“This book was recommended by my doctor…….I’m not paying $12.99 for something that isn’t even worth $4.00 to hack down trees for.”.

An interesting comment on a book where the digital version sells for more than 3 times the print version.

Its interesting to see how the mindset is adjusting to the ebook evolution. At first buyers were resistant due to the emotional connection with holding a paper book. Add to this the lower perceived value of an electronic download. As the convenience of ebook readers started to take hold, the value attached to ebooks appears to have risen.

The strange thing about books is that buyers tend to subscribe a large part of their value judgement to the size of the book, rather than the value of the content. Will ebooks change this?

One has to wonder where it will be in another two years, when someone resists paying for the information purely on the basis that the cost of the printed book is less than the cost of the Kindle version.

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Newspaper publishers will now be able to set a limit on the number of free news articles people can read through Google. I expect this will be a welcome, and fair move, enabling online publishers more control over access to the assets that are essentially their core business. As print ad revenues continue to decline, most newspaper publishers are now seeking new ways to make money from their online content.

The ‘First Click Free’ program is in response to claims from some media companies that the search engine is profiting from their online news pages.

After five clicks in a single day, the user may be routed to payment or registration pages. This will only affect websites that currently charge for content.

Thus, the squeeze between old print subscription media and online subscription media is getting tighter.

Prior to this program, readers could avoid paying subscription fees by routing to the pages via Google. It seems Google searches could link directly to newspaper articles, bypassing subscription systems. Now just two lines of code on the server, and Google will back off. It will be interesting to see how this program impacts subscription rates.

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His belief is that we have yet to reach the solution where someone can “collate, amplify and leverage the work of writers and turn it into cash”.

Sadly, I have to agree with him in part, but not in total.

I started out in digital publishing. I focused on building high value content sites that now generate a regular, and growing stream of revenue from advertising and affiliate products. These are not designed as product sales sites – the overriding aim was to disseminate good quality information, without bias to a particular product.

Then I advanced into other forms of publishing knowledge. Having over 20 years of consulting experience, and some expertise in highly sought after niches I decided to expand, backwards, into print publishing.

At first, this was merely to support an upcoming speaking series in a few advanced technologies that I believe will transform the way businesses work, and the role IT has to play in innovation and competitiveness.

Once I started, my publishing took on a life of its own, as other experts started approaching me to collaborate on books with them. So that would be fine, until we hit the distribution pipe.

Distributors are naturally keen to be efficient and economical in their dealings, and in line with the strategies I teach in SELL MORE, they have defined their ‘ideal customer’ and restrict their activities to only dealing with such. Hence, I had to expand my sphere of authors to ensure that I met the minimum number of author requirements to enable me to tap into profitable distribution networks.

In my digital publishing, I have more than a few different authors who contribute largely to the online content around their respective areas of expertise. But this does not count with print publishing. Hence it is quite clear that there is a great divide between the two.

Publishers that don’t have a US bank account cannot publish to Kindle. Yet, try to get a US bank account and it is not quite as easy as one expects it should be.

And the list keeps piling. The print publishing industry, whilst claiming on one hand to be embracing digital publishing options as the future of the industry are still clinging possessively to defining all their current relationships in terms of pure print publishing. Unless the print industry build operational and contractual bridges to meld a smooth continuum between the various publishing media, it is going to remain a messy business making progress into digital.

So whilst the technology and market are certainly in place for digital publishing, attempting to create a backward connection into the print format is more than ‘troublesome’.

No matter, I have more than my requirement of authors and book titles in the pipeline, and will keep my focus pointing squarely on the future.

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The feedback David received was quite interesting, with many readers believing that making his book free was almost his duty as a celebrated author and that offering free ebook versions would somehow mystically increase the sales for his printed version.

My own research revealed as many disasters using this tactic, as there were claims of successes.

However, it does raise a good question – one I am currently struggling with in relation to my own upcoming book launch. Should publishers offer both printed and electronic versions – and if so, what e-format should be used?

You can find detail of the various electronic publishing formats on the Electrosmart site. These range from uncontrolled pdf versions which offer the greatest convenience to readers, to locked and protected versions requiring login to a website to unlock the document with a user password each time they wish to read it – not that convenient!!

I have to admit that my own feelings are somewhat fragmented. I want to offer the best possible reading experience for my customers – meaning a simple PDF would be the best, however, with the rampant efraud from emerging markets currently ruining many revenue streams of producers of many fine products [not just media] I am naturally somewhat hesitant.

At the other extreme – using a platform such as Amazon Kindle requires a not inconsiderable investment in a proprietary ebook reader before the book can even be accessed.

In the mid-ground, one reader suggested that putting in big letters at the beginning of the PDF document: ‘IF YOU DID NOT PAY FOR THIS PDF, YOU ARE DEPRIVING THE AUTHOR OF HIS LEGITIMATE INCOME.’ would somehow tear at the heartstrings of many who would otherwise take advantage of a non-purchased copy. Whilst this will not affect a true pirate – it was thought that inducing a pang of guilt in the ordinary person may be a sufficient deterrent.

The final conclusion was that there was no valid conclusion. It is diffiicult to know whether a free ebook version will hinder or help sales of the printed version. I guess its still up to each of us to make our own decision on this and pray we don’t come to the attention of these commercial cowards.

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In the UK, two of the biggest publishers – Random House and Hachette – are about to launch downloadable ebook titles by some of their top writers.

Australian Publishers Association chief executive Maree McCaskill is fully supporting the new electronic readers – “It’s true a lot of the early readers were difficult to use, but they are now becoming amazingly good…..I’ve tried some of the new models, and they do provide a comfortable read” Ms McCaskill said. Baby boomers will have some resistance to the technology.

In spite of baby boomers resisting such technology, Generation Y is quite comfortable with all types of electronic media. Ms McCaskill added “But I don’t buy into this whole publishing mythology that says people want the look, the touch and the smell of a book, the whole romance of it.”

Both Sony’s Reader and Amazon’s Kindle allow hundreds of novels to be downloaded onto a device about the size of a book.

In spite of the e-book being around for about 15 years, there is still a way to go before it can be considered mainstream.

And to a large extent, this has been due to big US publishers determined to retain control of the digital rights to all books, international or local, making it more difficult for countries such as Australia to support a viable change to the media.

All good news for digital publishers.

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