Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020 Blog

iBooks Author: Appreciating Apple's Intent

Apple's recent announcement and release of their iBooks Author tool was met with plenty of controversy. This HuffPost article pretty well sums things up.

My question is simply this: Why all the fuss? Apple's intent has never been to improve the book publishing industry. Just like Amazon and any other ebook vendor, Apple's goal is to capture share of this rapidly growing segment. In Apple's case, they've simply decided to offer an authoring tool that's capable of creating some pretty darned cool products. If Amazon were to do the same thing and create a terrific authoring tool for mobi or KF8 format would the industry be as upset? I don't think so.

How is this any different from the App Store model itself? Developers are creating apps for the App Store and they know they'll only run on an iOS device. They also realize they'll have to go through Apple's approval process before getting into the App Store.

Prior to the release of iBooks Author the content creation and distribution model looked like this:

1. Author writes material in favorite word processor.
2. Author/publisher edit and convert that content into mobi format for distribution on Amazon, EPUB format for distribution through iBookstore and others, etc

The exact same model still exists today, even with the introduction of iBooks Author. That's right. Apple's EULA doesn't really lock you into their distribution channel for your content. That restriction only applies to a "book or other work you generate using [the iBooks Author] software." All they're really trying to do is prevent you from tweaking the output of their tool to create content for other distribution channels. OK, that's kind of annoying but far from the lock-in nightmare so many people are describing it as. Based on my interpretation, you're able to use the same content as input to the iBooks Author tool as you'd use for a mobi-formatted product you want to sell on Amazon.

(I should also point out that I'm far from an Apple fanboy. Anyone who knows me realizes I dumped my iPhone last year for an Android-based Samsung Galaxy S II (and yes, I love it). I also tried to dump my iPad for a Kindle Fire but found the Fire user experience to be very disappointing. I'll probably make the jump to another Android tablet later this year, once key apps like Zite are available. In the mean time though, I want to make it clear I'm not here to shill for Apple. If anything, I'm currently in a stage where I'd prefer to buy devices that aren't made by the content providers. Samsung is high on my list, for example.)

Apple doesn't have an objective to move the publishing industry forward. They see an opportunity to reinvent this industry and they feel they can do so within their own, closed ecosystem. It's as simple as that and it's consistent with everything the've done in the App Store up to now.

Let's also not forget that the iBooks Author tool is free. It's not like we paid Apple $50, $100 or more for some authoring tool that we thought could work for all content formats and distribution channels. If the tool's feature set is compelling enough I'd like to think the other ebook vendors (e.g., Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Kobo, etc.) will have to come up with something at least as powerful for their own platforms. If not, they get left in the dust and Apple gains share. Seems pretty fair to me.

In the mean time, I plan to do some hands-on testing with iBooks Author. At first I was discourged because you can't download iBooks Author unless you're running Lion. I'm still on Snow Leopard but an O'Reilly colleague sent me this link which shows you how to tweak a couple of settings so you can download and run iBooks Author on a Snow Leopard system. I just tried it and it works fine. (You just have to carefully read and interpret the steps since it's a translation from French to English!)

Jason Calacanis Shares His Thoughts on Amazon's Dominance

Jason Calacanis, co-founder of Weblogs, Inc. and currently host of This Week in Startups is never afraid to voice his opinions. One of his recent articles entitled The Cult of Amazon Prime caught my eye because it paints such a vivid picture of Amazon's growing market dominance. I appreciate the leadership role Amazon has played over the years but I'm also concerned about the dangers of one vendor controlling too much of the market. Jason agreed to discuss my concerns in this interview. Key points include: 

• Does Amazon Prime spell the end of the local mall?  -- It won't happen immediately, and there will always be some need for in-person shopping but Amazon Prime is already having an impact on the local shopping experience. [Discussed at :40]
• Serendipity is overrated-- Jason makes a good point about how what you discover at a brick-and-mortar store is often what the vendor or their supplier want you to discover and this experience can easily be recreated with the "people who bought X also bought Y" model. [Discussed at 2:40]
• Coming Soon to a Location Near You: The Amazon Store? -- Rather than continuing to use BestBuy and other stores for showrooming, Jason talks about the possibility of Amazon creating their own specialty retail presence where you could touch and feel big-ticket items and have them shipped to you the next day. [Discussed at 4:01]
• The instant gratification problem won't exist forever -- Amazon has already implemented same-day shipping in some locations and it's possible a resolution to the state sales tax issue Amazon is currently in the midst of could lead to broader same-day delivery service. [Discussed at 6:01]
• AmazonBasics is a preview of what's to come -- We're all familiar with private label goods at the local grocery store. AmazonBasics is a similar program. Today it only offers gadget accessories but it could easily lead to the Amazon toothpaste or Corn Flakes down the road. [Discussed at 7:22]
• Don't fear the controlling, manipulative market leader -- I'm skeptical of this but Jason believes that technology and other efficiencies make barriers to entry so low that a market leader who exploits their position will get knocked off by a new startup. [Discussed at 14:24]
• Walmart vs. Amazon -- Who will compete with Amazon to keep them honest? Jason believes Walmart is the only serious threat. [Discussed at 18:34]

Tools of Change (TOC) Executive Roundtable

Large conferences like Tools of Change (TOC) New York are a wonderful way to learn about new developments in publishing as well as spend time with many of our peers. And while the networking and idea exchange that happens at TOC is second to none I believe there's an opportunity for us to do more, especially for the executive community. That's why TOC is about to launch a new series of periodic meetings for publishing executives.

