive situations. Some may try to jump first. I don’t want to predict the moves in the game of Risk, but some of the vendors are more oriented at being open than others.”
Publishers might have an unlikely ally on their side: the specter of piracy.
“As you move into the world of HTML 5, interactivity is becoming the new DRM [digital rights management],” said Johnson, who helped craft the EPUB 3 language as part of a working group at IDPF. “As you enable new interactivity, you are making it harder for people to share the content; you have to have the whole book in order to use those rich features.”
As EPUB 3 is adopted, many of those “rich features” will require remote data calls.

New Paradigms in Sales and Marketing
If allowed, remote data calls through JavaScript embedded in an EPUB 3 e-book will open up a whole new world of customer information and customer interaction for book publishers.
Beyond being able to collect dynamic data from readers, publishers will be able to talk to readers, on the fly. The most obvious incarnation of this is advertising.
“JavaScript support allows the same kind of ad ecosystem as exists on the Web,” said McCoy, meaning that publishers can theoretically advertise anything at any time using ad space they develop in their books sold with such capabilities.
For instance, a book sold today might advertise a related book in the back-matter, plugs for new books that typically appear in the back of the book. If that ad were served through JavaScript, publishers would know just how readers responded to it, and if response wasn’t what was hoped for, they could change or adjust the ad for better results.

New Ways of Thinking About Content
As tablet and smartphone adoption increases, readers will expect richer features from books.
“Users want features. They want eye candy, they want sharing,” said Johnson.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that publishers should seek to add features haphazardly to their current pipeline of e-books. Publishers should think more holistically about their content.
“Publishers are going to need to think about their content as a more malleable asset,” said McCoy. “If you’re doing a novel, you don’t think of it as only a hardcover.”
With the proliferation of devices and screen sizes, publishers need to consider all of the different kinds of places their content could appear – and both compensate and take advantage of those different venues.
“It’s not just about tablets. EPUB 3 is going to live in browsers, in native applications,” and publishers that try to get their content onto screens of all sizes – and looking good – will be ahead of the curve, said Johnson. Scripts, or bits of code that answer questions for a piece of software, that can be built within EPUB 3 will allow publishers to optimize one piece of content for multiple screens, he added.

New Workflows
Publishers that want to build new kinds of reading experiences need to think about what new features they want to add to their books at the earliest possible stage.
“They need to figure out how they want their books to sing and dance,” said Eric Freese, until recently a solutions architect at Aptara, a Falls Church, Va.-based e-book production house; he was also part of the working group at IDPF that developed EPUB 3 and is now an information architect at Amsterdam-based health publisher Elsevier. “Do they want audio and video added in? If so, they need to be thinking about that at creation time, not publication time. The earlier the better. By thinking about it early, you’re more nimble and flexible with what you can do at the end.”
For those publishers that haven’t quite mastered the art of quality assurance (QA), EPUB 3 will bring fresh challenges, ones that should be addressed by changes in workflow.
“With EPUB 3, you have the capability to style things differently and have things adjust to layout,” said Johnson. “You have to make sure you have all the basics down. I encourage publishers to have a good way to do QA work.”

Hiring New, Expensive Workers
EPUB 3 is built on HTML 5. A relatively new coding language, HTML 5 isn’t yet a common skill for developers. And where there’s scarcity, there’s cost.
“If you’re doing children’s books or cookery or anything that needs to take advantage of interactivity, HTML 5 is going to be the core building block and that’s the core skill that publishers need to make sure they have in house or an outsourced relationship that they can count on as a business partner,” said McCoy.
Publishers will need to hire more in-house staff, said Johnson. They will either need to build their own HTML 5 development teams or at least hire a knowledgeable liaison for any vendors they work with.
“With this enhanced digital content, they [publishers] will need to grow the skills and capabilities of their staff,” said Johnson. “They will also demand more from their vendors.”
Building it or buying it, engaging an HTML 5 development team is a costly proposition.
According to Salary.com, the median salary for a Web applications developer in New York is nearly $95,000. And that’s for people whose skills may not even reach the high level necessary for top HTML 5 development.
And that doesn’t factor in the recruitment costs. Good developers are hard to come by, with the unemployment rate for technology workers under 4% for most of 2011 and companies like Google, Facebook and hot startups duking it out for top talent.

