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Digg It - Free eBook Publishing Guide - Part 2 - Features of the eBook Market
The Current State of the Market
In my first article, I outlined the massive advantages to eBook publishing, particularly for the author! Now you have become excited by that, it is time to inject a little realism! Ever since the emergence of personal digital assistants (or ‘PDAs’) and the growth of the Internet, market enthusiasts have been pre
In my first article, I outlined the massive advantages to eBook publishing, particularly for the author! Now you have become excited by that, it is time to inject a little realism! Ever since the emergence of personal digital assistants (or ‘PDAs’) and the growth of the Internet, market enthusiasts have been pre
According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product
dicting the ultimate demise of the printed book.
This is, of course, nonsense! Traditional books do not require a power supply or batteries and can be read even when badly damaged (so called “graceful degradation”). Printed pages have better contrast and fonts are serifed, to aid the eye in scanning the text. Readers do not need technical skills or e
This is, of course, nonsense! Traditional books do not require a power supply or batteries and can be read even when badly damaged (so called “graceful degradation”). Printed pages have better contrast and fonts are serifed, to aid the eye in scanning the text. Readers do not need technical skills or e
; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.
Examples of combination products may in
Examples of combination products may in
xpensive and fragile devices to access them. Traditional printed books are here to stay!
Over time – and as technology improves – some of these differences will be eroded. However, at the moment, eBook sales are still only a tiny fraction of overall book sales wordwide and electronic publishing remains a very immature industry. There are many compani
Over time – and as technology improves – some of these differences will be eroded. However, at the moment, eBook sales are still only a tiny fraction of overall book sales wordwide and electronic publishing remains a very immature industry. There are many compani
lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.
s, testing different possible business models. There are also competing software formats and handheld device manufacturers (as well as traditional PCs). This diversity will, in the short term, hamper progress.
Future Growth Prospects
It is also wrong to dismiss eBooks as an idea that will never take off (as several industry stalwarts seem won
Future Growth Prospects
It is also wrong to dismiss eBooks as an idea that will never take off (as several industry stalwarts seem won
here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe
t to do). Why? Well, because that fact is that (a) eBooks are already doing pretty well and (b) the major players are still investing!
Lightning Source, the eBook distributor used by Amazon in the US, sold its millionth print-on-demand book in April 2004. Try telling them that it’s an idea that’ll never work! In 2005, Amazon recently bought French co
Lightning Source, the eBook distributor used by Amazon in the US, sold its millionth print-on-demand book in April 2004. Try telling them that it’s an idea that’ll never work! In 2005, Amazon recently bought French co
d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.
Combination pro
Combination pro
pany Mobipocket from Franklin for $2.5 million (to distribute eBooks) and BookSurge.com (to cover print-on-demand books). Look at the Amazon PageRank of eBooks on Amazon’s site and you might be surprised how well many are doing!
In fact, eBooks are particularly suited to the distribution of business, computing and academic works (with a small but hig
In fact, eBooks are particularly suited to the distribution of business, computing and academic works (with a small but hig
ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc
h value niche market). They have also proved to be a viable complimentary channel for popular mass-market paperback titles. Members of the Open eBook Forum (OeBF) reported $3.2m of sales in Q3 2004, a 25% increase over the same period in 2003. The equivalent volume increase was 11%, so eBooks are commanding higher prices as consumer acceptance grows.
easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi
Features of the eBook market
At a basic level, one can distinguish five main components to the emerging ePublishing market:
1) Free distribution - epitomised by Project Gutenberg; started in 1971 (in the very earliest days of the internet) and now maintained by an army of volunteers. At time of writing, there are 16,700 free etexts in it’s c
nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically
talogue and approx. 1.8 million downloads a month. Top 20 downloads include the War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Peer-to-peer (free and generally illegal) distribution using Internet Relay Chat (IRC), Usenet and file sharing software (like Kazaa, BitTorrent & Limeware) has yet to take off in the book market as i
and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ
t has in recorded music. It might be easy to burn MP3s from a CD, but scanning a book, page-by-page to create a text file is beyond the skills and patience of almost everyone! Everyone, that is, other than the dedicated volunteers at Gutenberg!