We're calling these the TOC Executive Roundtables and they're a way for CxO's and other senior level leaders to discuss and, more importantly, take action on the most pressing issues we face. Our first roundtable takes place on Monday, February 13th in New York. Even though that's the first day of TOC NY it's important to note that the Executive Roundtable is completely separate from the larger conference.

We'll have speakers and a schedule for this first Executive Roundtable meeting, but this will be a much smaller gathering. And the speakers won't just be standing at a podium offering one-way communication. After all, there's a reason we're calling them "roundtables." The speakers will be leading the discussion and encouraging all the attendees to share their point of view.

We've got a couple of terrific speakers lined up for this first event. Attendance at the TOC Executive Roundtable is limited to maintain an intimate setting and foster dialogue among all participants. As a result, registration is by invitation only.

If you're an executive in the publishing industry and you'll be in New York on 2/13 please email me your name, title and company so that I can tell you more about this unique opportunity.

Kindle Fire Lessons Learned

I don't regret spending the $200 I paid Amazon for my Kindle Fire. I tried it out and decided it wasn't for me, so I gave it to my daughter instead. Even though I no longer use the Fire I wanted to share the things I learned about the device and myself over the past several weeks. Let's start off with the good side of things.

Kindle Fire Pros

• Form factor -- I prefer the Fire's size to the iPad's. It's nice being able to wrap your hand around the entire device and the lighter weight is a big plus for the Fire. Of course, it's the same form factor as RIM's Playbook, and given how poorly that device has performed it's clear you need more than just a great form factor.
• Meets the needs of typical consumer -- The Fire wasn't for me but my daughter really likes it. That's why you see so many good and bad reviews of it. Consumers who want a cheap tablet are OK without all the bells and whistles of the iPad, for example. Early adopters, or those who want to push the technology to the limit, are disappointed though. More on the early adopter in a moment...
• Connection to Amazon content -- There's no question Amazon is using the razors and blades economic model here and the Fire is clearly the razor they're willing to sell at little to no profit. Connectivity to Amazon's ebooks, video and audio content is second to none with the Fire. And tying in the Prime membership program will only lead to more Amazon products being sold.

That's it as far as pluses go. Now let's talk about the minuses.

Kindle Fire Cons

• Connection to Amazon content -- As easy as it is for Fire users to access Amazon content it's just that difficult to access anyone else's. If there's one thing I've learned from the Fire it's that my next tablet will not be locked in to one provider's content. That probably means I won't be buying from the typical content providers, of course. I don't mind paying more for that capability, btw. So if Samsung comes up with a terrific tablet that meets all my needs, and it's $100 or so more than the Fire, I'm in.
• Awful for the early adopter/tinkerer -- As noted above, the Fire is pretty good for the typical consumer. But if you're buying it to root and open it up you'll be disappointed. Even if you go through the rooting process you'll quickly find some of the apps in the Android Market simply won't run on it (e.g., NHL Gamecenter App, the swipe keyboard, etc.) And if you do root it, watch out for those unsolicited auto-updates...
• Auto-updates -- This one's ridiculous. How in the world can Amazon think that forcing OS updates on every Fire owner is the right thing to do? Amazon, take a page out of the Apple book and let your customers decide when and if they want the update. I couldn't help but feel the auto-update was intended more to penalize rooters than to fix problems and offer more functionality. It also reminded me of the unfortunate "1984" debacle Amazon brought upon themselves a few years ago. Really stupid.
• "Silk" browser -- This has to be the biggest embarassment of all for Amazon. Remember how excited Bezos was when he demo'd the Fire's lightning-fast browser at the press event last year? It turns out the browser isn't that fast after all. In fact, in my totally unscientific side-by-side testing, the Fire almost always loaded pages slower than both my iPad and my RIM Playbook. Even with all these other issues I figured the Fire would offer a browsing experience that's second to none. The results were considerably weaker than promised. I'm disappointed that Amazon hasn't come out and admitted their failure here. It's remarkable that they still prominently feature the Silk browser on the Fire's product page. They seem to be in denial about it as they haven't even hinted it will be fixed in a future software update. As much as I criticize Apple, this is something Steve Jobs never would have let happen.
• Missing a "killer" app -- This is the reason why I had to keep my iPad handy throughout my Fire use and am stuck (for the time being) on iOS. Zite is my go-to app. I use it every single day. It's outstanding. It's a free app but I'd gladly pay as much as $10 or $15 for it, especially now that I'm totally addicted to it. There's no Android version of Zite...yet. I can't even consider another Android tablet till Zite is available. Flipboard is a close second and it too doesn't exist in the Android world. Amazon should have invested some money with the developers of apps like Zite and Flipboard to make sure they were available when the Fire launched. Better yet, wouldn't it be nice if a Fire-specific app or two came out that made the device irresistable? I'd love to be talking about a Fire or Android app that's unbeatable but not available on iOS. I can't think of a single one.