The Joy of Books

After organizing our bookshelf almost a year ago (http://youtu.be/zhRT-PM7vpA), my wife and I (Sean Ohlenkamp) decided to take it to the next level. We spent many sleepless nights moving, stacking, and animating books at Type bookstore in Toronto (883 Queen Street West, (416) 366-8973).

Everything you see here can be purchased at Type Books.

Grayson Matthews (http://www.graysonmatthews.com/) generously composed the beautiful, custom music.


But none of it could have been done without all the volunteer hands who shelved and reshelved books all night, every night. A special thanks goes out to:

Lisa Blonder Ohlenkamp
Mike Takasaki
Hannah Charlick
Liz Walker
Andrew Carty
Filipe Da Luz
Ruth Ann Cachero
Justin Turco
Adam Tuck
Michael Groppo
Curtis Denomme
Shannon Farrell
Steffi Raike
Jean Marc Douville
Mikhail Ferrara
Clayton Vrenjak
Rob Sturch
Marie Rupolo
Nery Orellana
Mike Greco
William Chong
Terri Vegso
Michael Leishman
Emma Leishman
Mike Kolberg
Ryan Speziale
Natalie Mathers


So who wants to help us do the Library of Congress next? :)

Leaked: Hachette Document Explains Why Publishers Are Relevant

By Jeremy Greenfield, Editorial Director, Digital Book World
Re-post from: http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2011/leaked-hachette-explains-why-publishers-are-relevant/?et_mid=528814&rid=232919400

 

With self-publishing tools proliferating and traditional publishing business models in flux, authors, agents and book-industry observers have been increasingly debating the relevance of publishing companies.

In his obituary to the year-long Domino Project, Seth Godin wrote that publishing companies and other traditional players that do not adapt to new modes of doing business will go extinct. Others have suggested the same.

Meanwhile, some authors like J.A. Konrath and David Gaughran have eschewed traditional relationships with publishers to create and distribute their work on their own. In the aftermath to the Book Country self-publishing tool launch from Penguin, some outspoken critics took the announcement as an opportunity to question publishers’ relevance.

Hachette Book Group, one of the world’s largest publishing companies, has a response. In a document leaked today to Digital Book World by someone inside the company, Hachette outlines just why publishers are relevant. The company has shown the document internally to employees and externally to a limited number of agents and authors.

“You have to take a long look at what you’re up to and how you’re changing and adapting,” said a Hachette executive who preferred not to be named and who confirmed the authenticity of the document. “We’re all trying to come up with good messaging.”

The executive explained that the document is a continual work-in-progress and would evolve as the publishing business evolved.

The document in its entirety below:

“Self-publishing” is a misnomer.

Publishing requires a complex series of engagements, both behind the scenes and public facing. Digital distribution (which is what most people mean when they say self-publishing) is just one of the components of bringing a book to market and helping the public take notice of it.

As a full service publisher, Hachette Book Group offers a wide array of services to authors:

1. Curator: We find and nurture talent:

• We identify authors and books that are going to stand out in the marketplace. HBG discovers new voices, and separates the remarkable from the rest.

• We act as content collaborator, focused on nurturing writing talent, fostering rich relationships with our authors, providing them with expert editorial advice on their writing, and tackling a huge variety of issues on their behalf.

2. Venture Capitalist: We fund the author’s writing process:

• At HBG we invest in ideas. In the form of advances, we allow authors the time and resources to research and write. In addition we invest continuously in infrastructure, tools, and partnerships that make HBG a great publisher partner.

3. Sales and Distribution Specialist: We ensure widest possible audience:

• We get our books to the right place, in the right numbers, and at the right time (this applies equally to print and digital editions). We work with retailers and distribution partners to ensure that every book has the opportunity to reach the widest possible readership.

• We ensure broad distribution and master supply chain complexity, in both digital and physical formats.

• We function as a new market pioneer, exploring and experimenting with new ideas in every area of our business and investing in those new ideas – even if, in some cases, a positive outcome is not guaranteed (as with apps and enhanced ebooks).

• We act as a price and promotion specialist (coordinating 250+ monthly, weekly and daily deals on ebooks at all accounts).

