Digital Publishing: Whose Zooming Who?

Today we read two different but insightful views on the current digital book arena one that looks from a fresh perspective at the ‘Great Book Bank Robbery’ (Google Book Settlement) from Erik Sherman at Bnet.com titled ‘An End Run Around Authors' Contracts and Copyright,’ and the other, from Joseph J. Esposito, CEO of Gaintchair.com, posted at
‘The Scholarly Kitchen’ and titled, ‘Platform Wars Come to the Book Business.’

Joe claims that the 3 technology giants; Amazon, Apple, and Google, ‘are now implicating the book business in their attempt to establish a technical platform. These are big players — and, more importantly, smart players — for whom books are the equivalent of software applications. The idea is simple — get enough books running on your platform, and everyone will want to have access to that platform. The risk for publishers, if not the likelihood, is that they will become collateral damage.’

Joe recounts his experience at Encyclopaedia Britannica when it was embroiled with a war with Microsoft and its ‘Encarta.’

He offers his thoughts on Apple pricing, ‘If Apple could have gotten publishers to price the books lower, they would. Indeed, how about free? Free is a good price. It will expose the brand, and don’t you want to participate in the future of the digital world?’

On Amazon’s strategy, ‘ lock consumers into its e-commerce platform… monopolize their (best customers) online book purchases … if aggressive pricing means that the entire bricks-and-mortar supply chain goes up in smoke, who cares .’

On Google, ‘Google, as the index to the Web, occupies a privileged position. As more content comes online, the need to look things up in that index grows. This means more advertising to be sold on the many Google services. The Web is a rising tide lifting the fleet of Google’s many boats.’

Joe makes a strong case as to why Google through their approach could be the one to watch, ‘Google wins twice — from the sale of Google Editions and also from the sale of marketing services that publishers will invest in to drive Web traffic to the various sites, including the publishers’ own, that sell Google Editions… the more e-books that are displayed through a Web browser, the better it is for Google. This does not mean that Google Editions are not in publishers’ interest… What is not in publishers’ interest is being in a situation where there is no escape from the platform wars fought by others.’

Which brings us to the article by Erik Sherman in Bnet.com. Erik claims, contary to ourselves, that the orphans aren’t the prize in the Google settlement and that, ‘Suddenly, a scanned version of the book becomes an e-title, and the publisher walks around the limitations of an existing contract with the author. Through the power of the settlement, authors would find that they were locked into arrangements with publishers that they never made. Publishers can now get a piece of the electronic pie, even if they didn’t negotiate for it…So the publishers can use Google as an outlet to offset Amazon’s power, and Google becomes a favored reseller because it can electronically sell book titles when a normal e-book version isn’t available.'

As we all try to predict the future it is often wise to understand today and explore all the angles. We may not agree with them all or on everything they say, but what is clear, is that the agenda is now being driven by Amazon, Google, Adobe and Apple and there are many wars and skirmishes ahead. Ironically we found these parting words from Joe interesting to ponder, ‘ why it is that people outside the book industry developed the first major online bookstore, the first sexy e-reading device, and the premier search index to books.’


To read Joseph J. Esposito at The Scholarly Kitchen, ‘http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2010/02/23/platform-wars-come-to-the-book-business/

To read Erik Sherman at Bnet.com titled ‘An End Run Around Authors' Contracts and Copyright,’