I realize I'm a fairly unique user and that plenty of Fire owners are perfectly happy with their purchase. That's great, but I'd also love to see Amazon step up, act like the market leader they're trying to be and address these shortcomings.

I'm convinced that my next tablet will be an Android-based one. The only Android tablet I'll consider though is one that gives me access to all types of content, not just content from the company who sells the hardware. Heck, as closed as they are, even Apple lets you install e-reader apps from Amazon, B&N, etc. One of the reasons they can do that is they're confident they've got a terrific piece of hardware and you'll want to buy it over the competition. They also charge a premium for it. I've learned it's worth paying a premium, as long as it's not ridiculously high, for the ability to choose from multiple content providers.

So while my next tablet won't be the cheapest on the market, I won't make the same mistake twice and limit myself to one source of content for it.

Scott Berkun on Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing

Scott Berkun has enjoyed fame and fortune as an author working with a traditional publisher (O'Reilly), so why did he venture into the world of self-publishing for his latest book, Mindfire? Is he happy with the results and will he ever work with a traditional publisher again? Those are a few of the questions he answers in this TOC interview. Key points include:

• Self-publishing was a learning opportunity  -- Some authors are curious to learn the finer aspects of what goes into making a book and Scott quickly learned a lot with the Mindfire experience. [Discussed at 1:05]
• Blogging and book writing have always gone hand-in-hand for Scott -- His blog is a wonderful sounding board and helps him shape whatever book he's currently working on including the title, cover design and more. [Discussed at 2:10]
• Self-publishing is both easy and hard -- Technology makes it easy to publish almost anything these days; it's all the work that goes into not only the writing but also the editing, cover design, proofreading, indexing, marketing, etc., that make it so challenging. [Discussed at 4:35]
• Self-publishing also requires self-promotion -- Author platforms are more important today than ever before; it's true for traditional publishing too but even more so for self-published products. [Discussed at 8:25]
• The PR effort required was the biggest surprise -- Scott used a giveaway campaign to build momentum and extend his future reach. [Discussed at 9:54] 
• How can traditional publishers avoid losing authors to self-publishing?  -- Scott turns the question around and asks why this decision is an either/or.  [Discussed at 17:14]
• The opportunity to learn from self-published authors  -- Editors often abandon their authors who test the self-publishing waters when what they should really be doing is talking more with them to learn what's working and what's not, how lessons learned from self-publishing can be applied in traditional publishing, etc.  [Discussed at 20:43]

Brian Fling on PinchZoom's New HTML5-based Publishing Platform

Is HTML5 one of the keys to publishing's future? Brian Fling, founder of PinchZoom, think so. His company's new publishing platform is called PinchZoom Press and it's built atop HTML5. In this interview Brian tells us about what PinchZoom Press can do and why it's an important new entrant in the e-publishing space. Key points include:

• The platform consists of three different pieces of technology  -- A native app for iOS devices, a layout tool and a content management system. [Discussed at 1:50]
• Why choose HTML5 rather than EPUB 3? -- As flexible and powerful as EPUB is, it's still not as platform agnostic as HTML5. Plus, every device comes with a web browser but not necessarily an EPUB reader. [Discussed at 2:56]
• But it's really "not about EPUB or HTML" -- Don't focus on the end client. It's about understanding how your content is managed and about how your content is presented in a mixed platform world. [Discussed at 5:07]
• Portability introduces some limitations -- HTML5 is wonderful for portability and knowing that your product will render well on all platforms but it also means you might not have access to sensors, cameras and other potentially important device features. [Discussed at 7:20]
• Native apps are here to stay -- Yes, that means we'll have to invest in apps across at least two platforms. The simple truth is the native app will probably always offer the best user experience for that particular platform. [Discussed at 10:40] 
• Pricing is still being finalized -- PinchZoom is leaning towards only charging for the content management system, and that's likely to be a monthly fee.  [Discussed at 19:45]

Breaking the Page, Preview Edition, by Peter Meyers

Peter Meyers is the author of our latest TOC publishing project. His ebook is called Breaking the Page and a Preview Edition of it is now available for free. How does Peter's ebook differ from the other TOC ebooks we've been working on? Let's start with the opening statement from his introduction:

Some days I feel like a better title for this project would be "Breaking the Book: How eBooks Botch the Reading Experience." Why the pessism? As digital screens replace printed pages, the results often disappoint as much as they delight.

Yeah, that pretty much sums things up.

When Peter first pitched this idea to us I knew we needed to publish it. It closely aligns with our goals for TOC. In particular, we're focused on brining the community together to work on the reinvention of publishing. Pretty ambitious, yes, but our community needs to work together on this opportunity.

Later in the introduction Peter goes on to talk about the questions he wants Breaking the Page to help answer. They include:

• How can digital books remedy the shortcomings of print?
• What is the purpose of the page?
• Given an "infinite canvas" what kind of content is best suited to occupy this space?
• How do you take things like gestures and motion and turn them into editorial elements on par with the introduction of, say, color ink?