4. Brand Builder and Copyright Watchdog: We build author brands and protect their intellectual property:

• Publishers generate and spread excitement, always looking for new ways make our authors and their books stand out.  We’re able to connect books with readers in a meaningful way.

• We offer marketing and publicity expertise, presenting a book to the marketplace in exactly the right way, and ensuring that intelligence, creativity, and business acumen inform our strategy.

• We protect authors’ intellectual property through strict anti-piracy measures and territorial controls.

Should you ask Santa for a tablet or an e-reader?

By Edward C. Baig, USA TODAY

Re-Post from: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/story/2011-11-29/which-tablet-is-best-for-the-holidays/51474252/1

Folks haven't made this much fuss about tablets since biblical times.

Enlarge

These slate-style computers and dedicated electronic readers top many wish lists this holiday season. Yet, the landscape for the popular devices is changing. Despite the iPad's dominance, multimedia-capable tablets are no longer the exclusive province of Apple, what with Amazon breathing Kindle Fire down the iPad's throat. Most other comers have barely dented Apple's lead.

Amazon is feeling its own heat in the dedicated e-reader market that it continues to rule. Barnes & Noble's Nooks and other rival e-readers are providing spirited competition. 

While two out of three future tablet buyers plan to purchase an iPad, there is now for the first time a real contender for the No. 2 spot, according to a survey by ChangeWave Research in Bethesda, Md. Some 22% say they'll buy a Kindle Fire. That's a "devastating blow to a range of second-tier tablet manufacturers, including Motorola, RIM, Dell, HTC, (Hewlett-Packard) and Toshiba," ChangeWave says.

In a recent PriceGrabber survey, 79% of consumers indicated they would rather receive a tablet than a laptop computer. And 72% of shoppers said they believed tablets would replace e-readers as gifts.

Which is it for you? Dedicated reader or tablet? Or both? What are the key considerations? If your passions spread beyond books — which can be read on either type of device — to music, games, Web browsing and watching movies, a full-fledged tablet along the lines of the iPad 2 or one of its rivals makes sense, if your budget can handle it. 

Still, a strong case can be made for single-purpose readers.

The case for e-readers

For starters, the E Ink devices represented by the Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader and other devices keep improving. Page turns are faster. Text is crisp. Reading electronically no longer strikes people as unnatural. The displays are easy on the eyes and don't drain the battery as do the LCD screens on tablets. Barnes & Noble claims you can read an hour a day for two months on its fast-turn Nook Simple Touch device. By contrast, battery life on the iPad and other tablets is measured in hours and minutes.

E-reader hardware is light and pocket-size. You can buy and download e-books in a minute or less if you have Wi-Fi or (as is the case with a single Kindle model) cellular connectivity. Nowadays, you can borrow e-books from the library and, in the case of the Nook, lend books to a friend — albeit under tight restrictions.

•Prices. Boy, have prices fallen since the Kindle made its debut four years ago at what now seems like an exorbitant $399. Today, you can buy a Kindle that displays "Special Offers" for just $79 or pay $109 for a version without the "offers" screensaver and home screen ads. The model weighs less than 6 ounces, relies on physical controls and connects to the Kindle Store, where you can download e-books in a minute or less via Wi-Fi. Meantime, Amazon added touch-screen controls on the aptly named Wi-Fi-only $99 (with ads) or $139 (without ads) Kindle Touch. You have to pay $149 ($189 without ads) for a touch model that adds no-fee 3G cellular for those times when connecting to Wi-Fi is out of the question. Amazon also sells models with a keyboard for $139.

For its part, the Barnes & Noble Simple Touch Nook Reader fetches $99, around the same price as an entry-level Kobo reader. Among the Kobo features is the ability to earn awards tied to reading milestones.

Sony makes a big deal out of the fact that its $150 Sony Reader Wi-Fi device is ad-free.

•Sizing up the screen. As mentioned, E Ink devices do a tremendous job of replicating real paper. But with conventional 6-inch Kindles, Nooks and Sony Readers, you're swapping a color experience for shades of gray. That won't cut it if you want to admire illustrated children's books, picture books or shiny magazines.

E Ink displays on Kindles, Nooks and Sonys aren't back-lit, meaning you can't read in the dark.

But there are large upsides to E Ink: superior battery life, no glare and no eye strain.

