A library in the palm of your hand
Feb 11 2010 by Karen Dent, The Journal
Hailed by some as a shot in the arm for the publishing industry, Apple's iPad device was launched in the US last month and will soon be causing ripples on this side of the Atlantic. As Karen Dent discovers, the North East is already preparing itself for the e-book revolution to reach a wider audience.
Inpress, which sells to bookshops on behalf of 40 independent publishers, is itself gearing up to stake its claim for a place in the e-book marketplace.
Although the company already has sample chapters available to download from its website, it is aiming to have 60 e-books ready for readers by this spring.
It has put together a ‘pilot group’ of six publishers, including Flambard Press in Newcastle – to develop its initial e-books offering.
“It isn’t that expensive to make an e-book – it’s basically a PDF so it’s pretty straightforward,” she said,
The next step for the company is to develop iPhone applications for e-books, which Inpress hopes to have ready by the summer.
“Quite a lot of publishers are developing iPhone applications. We have funding to develop an iPhone app and we are meeting with the consultants,” said Ms Ogden.
Changes in the way consumers read books and the repercussions for both the digital and publishing industries is currently creating quite a buzz.
The issue is likely to dominate the agenda of an international conference in New York, which Ms Ogden will be attending later this month. The new trends in digital publishing will be coming under the microscope at the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing event, which is expected to attract delegates from the industry worldwide.
Experts estimate that by 2012, more people will be connecting to the internet via a mobile, handheld device than traditional fixed broadband. Although this creates massive opportunities for publishers, there are also concerns about the threats it may also cause to their businesses and incomes.
Having already seen what happened in the music industry when downloading songs became as common as buying a CD, the publishing world is on its guard against being ripped off.
Ms Ogden said: “The publishing industry is taking caution from the experience the music industry had from downloadable files.
“Digital rights will be a big thing – digital rights management is becoming an issue that we all have to think about.”
Getting the costing right for the new market is also a big issue that publishers will be grappling with.
“There is a lot of debate about how you price e-books,” said Ms Ogden. “The consumer is finding them relatively expensive at the moment.”
But despite being in the enthusiastic vanguard of fans of the forthcoming digital publishing revolution, Ms Ogden doesn’t believe e-readers will totally replace the real thing. “I don’t think we’ll ever give up printed books,” she said.
