Going Large with eBooks

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Going Large with e-Books

• Can you do it all?

Andrea Powell, Executive Director, Publishing,
CABI SSP Annual Meeting, 29th May 2008
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E-books the up-side

• In addition to new revenue, e-books can drive
  other benefits
• DOI deposits can lead to much greater traffic and
  exposure for your content
• E-books can be abstracted and indexed more easily
  than printed books, again increasing exposure
• Secondary revenues through licensing re-use of
  digital book content can add to bottom line
• Content drives traffic, which opens up other
  revenue opportunities, including advertising
• Online availability of books can help to drive up
  print book sales (in the short-term, at least)
  especially if you show the cover!

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E-books what the hype doesnt mention

• Decisions need to be made about
• Technology (internal and external)
• Business models
• Sales distribution channels
• Content
• Back-office administration
• Relationship with printed product (if any)
• Cost of sales impact on bottom line

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Technology considerations

• Formats and functionality
• Delivery platform
• DRM
• Production of e-files and metadata
• DOI deposits
• Digital asset management

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Business Models

• Purchase/perpetual access
• Annual subscription (but to how much content?)
• Fixed term rental
• Per chapter/page
• Collections
• Aggregated databases
• Consortia
• Bundling printe (or eprint)

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Sales Distribution Channels

• Direct sales offer higher margins, but can you
  reach and service all the markets that want your
  books? Who is going to sell your own offering?
• Which vendors and distributors do you want to
  work with?
• Large-scale e-book aggregators (Netlibrary, EBL,
  MyiLibrary, Ebrary.)
• Specialist subject-focused services (Books24x7,
  Safari Books Online, Books_at_Ovid....)
• Traditional library suppliers (YBP, Dawson,
  EBSCO)
• You can do all of the above, but you must accept
  the administration needed to support them all
  its not free!

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Content

• How deep an archive to offer?
• Do you have the appropriate rights to all your
  content?
• What royalty rates will you pay to authors?
• What re-use of digital content will you permit?
• How frequently will you update your content?

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Back-office Administration

• Delivery of files to multiple vendors
• Sales reporting
• Cost of sales calculation
• Licensing agreements
• Payment of author royalties

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Relationship with printed product

• Distribution channels can your print book
  distributors also sell your e-books?
• Bundled purchases can you manage this if you
  are selling through different channels?
• Timing of publication which comes first?
• Will the print book refer to the e-book (and vice
  versa?) Will they be identical?

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Cost of sales bottom-line impact

• Dont forget the indirect cost of working with
  multiple partners
• Digital products have different
  discounting/commission structures to printed ones
• E-books attract VAT in the UK!
• BUT a simple e-book strategy does not have to
  cost a lot why not start with one or two
  vendors and then build your business
  incrementally?
• Go into e-books with your eyes open!

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And now onto the case studies

• ALPSP E-Book Collection (AeBC) Nick Evans
• OReilly Associates Allen Noren