What is the role in a digital book of the editor? of editing?

These are questions one person isn't going to be able to answer. That's why I want to encourage you to get this free Preview Edition of Breaking the Page and join in the discussion. Give us your feedback on Peter's project. Attend our free webcasts. Download and check out our free video podcast series. Attend TOC NY in February (use the discount code "WIKERT" to knock 15% off the price, btw). Sign up for our free enewsletter. In short, become an active part of the community and help our industry get beyond what I like to refer to as the current state of quick-and-dirty-print-to-e-conversions.

Breaking the Page is a great place to start. I hope you'll get your free copy today and let us know what you think.

Save Time & Learn More with TOC's Free Publishing Newsletter

Keeping up with all the publishing industry news is a daunting task these days. Earlier this year I joined Kat Meyer as one of the chairs for our Tools of Change (TOC) conference and since then I've invested a lot of time each day staying on top of all the latest developments. But there are so many news feeds, blog posts, tweets, etc., that it's impossible to catch everything. That's why the TOC team is working together to help you find the best of the best and providing the results it in a free newsletter.

Throughout the week we gather the most important items, review them as a team, vote on the best and then summarize them in the TOC newsletter. If you haven't subscribed yet you need to do so right now. Simply head over to this page, enter your email address and click "Submit." 

If you've missed the last couple of TOC newsletters all is not lost. You can still read the most recent one here and the one before that here. Check out both of those and I think you'll agree that the TOC newsletter is simply the best source of industry news and commentary available. Check it out and tell me what you think of it. You can always reach me at jwikert@oreilly.com.

P.S. -- Over the past several months my coleagues and I have worked hard to build TOC into something much more significant than a once- or twice-a-year in-person event. We now feature a steady stream of webcasts, video podcasts, short form content and much more. In short, it's a year-round engagement opportunity we're offering the publishing community. If you want to see what's coming up in TOC-land, head over to oreilly.com/toc. If you're looking to register for the next NY event you can still go to toccon.com. Be sure to register soon though as we're trending well ahead of last year's rate and are quickly heading towards an even earlier sell-out for 2012.

The Paperless Book, by Todd Sattersten

Today's piece is a guest blog post from Todd Sattersten. Todd is the author of our TOC publication, Every Book Is a Startup. I love the points he makes in this article and I think it's an important read for everyone in the publishing industry:

Stephen Colbert opened his October 25th, 2011 show with his normal exuberance. He bragged about his special early access to the iPhone, the iPad, and the iV (a product that feeds the Internet directly into your veins and assured us a short wait of six moths before its release). The release of the Walter Issacson’s Steve Jobs would be no different as he pulled the 600-page biography from behind the desk, but Colbert immediately became perplexed.

The single finger touchscreen swipe on the cover didn’t turn pages. When you turned the book upside down, the picture didn’t reorient. Colbert complained there was no place to plug in his headphones so he could listen to it. And then he tried to activate the voice recognition by touching the bottom of the cover, “Tell me about Steve Jobs. Where is the nearest church or camera store?” He ended the segment saying that the device would be soon released with "a revolutionary softcover." The jokes played well to the geekish sensibilities of the studio audience, but I am not sure even the show’s writers knew how well the sketch described the confused state of book publishing.

Steve Jobs will serve as a prominent road marker on the path from atoms to bits. The decision for Simon & Schuster to hold the digital release two weeks to match the physical release even after the death of Jobs is worthy of a Harvard Business School case. And at the same time, the fact that the majority of people will still use paper to read the story of the individual who did more to bring computers to desktops and laptops of individuals around the world should not be lost. 

Colbert’s poking fun at the Issacson biography repeats again a meme that we in the publishing industry should be gravely concerned about—our customers don’t know what a book is anymore.

In July 2011, I published an experimental project with O’Reilly called Every Book Is a Startup. The project was meant to poke at the boundaries of traditional publishing. The book was created around the idea that new material would be released over time, culminating in a finished work early in 2012. Readers would be encouraged to constantly give feedback about the material. The pricing was dynamic, increasing slowly to match the amount of the material available released, but once purchased, a customer received all future updates for free.

We are only using one distribution point at the start of the project, oreilly.com, because the distribution system for electronic books is not designed to allow an ebook to be updated and released again. You might remember one of the side effects of the Amazon’s 2009 recall of 1984 was that after the book was restored to their system, customers found their bookmarks and notes had disappeared. 

We unfortunately found the same problem with our release strategy. Wonderful publishing startups like Readmill and SocialBook that have created the possibility for readers using epub files to highlight important passages and share those with others back through the web, but when a reader of Every Book Is A Startup loaded a new edition, their digital artifacts suffer the same fate as the readers of 1984, the loss of their old thoughts as I presented them with my new ones.

I have been hesitant to call Every Book Is A Startup a book because of the expectations people hold for a book: a finished work, written from a position of singular authority, available in some way in a physical form. What I never expected was how strongly the qualities of a book would be brought forward from the physical to the digital. Digital books have been designed to carry forward the same atomic quality of immutability of physical books. As I reached out to my colleagues in the working in the world of ebooks, the consensus was that no one had considered a reality where an author given the ability to distribute directly and virtually cost-free would consider updating their work and the consequences that might have. 