Stepping up to a tablet

Last year, Barnes & Noble introduced Nook Color, kind of a hybrid between a conventional e-reader and a tablet with apps. With the recent launch of Nook Tablet, Barnes & Noble stepped up its game with a tablet that streams movies and TV shows (via apps such as Netflix and Hulu Plus). It goes head-to-head with Kindle Fire. As with Fire, Nook Tablet has a 7-inch screen, bigger than a regular Nook or Kindle but smaller than the iPad's nearly 10-inch screen. The result is you can stuff a 7-inch tablet in your jacket pocket, something you can't do with an iPad.

Nook Tablet and Kindle Fire are both tablets built on Google's Android operating system. But you'd be hard-pressed to tell that, because their interfaces are very different from what's usually seen on an Android slate. Nor can you grab apps on Fire or Nook Tablet via the Android Market store. Barnes & Noble and Amazon have dedicated app stores, each with fewer choices.

Most appealing is the price. At $249 for Nook Tablet and $199 for Fire, both tablets dramatically undercut the iPad 2 ($499 on up) and most other tablets that came before them. As always, there are trade-offs: Barnes & Noble and Amazon have far fewer apps than Apple. Neither device has a camera, which would be useful for video chat.

Weighing Nook Tablet vs. Kindle Fire is a bit like Coke vs. Pepsi: Which bookseller do you find tastier? Still, there are tangible differences. Fire beats Nook Tablet on price, and offers handy built-in stores for music and movies, which Barnes & Noble lacks. But the Nook Tablet comes out on top with on-board storage that is also expandable. And a neat Nook Tablet feature is that you can record your voice reading a kids book.

•Coming at the iPad. The first iPad and subsequent iPad 2 achieved market dominance for several reasons: excellent battery life, the most apps, and slick, easy-to-use iOS software.

Still, for all its popularity, the iPad has deficiencies. It doesn't run on 4G cellular networks, the fastest; there is no USB or HDMI port; and there are no memory expansion options. None of those are deal-breakers, but such holes do give rivals an opening.

Among the strongest competitors are Galaxy Tabs from Samsung that can tap 4G networks. These well-received Android models come in 7-, 8.9- and 10.1-inch screen versions. And the Galaxy Tab so closely resembles the iPad that Apple has sued Samsung, claiming the Galaxy tablets and some Samsung smartphones violate its intellectual property.

Generally speaking, companies chasing the iPad attempt to hook buyers with a fresh angle. Lenovo, the Chinese company behind ThinkPad laptops, pushed a $499 (and up) ThinkPad tablet that would appeal to a business-friendly consumer. ThinkPad Tablet is one of the few modern slates to take advantage of a pressure-sensitive digitizer pen, a $30 accessory that you can use to draw, doodle or capture notes in the boardroom. (The 7-inch HTC Flyer also has a digital pen.) Another cool accessory is a $100 keyboard folio that lets you prop up the tablet to use with a physical qwerty keyboard, a traditional strength of ThinkPad notebooks.

Toshiba also tries to compete by supplying features common to laptops. Its Android tablet, the $380 (and up) Thrive, has a full-size USB port you can use to connect flash drives with pictures, videos, music and documents. There's a full-size SD slot to accommodate memory cards that serve the same purpose. An HDMI port with an optional cable lets you connect Thrive to a high-definition TV monitor for viewing on the big screen. But a bulky design may be one reason that Thrive isn't exactly thriving.

Sony is coming at Apple with unusual designs. The "wedge" design on the Sony Tablet S ($500 and up) tablet is meant to evoke a folded-back magazine. Meanwhile, a new Android tablet from Sony, the Tablet P promised soon, has dual 5.5-inch displays. Why two screens? You might show a picture on one screen, and a map with the location where it was shot on another. The market will decide if the extra display is truly useful or merely a gimmick.

Research In Motion's BlackBerry PlayBook is a handsome 7-inch tablet, and it's been discounted to as low as $200 in some places. But PlayBook has generally flopped because it lacks native e-mail, cellular connectivity or the number of apps of rivals, and a key software update that may address certain shortcomings is delayed until February.

The 10.1-inch Motorola Xoom Android tablet, as low as $359 on sale, was generally well-received when it arrived early last year, but, like many Android tablets, hasn't sold well.