2) Own distribution - all about selling your eBooks via your own website. I recommend this option as a comp
2) Own distribution - all about selling your eBooks via your own website. I recommend this option as a comp
ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi
ementary channel to Booksellers, Distributors and Aggregators. At the basic level, you register a domain name via a hosting agency (e.g. 1&1 Internet Ltd) and create some pages using Net Objects Fusion or similar design software. PayPal is emerging as the simplest and most widely accepted payment interface (with 71 million users worldwide).
3) Bookse
3) Bookse
ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.
Following aspects would a
Following aspects would a
ller distribution - the biggest and most confusing component of the marketplace. At one end of the spectrum is the online equivalent of the traditional ‘vanity publisher’ companies; where you are charged an up-front fee to list your book but then get 100% of the sales receipts. Examples include ebookpalace.com and ebookomatic.com. With Alexa PageRanks
dd to the challenges in developing combination products:
Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod
Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod
over 170,000, there are just not enough users regularly visiting these site to make them worth your while (especially when one excludes the hapless authors admiring their works).
In the middle of the spectrum is the royalty bookseller who does not levy an up-front charge but instead pays you a %age royalty on each eBook they sell for you. Examples i
In the middle of the spectrum is the royalty bookseller who does not levy an up-front charge but instead pays you a %age royalty on each eBook they sell for you. Examples i
cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin
clude lulu.com, ebookad.com and cyberread.com. Unlike some less reputable operators, Lulu do not levy hidden up-front charges on top of royalty percentages. They also generate reasonable web traffic, with an Alexa rank of 5,421 – so I would consider Lulu but ditch the rest in this category.
Finally, at the other end of the spectrum are the major onli
Finally, at the other end of the spectrum are the major onli
tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen
ne booksellers. Of the big four (Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble and BOL.com) only Amazon distribute eBooks on their site and even then Amazon only accept titles from their distributor, Ingrams.
4) Distributors - The best “back door” into Ingrams (who normally do not deal with small publishers) and thus into Amazon is via their subsidiary Lightning S
4) Distributors - The best “back door” into Ingrams (who normally do not deal with small publishers) and thus into Amazon is via their subsidiary Lightning S
t?
As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel
As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel
urce International (LSI) LSI handle the inventory and technology for secure download of titles on Amazon.com, eBookmall.com, Diesel-Ebooks.com and Powells.com. I receive most of my sales via LSI (bot surprising when one considers Amazon have an Alexa Rank of 13! Sites with low AR get tens of millions of visitors per month. Sites with an AR over 100,00
ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.
Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust
Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust
0 get thousands (and thus will only convert hundreds or less into actual sales across the whole catalogue).
5) Aggregators – Content Reserve are the biggest and best known, serving a growing number of public libraries, as well as a network of retailers including eBooks.com, WHSmith, SimonSays, Fictionwise and eFollett.com. However, Content Reserve do
5) Aggregators – Content Reserve are the biggest and best known, serving a growing number of public libraries, as well as a network of retailers including eBooks.com, WHSmith, SimonSays, Fictionwise and eFollett.com. However, Content Reserve do
y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products
suffer from a “bad press”, at times, in Internet forums on their speed of payment. They also charge up-front storage fees for holding inventory (a charging structure that penalises small publishing outfits with few titles).
eReader.com and Mobipocket complete this group, being both vendors of (free to download) eBook reader software and a repository
eReader.com and Mobipocket complete this group, being both vendors of (free to download) eBook reader software and a repository
.
As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de
As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de
for eBook downloads. Whilst eReader is currently more popular, particularly with Palm users, Mobipocket looks set to grow in importance, given it’s recent sale to Amazon Europe and Amazon’s plans to integrate Mobipocket into Amazon UK. Mobipocket’s reader software also works on Blackberries and Smart Phones (thus being more platform independent) and i
elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.
Companies that provide selfless information through particip
Companies that provide selfless information through particip
s compatible with the emerging and non-proprietary Open eBook format.
Conclusions
With such a limited number of publishers testing eBook models, the market for me essentially boils down to Lulu, LSI, Content Reserve and Mobipocket. Whilst immature and limited by diversity, the eBook market is growing rapidly. This growth looks set to continue
Conclusions
With such a limited number of publishers testing eBook models, the market for me essentially boils down to Lulu, LSI, Content Reserve and Mobipocket. Whilst immature and limited by diversity, the eBook market is growing rapidly. This growth looks set to continue
tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products
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