As the great new digital wave dawns upon them, publishers ponder over the challenges and opportunities
A related issue that is more likely to be discussed by an NGO rather than at an industry fair is whether the people could let their digital future be controlled by powerful corporations. Ordinary book readers also have stakes on how the digital publishers’ dispute with public libraries will be resolved. In the US, library e-book downloads have been shooting up and some digital publishers are refusing to sell to libraries.
The tipping point
The future of the printed book and of independent booksellers has been a topic of seminars for some years but this time experts at the fair agreed that the tipping point has been reached. E-books have arrived. One-third of publishers say they would get more than 10 per cent of revenue from e-books next year. As a result of the advances in digital and communication technologies and the appearance of new platforms and devices, e-books already account for 10 per cent of the book sales in the US. That country now boasts of 40 million e-readers and many of them come in the category of core readers — those who buy more than 12 books a year. Some e-books had a 50 per cent share of total sales during the first few months of publication. Thus a US publishing executive did not hesitate to call it “a watershed moment for the trade”. A British executive referred to the decline of physical book retailing. In Britain, e-books account for 5 per cent of book sales but the latest research shows that it will also see exponential growth in the number of people buying e-books. What the US does today, some countries are bound to do tomorrow.
Some turmoil in the book business has also been caused by the growing stronghold of the mega retail chains and the overall decline in the book sales because of the current economic situation. Individual booksellers have been hit hard. The trend of the closure of distinctive small bookshops has accelerated so much that many towns in Britain will be left without any bookshop. It is not that the mega chains can rest on their laurels. With heavy book buyers preferring to buy digitally, even their brick-and-mortar outlets are under siege. Borders of America could not survive in the UK. Ottakar’s, James Thin and Dillon chain have disappeared from the British high street, though Waterstone’s is still in business, holding on to some 30 per cent of the book market.
Naturally, the thought of future haunted the book fair participants. Companies tried to buy and sell future. Many participants were keen to attend workshops and seminars on FutureBook! The Digital Pavilion attracted larger audiences than the Russian book market on which the fair had focussed this time. The optimists tried to boost the morale by talking up the market but it was hard not to notice the undercurrent of anxiety.
The book fair’s Digital Conference heard that the digital numbers were finally beginning to live up to the hype. Consumers were finally shifting from the culture of “ownership” to the culture of “access” and that they were happy to pay for their content on the devices. With many new reading devices due to be released later this year, the trend is bound to gather further momentum.
The buzz about the ePUB3 and HTML5 marked this transformative phase that brought some American companies to show off their digital prowess. It seems the new versions of these two industry standards will open the magical kingdom of enhanced e-books. By harnessing the potential of multi-media, e-publishers are hoping to recruit millions of young readers. The e-book will thus distance itself even more from the plain volume printed on paper. These new features of enhanced e-books will get added to the ones that have been well-publicised — such as the portability of the format, the ability to take a whole library on vacation and to be able to search and network.
Currently, the variety of formats in which e-books are delivered means the content has to be tweaked to suit a different format. One may wish for one format for all devices but as the history of video or music industry shows, it will be difficult to select one device or one format over the other. The book industry will continue to discuss for long whether the market is driven by devices or by platform and the issues related to a common standard compatible format and the dominance of closed platforms such as those provided by Apple, Amazon or Google.
Innovate or perish
The London Book Fair showed that at last there is no publisher who has not seen the writing on the wall. Every good book businessman appeared to be shouting: “Innovate or Perish”. The digital revolution has touched even the famous publishing houses that used to take pride in being “traditional”. Faber & Faber that had TS Eliot as one of its directors and showed off all things traditional — from the office building to period furniture — sent its senior executive with a power point presentation on the company’s adventures in the Digital Land! The digital messiahs have attracted new followers, even those who were reluctant to convert some five years ago. All have seen the future and the publishing industry wants to enter the digital century.
Some technology-driven companies started with a different business plan are now firmly into publishing and selling books. Most of these are mega corporations. However, new technologies and communication channels have also provided a level playing field and reduced the role of the middleman. These have empowered individuals who aspire to publish their own books or to be small publishers and booksellers. Many such aspirants know little about the PDF format or e-commerce. Thus new avatars of the old-fashioned print and production consultants and brokers have set up shops to guide self-publishers.
More From This Section
Such entrepreneurs were well-represented at the London Book Fair even though it is dominated by professional publishers. In the small tents holding self-publishing seminars, one could hear tirades against the publishers who “took away your money and gave hardly any service”. These powerful presentations were designed to dissuade new authors from going anywhere near literary agents and publishers and to join the DIY club! The presenters always reeled out real-life cases of the authors that minted money through self-publishing.
One heard a different note if one ambled into a ceremony where Sonny Mehta, chairman of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, was being given by writer Kazuo Ishiguro the LBF Lifetime Achievement Award. Mehta was saying that over the years he had seen many changes but publishers were still relevant. “Even in a digital world, publishers bring something of value to books and they are going to continue to do that, it’s not just about editorial standards, but about publicity and marketing as well.”
The publishers returned from the London Book Fair somewhat comforted by Mehta’s statement, more determined to do business in an environment of new challenges and opportunities.
The author is a freelance journalist