Earlier this year, Hewlett-Packard pulled the plug on the slick WebOS operating system behind its TouchPad tablet. But you can still find TouchPads for sale at attractive sub-$300 prices.

Some rivals compete on price. A recent search on Amazon.com showed that you can buy a Coby Kyros 7-inch Android tablet for as little as $112, and a PanDigital tablet for $87. 

These surely aren't iPads, but most customer reviews at the site are positive.

•On the horizon. Apple has bested Google when it comes to tablet acceptance. Whether Android can make significant inroads is an open question. Google is rolling out a new version of Android dubbed Ice Cream Sandwich that will unify software on its smartphones and tablets. It also remains to be seen what Google does with Motorola Mobility in tablets, when and if its proposed acquisition of that company goes through.

And don't rule out Microsoft. 

In very early versions, the Windows 8 operating system that runs on tablets looks very slick.

But that's getting ahead of the curve. 

Buyers this holiday season have a variety of pleasing options at various prices, whether they're springing for a budget e-reader or a pricey, full-scale multimedia tablet.

Is the iPad the Future for Magazines?

By Jillian | November 24, 2011

Does anybody remember when you used to go to these things outside of your home called stores to buy these glossy paper things called magazines? Well maybe we aren’t quite at the point yet where those paper copies are extinct, but it certainly seems like it’s moving in that direction.

American Media, Inc. announced today that they are releasing a custom publication digital edition of SHAPE magazine that will be free for consumers. Sponsored by Revlon, the Shape Your Life app will provide high-quality active lifestyle content to your iPad. Building on the success of the two company’s editorial section built over the last year.

This app celebrates the relationship that Revlon has enjoyed with SHAPE over the last year. As described in the press release, the Shape our Life App will include SHAPE’s favorite time-tested beauty products, expert style advice, get-the-look videos offering beauty tips for all of life’s biggest moments, the latest diet and nutrition news including the best foods to eat at specific pages, and exclusive access to the “Women in Action” panel which discuss topics ranging from career and relationships to beauty, style and entertaining.

As more books, newspapers and magazines move toward providing digital content, the more relevant the format becomes. It seems like a logical progression when we can take automatic and immediate delivery of the latest issues, save bookmarks within each that replicate across multiple devices and can carry entire libraries with us wherever we go. I know a lot of people will insist that they love the way paper-in-hand feels, but that only matters to the current generation that is used to that –soon that won’t be a reality that people remember. Imagine those who said all those years ago that they can’t imagine life without their 8-tracks or VHS tapes.

American Media, Inc. is responsible for some of the biggest brands in publishing, including Star, OK!, National Enquirer, Globe, Country Weekly, Soap Opera Digest, Soap Opera Weekly, Pixie, Shape, Men’s Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, Flex, Muscle & Fitness Hers, Fit Pregnancy and Natural Health. As early adopters of digital media technology, they also operate 18 of the largest web sites such as RadarOnline.com, OKmagazine.com, Shape.com, MensFitness.com, MuscleandFitness.com and FitPregnancy.com.

Why QR Codes Matter (And Not For the Reasons You Think)

By Linda Ruth | Posted on November 14, 2011
re-post from: http://searchengineland.com/what-is-a-qr-code-and-why-do-you-need-one-27588

Full disclosure: I love QR codes. I have ones that point to my Google Places pages, ones that link to various forms of contact information, one that ties people to my mobile site. So when the publisher of a pretty big magazine came to me last week to ask: why should we use QR codes, I found reasons to do so spilling from my lips (more accurately my keyboard).

You use them because they link the physical and virtual spaces via a little scannable code. You use them because this technology, known as 'hard linking'—physical to virtual, instead of the virtual-to-virtual, which is all that has been available til now—is analogous to the print-to-digital
transition publishers are negotiating, and an important tool in understanding and mastering the transition. You use them to push the envelope, to try new things, to think out-of-the-box. You use them because they are cutting edge. You use them because they are cool.

All of which, of course, are reasons many of us are using QR codes; but none of which is a valid (that is to say: bottom-line-based) reason.

Yes there are publishers that have intrigued their audiences and pleased their advertisers and made some money with these scaly little widgets, and I for one feel chuffed when they do. But is there a current, business-based reason to be using them—and are there ways of improving their chances of success?

