September 01, 2009

TOC Goes Online

Picture 2 Our Tools of Change (TOC) conference is a popular destination for publishing professionals but it only takes place once a year.  What's a publisher, author, agent, etc., supposed to do in between conferences?

We're answering that question by adding an online extension to the TOC experience.  The first TOC Online event is scheduled for October 8th from noon to 3:30 ET.  It consists of two separate panel discussions on ebook pricing (I'm moderating this one, btw) and what readers want as well as a presentation on the future of electronic reading.

The registration fee for this online conference is $149 but all TOC alumni are eligible for a 50% discount and all online attendees are eligible for a 20% discount on the TOC in-person event next February (see instructions under "Discounts" on this page).  I hope you'll join us for what promises to be an engaging and insightful session next month.

Sep 1, 2009 8:14:29 PM | Books, Business, eReaders, iPhone, Kindle, Publishing Trends

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

Posted by:  | 

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been saved. Comments are moderated and will not appear until approved by the author. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Leave a comment

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until the author has approved them.

(You can use HTML tags like <b> <i> and <ul> to style your text.)

Your Information

Name and email address are required. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.

NEXT POST
Ebook Survey Results Last week we sent a short survey out to customers who had previously bought an ebook from us at O'Reilly. We gathered more than 2,000 responses in just a few days. Our goal was to learn more about the buying habits and preferences of customers who are interested in econtent. The survey featured several multiple-choice and open-ended questions. I've only had a chance to review the multiple-choice responses, so I'll comment on them below and will follow-up with excerpts and summaries of the open-ended questions later in the week. 1. How often do you read ebooks? The most popular answer, which about 50% of the respondents selected, was "several times a week." 30% said "daily" and 19% said "rarely". 2. Where are you on the ebook adoption cycle? The top answer, chosen by a third of the respondents was, "I love ebooks and I'll never go back to print." The second most popular answer was "I'll love them more when the devices for reading them get better" (24%). 3. Do you buy print and ebooks, or have you made the transition to electronic only? 75% said "print and ebooks", leaving only 25% for e-only. 4. Select the ebook features that matter most to you. Respondents could make multiple selections on this, but the #1 feature was "portability" (80%) followed by "usability for search/linking" (71%) and "price" (60%). So despite everyone's fixation on sub-$10 Kindle books and sub-$5 iPhone book apps, price isn't the #1 "feature" for this crowd. Of course, what people say and how they act are often two different things (see "New Coke"). 5. On what device(s) have you read O'Reilly ebooks? Again, multiple answers could be selected here, but not surprisingly laptops (81%) and desktop computers (60%) were the top two choices. And although the Kindle often gets a lot of attention as a dedicated econtent device, it's interesting to see that only 14% checked it off here whereas iPhone and iPod Touch were checked by 29% and 12%, respectively. Ah, the benefits of an enormous installed base! The Sony Reader was selected almost as often (11%) as the Kindle, btw. (Note: We sell ebooks as bundles, so in one transaction a customer gets PDF, epub and mobi for the Kindle.) 6. If you chose "iPhone" for #5, how are you reading those ebooks? Stanza leads the way here at 62% and the Kindle app is a distant #2 at only 16%. (I'm kind of surprised that so many people own both devices. I'll bet most are like me and bought the Kindle before the iPhone. Now that I have the latter I don't use the former quite as much.) 7. Are you committed to the device and platform you're using now, or are you waiting for something better? One third said they love their reader but the other two-thirds are hoping for something better (do you hear that, Mr. Jobs?). 8. Whenever possible, O'Reilly provides you with three DRM-free electronic formats of each ebook--.PDF, epub, and mobi. Which formats have you used? Consistent with the earlier point about using the content mostly on a computer, PDF is by far the #1 choice here at 94%. Again, multiple answers were allowed but epub and mobi are only used by 34% and 20% of respondents. So although many of us like to focus on the newer devices and formats it's still an Adobe world...for now. Some of the open-ended questions were "which format do you prefer and why?", "what other publishers are doing innovative work with ebooks?", "what can we do to improve your experience with O'Reilly ebooks","what features should the next generation of ebooks include?" and "based on your experience with O'Reilly ebooks, how do you feel about the price you paid?". As you can see, those are some pretty meaty questions and most of the 2K+ respondents offered their thoughts, so it's going to take me awhile to read through all of them. Stay tuned for summary follow-up posts on these...
PREVIOUS POST
Smashwords Expands Distribution, by Anthony Policastro By Anthony S. Policastro If you thought the eBook market was hot before, it just went super nova with Smashwords newest distribution to "major online retailers, the first of which is Barnes & Noble and their various properties including Barnesandnoble.com, Fictionwise, and their eReader app." Like the other 2,600 authors on Smashwords, I received an email recently from Smashwords owner and creator, Mark Coker announcing the new distribution arrangement: To put everything in perspective, we're developing a process that will enable your books to receive widespread retail distribution within days or weeks of publishing on Smashwords. Some of what we're doing here has never been done before, so like I said above, please be patient as we work together to pioneer the brave new world of ebook distribution. In addition, Barnes & Noble just ramped up its eBook efforts and currently has more than 700,000 eBook titles listed on its site and it hopes to surpass one million books within the next year. The book retailer will also be the exclusive eBook provider to Plastic Logic's upcoming eReader device - an eight and a half by eleven inch device with a touch screen and wireless capabilities for downloading content. AT&T will be the wireless carrier for the reader and this means users in Europe and parts of Asia will be able to download content. The Kindle's wireless feature works only the United States. All of these developments could be a paradigm shift in the eBook market because Barnes and Noble is opening its arms and accepting the work posted on other commercial eBook sites. They are clearly scooping up as much market share as possible to compete against the Amazon Kindle. (See the related article below in The New York Times.) Even their pricing model is similar to Amazon's with major titles selling for $9.99 - the same price as the Kindle. Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol is featured on Barnes and Noble eBook site as a preorder for $9.99. What's more significant is that you can download a book from Barnes and Noble and read it on your iPhone, iTouch, Blackberry or PC or Macintosh by simply downloading the B&N eReader software for the particular device. And they announced they will be adding additional devices. Kindle books cannot be read on the Blackberry or on a PC or Macintosh. This move could pull market share from the Kindle. It will be interesting to see how the eBook market evolves in the next few months or years with these two titans battling for the same market share on an equal playing field. If Barnes and Noble keeps its pricing in line or lower than Amazon and stays a step ahead of the technology, they could be the winner. Smashwords photo is the official logo of Smashwords.com. The photo of Plastic Logic's new eReader is from Plastic Logic's website.

Joe Wikert

I'm Chief Operating Officer at OSV (www.osv.com)

The Typepad Team

Search

My Other Accounts

Recent Comments