HarperCollins, Ebooks and NYT Digital Subscriptions

HarperCollins’ Ebook Policy: Harper Collins announced a while ago that it is going to limit the number of times one of its ebooks can be checked out from the public libraries – 26 times and then the license expires. The library will have to purchase the ebook again. It appears as though Harper Collins panicked that since ebooks will never tear or become worn out that there will not be any room for further sales. So, it went after the ultimate underdog, public libraries with constantly eroding budgets! HarperCollins’s Twitter response can be a step in the right direction.

Image courtesy of Digital Book World

Ebook Sales Jump: In interesting related news, Reuters reported that there was a 115% increase in ebook sales in January 2011 compared to a year ago. It is also reported that there has been a drop in the sale of hardcover and paperbacks while higher education books have held steady. Is it any wonder that Harper Collins is trying to make sure that ebooks continue to be a source of revenue? However, their current strategy is not going to help them win any friends.

New York Times Digital Subscription: This week, the New York Times announced a digital subscription plan. The newspaper industry is another one that has been hit by the reality of free digital content. There are lessons for book publishers in the way that NYT has chosen to handle this situation. There is a general understanding that quality products cost money to produce and there has to be revenue to offset the cost. NYT has decided to ask dedicated readers to subscribe to one of three plans. There is still the option to access 20 articles free and online content is free for those who have a NYT subscription. While there has been unhappiness from many who have been reading NYT free online, there are other readers like Lori K of Boston who feel that, “It’s two lunches at McDonalds. For a month of reporting. I’m happy to support the NYT for such a low price.”

Ebooks as Branding Tools

Ebooks are the new branding tools of choice for experts in an array of fields. Many websites started off by offering ebooks as freebies as a way of getting visitors to register. It became a sure fire way to grow one’s list for online marketing. Along the way, this has been tweaked a little and today’s ebooks are a little more than that.

Image Source DCL

The growing popularity of ereaders has meant an ever-expanding demand for ebooks. This makes people open to the idea of trying out a format which they may have been a little less open to even 12-18 months ago.

At the same time that the general population is showing a growing appreciation for ereading, many subject matter experts from local  realtors to estate lawyers are realizing that one way of establishing their position as experts is to offer definitive proof through a good ebook. A well-written, content-rich ebook thus becomes an invaluable branding tool. You can give it as a freebie or charge nominally and even make is an income stream. But the idea is to use your ebook to establish your position and your brand:

• Make it useful.
• Do not pad pages with useless graphics.
• Pay attention to the packaging.
• Remember that an ebook is not a sales letter.

The professional ebook boom, both fiction and non-fiction, has set the bar high when it comes to layout and content. While producing an ebook is relatively simpler than publishing a book and finding a market, it is best to keep high standards when creating your ebook. Never forget that you are using the ebook to augment your professional standing. If you are thinking of going it alone, do all the research necessary to ensure the quality of the final package. If you can work out a reasonable budget consider getting professional consultation from a writer and a ebook designer and the money you spend upfront will likely help bolster your personal brand. Your website may take daily or weekly updating, but a well-written ebook can be a low-maintenance branding initiative for some time to come.

Ebooks – Rewriting our Reading?

E-books may well be the genre of our times. I think of them as a genre because they are re-defining the way we seek our reading material and they are influencing reading patterns. When Charles Dickens serialized his novels in magazines in Victorian England, every chapter started ending with a cliff-hanger to hook readers to come back next week and this defined fiction writing for quite some time. The layout and structure of the ebooks will definitely influence the content of ebooks – shorter chapters, smaller paragraphs are some of the obvious fall-outs we can already see. I wonder what else we will see – rise in novellas, more color images in all kinds of writing?

Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, Ipad, Iphone, Ipod, Laptops – The list of devices on which people can read keeps increasing. This means there is an ever increasing demand for digital reading material. While many regular books are being made available in digital format, there is a growing industry of books written directly for the ebook market. An article in USA Today talks about the rapid growth in ebook sales in the week after the holidays because of the number of ereaders gifted during the holidays. Today’s news of the Verizon iPhone release means that there will be even more users accessing ebooks.

Images courtesy teleread, Sony, Nook, Kindle, Cubic Garden

While for now the bulk of what is being read is fiction, ebook consumers are constantly on the look out for new material. Ebooks lend themselves to impulse buys and an article in the Wall Street Journal about ereader habits notes that 51% of ebook consumers increased their purchases in the past year. Given that people can read anywhere at any time, there is growing demand for variety in reading material also. Students, researchers, professionals, entrepreneurs are all looking for a diverse range of subjects.

The other data quoted in the WSJ article from a Book Industry Study Group Inc survey indicates that ebook users said that 52% of their material is bought and 48% is free because of expired copyrights or because they were give-aways. This statistic is interesting from a marketing perspective. Ebooks are a big part of Internet marketing campaigns as they work wonderfully for building lists of potential clients. These numbers indicate that ebooks are likely to continue being a great marketing tool for anyone planning an Internet marketing campaign.

I am still a strong paper gal myself, but am reading more and more ebooks. My local library makes it so easy to download books late on a Friday night! What about you? Are you in the camp of ‘Never read an ebook’ or ‘Completely switched over to ebooks’? Do you love them or hate them?