Two of the current difficulties in making QR marketing effective are:

1) Many people still don't know what they are or how to use them, and;
2) It still often feels easier to type in a SMS keyword or number than it is to scan a QR code

To effectively market with QR codes requires the solution of both problems in one marketing effort. The solution to the first is simply to never put together a program of any sort without including instructions to the user in a clear, sequential way how to participate—beginning with downloading the reader app.

The solution the most successful marketers have found to the second, apart from doing all their marketing to geeks like me and you that just love to try anything new, has been to make the slight additional level of difficulty part of the game. Don't just plaster QR codes all over things and have them lead to ordinary business cards, site pages, or product listings (as I already admit to having done myself).  Include it as part of an insider's game, and make the payoff something not otherwise available—an exclusive prize, bonus, opportunity, or tip, a bit of QR-exclusive esoteria. 

Which still doesn't answer the question: why should a publisher market with them? And to that I would answer: a decade or so ago we were all asking each other the same question about our online presence. It's up to publishers, and to marketers, to make sure they have a level of theoretical science developed so they have something to use when applied science catches up. In this case the application is the consumer. And the consumer will be caught up to us—and pulling ahead—before we know it.

But there is a better reason—or at least a more immediately justifiable one—according to mobile marketing whiz Dan Hollings. Hollings has been testing subscriber retention on his mobile site, and what he's found is this: his highest success rate for keeping subscribers to his mobile list comes from the segment of subscribers that opted into some offline tie in. In other words at the convergence of physical and virtual space, where there exists a link between the two, is the place where those who opt in are less likely to opt out again.

That is reason enough to capture every publisher's attention, and opportunity enough for every publisher to leverage.

Gain insights from in-depth interviews with the presidents and CEOs of leading publishing companies in The Power of Print free whitepaper and learn how these companies are growing their print products.

David Meerman Scott Talks Tablets

By Dianna Dilworth on November 17, 2011 2:45 PM

Business book author David Meerman Scott thinks that the Kindle Fire is going to change everything for business book publishing. The author of  Newsjacking: How to Inject Your Ideas Into A Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage caught up with eBookNewser for an interview about how tablets change the reading experience for books.

EBN: How do tablets change the reading experience for business books?

DMS: Tablets bring a seamless non-linear experience to reading a book. You can instantly jump from one part of the book to another which is something I’ve always wished for, as a reader of business books and as an author of them. While a black and white graphic is okay in a print business book, the color component and the ability to size for detail is compelling. And you can instantly link from the book to external content too. It means a book read on a tablet is like reading a blog post with links to valuable content from other places. This new book experience means watching the video the author mentioned with one click. It means you can check out the Twitter feed of the expert cited in the text. You can see the cool picture that was once worth 1,000 words.

EBN: Will it require authors to keep updating their content to make sure links are current and content is updated?

DMS: Yes. Links constantly break and new content becomes available. I have an intern who helps me review links on a regular basis. Using a spreadsheet, we check each link to find ones that are broken or redirecting readers, and update them. With my print books, I’ve been doing that as new editions come out (I have links as footnotes). With tablets, I hope to push new versions out on a regular cycle.

EBN: Do you think of the Kindle Fire and the Nook Tablet will be as popular as the iPad?

DMS: Most tablets are just technology. The computer is built because every company needs a tablet but it is not deliberately built to drive a content-driven experience. Apple (with the iPad) and Amazon are both pioneers in this new world of optimized electronic content. I am watching Amazon closely in this marketplace for one simple reason, online content. Amazon is a content company that happens to create technology. For example, Amazon pioneered user reviews which they own hundreds of millions of. They have a fantastic algorithm for categorizing their product listings in a way that makes them easy to both search and browse. No doubt that Amazon is one of the biggest content companies in the world and the Kindle is built to serve the content, not the other way around. For that reason, I predict it will become very popular.

EBN: How do you read eBooks?

DMS: I travel nearly every week from my home base in Boston to speaking gigs around the world. When I am on a plane, I like to read on my Kindle. I got the first version when it was released and have continually upgraded and now have a Kindle Fire. I carry a few dozen books on the Fire so if I start a book and don’t like it or feel like a biography or thriller or business book, I always have one ready.