Bits and atoms don’t behave the same way, but we have built the next step forward in publishing like they do.

The trouble to this point is that a book is a book.  Stacey Madden used precisely those words to title an essay in the inaugural issue of Toronto Review of Books that describes this predicament. "I do not mean to argue the advantages of paperbound books over their electronic counterparts," says Madden. "The contents of both are, for the most part, the same, and the differences lie mainly in medium. I am simply pointing out a semantic fact. E-books are not 'books' but digitized compositions." She firmly believes the book’s 550 year old meaning that connects both form and format should be maintained. "Before a collection of human thoughts is transformed into what we call a 'book', it is merely a story, a manuscript, a document, or a text." Madden points to the need for more of us to see the difference between a book and its electronic counterparts.

Now, Madden writes further about the poetic qualities of the book and declares the superiority of the bound volume for its weight, smell, and ability to act as apartment furnishing. This judgment undermines the broader point and shows from another perspective the real trouble we are in.

The people who love books for what they are and what they have been are grabbing for their hardcovers and their paperbacks and saying "This word belongs to us." The digerati paving the way with wireless tablets and social networking recommendation services are trying to say, "You don’t understand, we have books and we have made them way better." This is messy and leads to confusion.

We are living through a time in book publishing where words fail us, a situation that we should all find some irony in given the products we sell. We need some new language that describes what happens and, more importantly, what is possible when the words are separated from the paper. Those two things need to be separated so we can build systems and infrastructure that supports the new capabilities of the technology.

For several decades, what we know today as a car was referred to as a horseless carriage. It was easier to describe what this new invention as what it was not, rather than what it was.

Maybe, there are books and there are paperless books. I know it is a little awkward, and you want to ask yourself, "But what does that mean?", but when you remove the paper from a book, it becomes so much easier to see the possibilities.

Content Lessons Learned from NHL GameCenter LIVE

I'm a huge hockey fan and even though I pay Comcast extra for the NHL Network I only get to see a few games a week, most of which don't interest me. I want to see my favorite team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, but they're not on the cable channels frequently enough. I'd like to have access to every Penguins game and the only option for that is NHL's GameCenter LIVE subscription. It costs $169 though and, being a cheapskate, I resisted signing up...till now.

I coughed up $169 over the weekend and I'm glad I did. Now that I've used the service for a few days I've discovered there are a number of lessons GameCenter can teach those of us who manage other types of content:

The ongoing value of the direct sale -- When you sell direct you capture 100% of the transaction. There's no middleman. So now the NHL has a direct relationship with me and I'm no longer some unknown customer with Comcast in the middle. The NHL now has an excellent opportunity to upsell to me, especially since they'll quickly discover my preferences.

Trust your customers -- I was amazed to discover that I could use my GameCenter account on more than one device at the same time. That means I can watch one game on my iPad while another is playing on my computer. I'm assuming this means I'll be able to share my account with my son (who's also a big NHL fan). If so, we could both watch the same or different games simultaneously. That was a very pleasant surprise, btw, as I expected them to lock the second device out. Think of this as the equivalent to a DRM-free ebook. I'm sure the NHL doesn't want me posting my account credentials for anyone to use but their system is loose enough to surprise and delight. I can't wait to watch two games simultaneously (on different devices) when a couple of good ones are on at the same time! Btw, this is how all types of content access should work. But with all the restrictions and limitations we encounter every day in the digital world I was blown away to see how liberal GameCenter's access policies are. This makes me like them and their product even more. Trust is an amazing thing, isn't it? :-)

Make sure your content is available everywhere (including direct!) -- This sounds so obvious but it's so frequently overlooked. Sure, some of the NHL content was available to me via cable but I wanted more. Are you only making your e-content available on the "big" sites? Are those sites reaching all your potential global customers? Probably not. Once again, that's why you need a strong direct sales presence and the ability to serve that content globally.

Make sure it's on every platform -- I can watch games on any of my devices. That includes Mac, Windows, iPad, Android phone, and yes, even my Blackberry Playbook. Are all of your ebooks available in EPUB, mobi and PDF? Those are the key three today and if your content isn't available in all of those formats you're definitely missing some platform opportunities. More importantly, when a customer buys your product do they receive it in all those formats? Unless you're selling it directly as a multi-format product (like we do on oreilly.com) I'll bet the answer to that is no. Don't force your customers to buy mobi today and epub separately tomorrow, for example. That's irritating. Give them all formats in one transaction. This once again underscores the importance of having a strong direct channel. After all, you're probably safe assuming the big e-tailers are only going to offer the format that best suits their needs, not the customer's.

Pricing shouldn't be a race to the bottom -- At first that $169 price tag sounded awfully rich to me. But the more I looked into the service the more I realized it's actually quite reasonable. That's mostly because the NHL is delivering a very high quality product without the limitations found in other services (e.g., MLB's AtBat). All the games I care about are featured and the video is somewhere between standard and high def; pretty remarkable considering it's coming in via wifi. Every ebook doesn't have to be $9.99 or less. Consider your product's overall value proposition before you give in to the pressures of a low-priced solution.

