Printed Matters
The book business has been slow to adopt e-publishing attitudes... until now.
But that's about to change dramatically, thanks, as usual, to the Web.
The Internet is already in the process of revolutionizing the dissemination of music and filmed content, changing the way media businesses think about everything from marketing & distribution to the nature of intellectual property itself. And, judging by the major publishing houses' first forays into the world of e-publishing, it may soon be changing the way we read as well.
Publishers' efforts over the last year or so to understand and (almost) embrace the concept of publishing online have expressed a great deal of enthusiasm, tempered with a measure of caution and just a touch of good, healthy fear.
Growth in the nascent industry has been held back in part by the myriad competing e-book technologies -- both hardware and software. The slow development of technologies and lack of uniform standards has made publishers wary of pouring too much money into an e-book effort that could be rendered obsolete even before it gains momentum.
Currently, technology firms such as Microsoft, Adobe and Glassbook are duking it out to produce the industry standard for clear, readable electronic typeface, and devices from handheld organizers to laptop PCs to the Rocket eBook are vying to be consumers' reading device of choice.
Industry leaders have also had to face the more abstract possibility that the advent of e-book technology will prompt some writers to eschew the traditional publishing machinery altogether and take on production, marketing and distribution duties themselves over the Web.
Fears over that eventuality were assuaged somewhat, however, when author-superstar Stephen King's one-man pub house efforts to sell his serialized novel "The Plant" met with a lukewarm response, despite his colossal built-in fan base.
Despite these caveats, the biggest publishers aren't about to let the e-book revolution pass them by, just as the flood of services offering online music, both legal and less so, blindsided the major record labels.
Just about all the major houses have released at least a few titles for sale online, often at a 20% to 30% discount from their paper counterparts. And a few publishers have made substantial financial commitments to the e-book world, opening whole new divisions in an effort to recast their business for the digital age.
One of the most pioneering efforts has been made, appropriately, by Time Warner Trade Publishing, a division of the media conglomerate soon to merge with Web powerhouse America Online. Time Warner Trade is setting up a new unit, called iPublish.com, which will act as an online incubator of literary talent, according to ipublish General Manager Gregory I. Voynow.
"Our idea was to create a site where writers rate each others' content; to create a rich vetting environment where the best works will rise to the top," Voynow said.
Aspiring writers can submit their work to the "iRead" section of the site and have it evaluated, both by their online peers and by iPublish staff editors. The best submissions will be considered for publication online and, potentially, in print as well.
iPublish, set to bow during the first quarter of next year, also benefits Time Warner's traditional publishing business in that it creates a new layer of writer cultivation, not unlike the way Netcasters produce short film and animation with an eye toward signing deals in film and television.
At the same time, iPublish will release at least 20 to 25 trade and academic titles per month in e-book format, and Voynow expects to have over a thousand titles available by the end of next year.
Not to be left in the technological dust, publishing giant Random House has unveiled an e-publishing imprint of its own, called AtRandom. Slated to launch next summer, AtRandom will release titles by such authors as Tad Friend and Elizabeth Wurtzel in an online-only format. The books can also be mailed out in paperback or be printed on demand, but they won't be sold at retail stores, said Larry Weissman, Random House's director of new business development.
In order to keep all its bases covered, Random House has also taken minority equity stakes in several Internet-based publishing firms, including Xlibris.com and Audible.com, through its recently formed investment division, Random House Ventures.
There is an industry-wide consensus that what's really essential is the right technology to get consumers fired up about reading from a screen rather than a page.
Among the hurdles to be overcome is readability. Onscreen, words still don't come close to the clarity of the printed page. But that's starting to change: Microsoft recently unveiled a new version of its ClearType technology for its Reader e-book software, and Adobe, creator of the popular PDF text format, is also working on clearer, smoother reading type.
A more stubborn problem to date has been finding decent gear on which to run this improved software. To date, the choices are limited. E-books are read primarily on PCs, which offer limited mobility at best, and handhelds, whose low-light, low-resolution screens don't exactly lend themselves to hours at a time of sustained viewing.
"We only have half the story right now," said iPublish's Voynow. "but once we have effective hardware, this market will finally be able to take off."