Kindle Device License Limits Are Stupid

There, I said it. I'm betting most consumers and quite a few publishers don't realize that Amazon has limits in place to prevent you from loading one Kindle ebook on more than 6 devices within the same account. You're probably wondering why I have so many devices connected to the same account. The answer is simple: I like to test new devices and the old ones become hand-me-down's to family members. They all remain on the same account though.

Amazon has a default maximum of 6 devices for any given Kindle ebook. Once you try to get it onto the 7th device you're greeted with an error message saying, "License Limit Reached", and they nudge you to buy another copy of the product. No way. I already bought it once and I'm not buying it again.

This is yet another example of why DRM sucks. Someone decided 6 was a magical number and so no title can be read across more than 6 devices. Sure, I could de-register or maybe even just delete the book from one or two of my older devices but why should I have to?!

Limitations like this, including DRM in general, are evil and should be done away with. Amazon and publishers, please start trusting your customers and eliminate stupid barriers like this. You're not protecting your revenue stream this way but you're doing a terrific job of irritating your customers and reminding them that you don't trust them.

Fluidinfo CEO Terry Jones on API's & Why Publishers Should Offer Them

Publishers and authors obviously have a sense of how they intend their content to be used but what if there are other ways of accessing and consuming content that publisher and author didn't even consider? It reminds me of that great Henry Ford quote: "If I'd asked people what they wanted, they would have said 'a faster horse'." The point is sometimes we just don't know what we want. That's where exposing content via API's can help. As we talk about in this interview with Fluidinfo CEO Terry Jones, APIs enable developers to work with your content like a box of Legos, building solutions you may never have dreamed of. Key points include:

• What's an API?  -- Just as user interfaces enable access to information by users, API's enable access to information by programmers.  [Discussed at :54]
• The "read-only" model is not the future -- Publishers have grown accustomed to a one-way communication. We produce content but generally don't let users enhance or modify that content. That may have worked well in the print world but the digital world demands more. As Terry notes, the real world is "writeable." [Discussed at 5:15]
• Publishers are just starting to recognize audience signals-- There's value in not only detecting these signals but acting on them. [Discussed at 10:55]
• Reading has always been a social activity -- Much takes place in isolation but think about why page numbers exist, for example. [Discussed at 12:10]
• How do you manage control in an open API access model?-- It's not as scary as you might think. There are plenty of control mechanisms that can and should exist when exposing your content via API's. [Discussed at 13:45]
• Mobile changes everything -- Simple paywall access via a browser isn't the best solution. Mobile offers a completely new opportunity to distribute and monetize content...but it has to be done correctly, of course. [Discussed at 18:50] 
• Why not just offer access via HTML5? -- HTML5 is a delivery good delivery mechanism but API's are more like offering a toolbox for building even more powerful solutions. [Discussed at 28:16]

Jesse Potash on What Make PUBSLUSH Press Different

PUBSLUSH Press has been described as "a Kickstarter for books." That's a fair comparison to some extent, but as their founder Jesse Potash points out, there already is a Kickstarter out there and they already offer some book projects! PUBSLUSH isn't simply some new self-publishing option. They're approaching the model differently and are taking some bold steps to help eradicate global illiteracy. Key points include: 

• Crowd-funding vs. non-profit publishing  -- In the Kickstarter model the funding can be used at the author's discretion but with PUBSLUSH the funding is primarily used in "the first stage" of the publishing process.  [Discussed at 1:00]
• Traditional editors are welcome -- PUBSLUSH not only allows editors to come in and extend offers to PUBSLUSH authors...they actually encourage it! [Discussed at 2:19]
• Authors are never charged a dime...ever-- They're not really a self-publisher and they're far from a traditional publisher. PUBSLUSH simply falls somewhere in between the two. [Discussed at 3:10]
• PUBSLUSH is all about discovery -- Despite the large number of titles published every year PUBSLUSH can help solve the discoverability problem. [Discussed at 3:47]
• Community reviews are one of the features that make PUBSLUSH special -- The role is to "review, share and fund." [Discussed at 6:10]
• Linking publishing with literacy -- For every book they sell they donate another one to a child in need. How awesome is that?! [Discussed at 11:30]

Fran Toolan of Firebrand Navigates the Challenges of Content Management

In the old days (say, 2006!) it was easy for publishers to completely handle all aspects of content management internally. Now it's more challenging thanks to seemingly ever-changing tools, specs and platforms. Firebrand Technologies founder and president Fran Toolan recently sat down with us to discuss a variety of content management topics. Key points include:

• "Publishers can't outsource QA"  -- Regardless of what's done in-house vs. out-of-house, quality control rests squarely on the shoulders of the publisher. [Discussed at 1:00]
• Metadata needs to move in sync with the content -- One of the more common problems Fran sees is the disconnection between metadata and the product's content. [Discussed at 2:55]
• New formats could easily displace existing ones-- Despite the popularity of EPUB and mobi, for example, the barriers to entry for new formats are actually pretty low, particularly if we're talking about browser-supported formats. [Discussed at 3:44]
• HTML5 is likely to win out over native apps -- Apple's walled garden approach is driving app developers away and HTML5 offers plenty of power and flexibility. [Discussed at 4:55]
• Don't look for a one-size-fits-all solution for devices and platforms -- Just as Kindles lend themselves so well today to long-form reading and iPads more so to short-form reading, tomorrow will probably feature devices that are tailor-made for specific applications and users. [Discussed at 7:08]
• HTML5 could very well become Amazon's "escape hatch" -- We love to complain that Amazon doesn't support EPUB but HTML5 might represent their best way forward. [Discussed at 10:30]
• NetGalley is doing well...-- ...but I still find that most publishers don't understand the value of digital early release/review. [Discussed at 14:25] 
• Rights remains a very important area publishers are overlooking-- Ebooks make it easy to quickly to sell globally but publishers aren't managing their rights effectively to track and fully leverage the opportunities. [Discussed at 17:43]

What if Every eBook Could be Returned for a Full Refund...At Any Time?

Amazon's Kindle Owners' Lending Library has been getting a lot of buzz since it was announced last week, and rightfully so. I posted my own thoughts about it as a publisher on the O'Reilly Radar blog; click here to read my opinion and the community feedback. Some supporters of the program have mentioned it will be a great way to try before you buy. In other words, borrow the book for a week or two and if you like what you read you'll probably want to buy the book, not just borrow it. I can see that happening...sometimes. But I don't think that's the best way to encourage more ebook sales.

First of all, each of the ebook vendors offer samples of books. I always download and read the sample before I make a purchase. Samples have saved me from making a number of bad purchases. But I've often found the samples are way too short to tell whether the book is right for me. That's where an unconditional, money-back guarantee should come into play.

That's right. Why not have a no-questions-asked, complete refund option for all ebooks? I'm not talking about the return-it-within-seven-days-of-purchase Amazon offers for Kindle content. That's not good enough. I want the reassurance I can get a full refund if I buy it today and don't even start reading it till a year from now but then decide it stinks.

Is that crazy? We don't think so at O'Reilly. Here's a link to The O'Reilly Guarantee. You wont' find any fine print with exclusions that limit your right to a full refund. Btw, as the publisher at O'Reilly I can tell you I see all the email exchanges between customers and our customer service team. Very few people ever ask for a refund. In fact, our customer service team sometimes offers refunds when customers don't even ask for them and most customers reject the offer.

It's interesting how this works. We stand behind our product with a very simple "absolute satisfaction" guarantee. And believe it or not, customers aren't banging down our doors asking for their money back. Why? I think it's the same reason why we've been so successful with our DRM-free stance: We trust our customers. Pretty novel concept, isn't it?

By forcing you to make your product return within 7 days of purchase that retailer is telling you they don't trust you. Perhaps they assume you're a speed reader and are just looking for a free ride by gaming the system and reading a book in less than a week. That's too bad. A little trust goes a long way. Will some customers abuse the system? Absolutely, just like they do with DRM-free content. But the vast majority will not only do the right thing, they'll also become more loyal to you because you trust them.

Why I Love Findings

That headline doesn't have a typo. Findings is a relatively new service that gives you another way to share your Kindle highlights and, more importantly for me, save/share clips from any website you visit. I discovered Findings at the terrific Books in Browsers (BiB) event at the Internet Archive last week. If you missed the BiB livestream you'll be able to watch the archive of all the sessions shortly. Keep an eye on this link for the videos and, in the mean time, you can grab a PDF of the tweets from BiB here or see a realtime list of the tweets here.

I add highlights to pretty much every Kindle book I read and that Findings feature is nice. It's the website clips capability that really has me jazzed though. Like most of you, my coworkers and friends are always sending me links to interesting articles, blog posts, etc. I love Instapaper and use it every day to archive many of these links for later reading. But what if I just want to grab a sentence or a paragraph from that article or post? That's where Findings shines. After all, saving an entire article is nice but if I can narrow it down to just the excerpt I found most interesting, well, that's a service I'd pay for! You won't have to though as Findings is completely free.

I'm just getting started with Findings as I've only snagged a few excerpts so far. That number is about to grow significantly as I added the Findings bookmarket to all my browsers and will use it frequently. The next time I'm scratching my head, wondering where I read something about this before, I'll quickly hop over to my Findings stream to find out. You should too. Findings is one of those services that seems so simple and obvious but it's something we've all been living without for way too long.

P.S. -- Many thanks to Peter Brantley, Kat Meyer and Brewster Kahle for the wonderful BiB experience. If you're fortunate enough to get an invitation to a future BiB I suggest you do two things: immediately accept it and get ready for an extremely inspiring event!

Bookigee Founder & CEO Kristen McLean Talks Agile

The agile model has been used by software developers to create apps that customers really want. Why not use the same approach when creating content? In this TOC podcast, Bookigee founder and CEO Kristen McLean talks about how her company is using it to develop a new content discovery and exploration platform. Key points include:

• Think iteratively rather than linearly  -- The current content development process assumes we know exactly what the audience wants. With agile, you iteratively develop (and release) the content to your customers, further tailoring it to their needs each step along the way. [Discussed at 2:47]
• Agile allows for plenty of uncertainties -- Agile methodologies assume that you don't necessarily know who your audience is, or perhaps more importantly, that you don't know what their true needs are. [Discussed at 6:05]
• Leading indicators trump lagging indicators-- So many decisions in publishing are based on lagging indicators like sell-through data and comparable title performance. Agile lets you flip that around and work more with leading indicators rather than lagging ones. [Discussed at 13:40 and a bit further at 19:00]
• Agile may not work for every format -- As Kristen notes, some authors just need to go off to an island and write the entire book. That said, it's probably viable for more genres than you think. [Discussed at 17:55]
• Large companies beware... -- There's a reason why startups are easily able to adopt agile methods and part of this has to do with the need for a flattened organization. [Discussed at 25:38]
• Agile transformation must come from the top, not bottom up -- A visionary leader who truly buys into the approach is required. [Discussed at 32:08]
• Quality is measured differently in early release stages-- Publishers tend to focus on the final product that's been copyedited and proofread but minimum viable products are often rough around the edges. [Discussed at 33:08]

Visit the "Digital Petting Zoo" at TOC NY in February!

I strongly recommend everyone in publishing acquaint themselves with the latest digital gadgets. After all, if you're not familiar with the devices your customers are using how can you possibly relate to their user experience? It's hard keeping up with all the devices and platforms out there though. And that's precisely what your friends at O'Reilly's Tools of Change (TOC) conference are here to help with. (Actually, this idea is way too good to be my own...we can all thank my conference co-chair, Kat Meyer, for coming up with it.)

I'm pleased to announce that during TOC NY in February we'll have a special area set aside where you'll get to experience all the latest gadgets firsthand. For example, if you're an iPad owner who's never had a chance to test drive an Android device, we've got you covered. But it's more than just the devices themselves that we'll be showcasing in our "digital petting zoo." We plan to feature some of the most innovative and game-changing apps, ebooks and other e-products in this space at the event.

So even as I type this post, Kat and I are reaching out to all the device/platform vendors to make sure they're well represented in the zoo. We're also on the lookout for cool apps and ebooks, especially ones that may have somehow slipped below our radar. If you know of one or you've helped develop one you'd like to nominate for inclusion in the zoo email me with the details.

I'll be serving as the zookeeper for the event, so if you're planning to attend TOC NY, please be sure to stop by and say hello. Speaking of which, sign up now to secure the best TOC registration rate possible!

Worldreader: Books for All

TOC Frankfurt is a wrap and I met a bunch of terrific people there. There's one in particular I want to call attention to: Elizabeth Wood of Worldreader. If you haven't heard of Worldreader I ask that you take a few minutes to learn about them. Their mission is to make digital books available to all in the developing world. These folks are changing lives. What more noble cause is there than that?

I'm blogging about them because there are three things I'd like you to do. First, watch the video below. We tend to take e-readers and ebooks for granted. Worldreader is using them to change the world and bring knowledge to those who might not otherwise have access to this content.

Second, I challenge you to get involved with Worldreader. What can you as a member of the publishing community do to help this organization, either through your company or on your own? I met with Elizabeth after her TOC Frankfurt session and I've offered to help them in any way I can. I encourage you to do the same.

Finally, I'm looking to raise Worldreader's awareness level throughout the publishing community. You undoubtedly have Twitter followers and Facebook friends that I don't reach. Will you help me spread the word about Worldreader by tweeting, blogging, etc., a link to their site or this post?

The Global eBook Market: Current Conditions & Future Projections

2011 has been a year of significant change in the ebook sector. This change has been uneven, leaving some countries and languages ahead of others at this point. To further complicate matters, governmental issues, tax policies and countless other local factors play a significant role in ebook adoption and growth. Up to now there hasn't been a single resource available to help you sort out the global ebook situation.

The Tools of Change (TOC) team is happy to report that we've created something that addresses this problem. It's our Global eBook Market report and it's available to you FREE via this link.

The Global eBook Market report covers most European countries as well as Brazil and China. We realize we have a few more territories we need to add and that a one-time report isn't the best solution. That's why we're going to use the outstanding O'Reilly ebook distribution platform to provide free updates going forward. You probably already know that the O'Reilly platform offers ebooks in all the popular formats. So whether you want the PDF, EPUB or mobi version of this report we've got you covered. (UPDATE: PDF is the only version available right now but we'll have the other versions posted soon.) Just head over to that link, put the product in your shopping cart and the multi-format version will be added to your oreilly.com account. Then, as we add and update this report you'll receive an email notification telling you when the latest version is available. Again, all of this is offered to you totally free of charge.

We're launching this report at our TOC Frankfurt event on Tuesday. In fact, the closing session of TOC Frankfurt features a short interview I'll be doing with the report's author, Ruediger Wischenbart. I hope to see you there; if not, be sure to follow what's happening at TOC Frankfurt via the #tocffm and #toccon hashtags as well as through the event's mobile app.