T he movies couldn’t do it. Radio
couldn’t do it. Even television
couldn’t do it. With each great leap
forward in communications, pundits have
prophesied the death of the lowly, old-fashioned
paper book. Now it’s the Internet’s
tum, as growing numbers of technophiles
claim that Internet e-publishing will deliver
the deathblow to paperbacks.
There is not yet a clear and broadly
accepted definition of the term ‘ebook.’
Sometimes it refers to a book that’s available
in any online or downloadable electronic
form and therefore accessible on almost
any PC. It is also used to describe a handheld
device specifically designed for reading
electronically distributed books, or the
content int~nded for use in such a device.
Microsoft, touting its ebook reading software,
predicts that ebook sales will overtake
paper by 2009. Bill Gates and other hightech
aficionados say digital books will be
significantly cheaper than printed titles,
because there won’t be costs related to
printing, binding and shipping. Although
they are not yet being sold outside the
United States, ebooks are real and their
impact is beginning to be felt. In the United
States, Publishers Weekly has for the first
time received an advance copy from
McGraw-Hill in an ebook form instead of
the paper galley (a printed but unbound
copy) that is traditionally sent to reviewers.
The latest novel from “best-selling
action-adventure writer” Bill Branon,
Spider Snatch, was released by
Huntingdon Press in electronic form two
months before the hardcover edition. The
electronic version costs $10, as opposed to
$24.95 for the hardcover. E-enthusiasts also point to the success of Stephen King’s
Riding the Bullet, a 67-page novella published
in mid-March only as an electronic
book. When the story became available,
Amazon averaged one consumer download
per second for it. Within three days of
its release, more than 500,000 King fans
either paid $2.50 for the story or took
advantage of downloads offered free by
some Internet sites. “Ebook devices are
not ready for prime time in Lebanon,” says
Jacques Hakimian, managing partner and
chief IT consultant of Dialog. “But that
may change. We could see ebooks on the
local market before the end of the year.”
In the US, two companies are trying to
create and spearhead the ebook market.
The first, SoftBook Press, is targeting professional
users – people who read a lot of
material on the job. The second,
NuvoMedia, is trying to crack the consumer
market through partnership with
publishing giant Bertelsmann. Both companies
make their own “reader units” that
look like double-sized PalmPilots, about the
size of a small book or paperback, with large screens. Buttons allow you to flip
back and forth between pages, annotate
text, search your entire book for keywords
and download new material. And, like their
paper cousins, ebooks allow the reader to
make notes in the margin, highlight passages
and place bookmarks.
460 The Multimedia Store, whose main
sales drive is in computer accessories, is
understandably upbeat about the new technology.
“It’s not a matter of whether ebooks
will penetrate the Lebanese market, it’s a
question of when,” says general manager,
AntoineAbi Nassif. He foresees a time when
ebooks will supercede bound volumes in the
way email has all but replaced the posted letter.
Ebook software has changed very little
since companies started moving books onto
CD-ROM in the early to mid-90s. ”The real
difference is that there are now lightweight
readers in the market,” says IT consultant,
Hakimian. ”These provide online content
distribution and encryption techniques to
protect copyright owners’ interests.”
Why you would want an ebook is another
question. Gadget lovers will pounce on
them, but if you just want a novel to read
while you’ re traveling, you’ ll probably stick
with a paperback. It weighs less, you won’t be
too upset if you lose it, you don’t have to
worry about battery life and the flight attendant
won’ t tell you to put it away when the
plane starts to descend. An ebook is another
item to carry. Just as a modem notebook
computer eliminates the need to carry a CD
player, a handheld computer is already close
to matching an ebook. Hakimian believes the
niche occupied by ebooks may even disappear
when the display quality of generalpurpose
handheld devices – such as
PalmPilots and laptops – reach a standard
acceptable for displaying ebook content.
There are two situations where ebooks
could come into their own. First, there is a
corporate and professional market for
bulky reference material where networkbased
access is not appropriate for reasons
such as security, reliability or bandwidth
availability. Today’s ebook readers can typically
hold up to 41 ,000 pages of text and
graphics, or about 200 books. Potential
users include lawyers, medical personnel and
students. The second is ephemera: material
that has a limited life span in the hands of
most readers. For magazines, an ebook
could be a more satisfactory way of reading
text-intensive material that is currently
delivered to Web browsers. This could also
apply to most newspapers and novels that
you wouldn’t read a second time.
Several problems will affect the take-up of
ebooks. First there is the question of the
reading experience. As none of the dedicated
ebooks are available in Lebanon yet, all we
can say is that broad acceptance of ebooks will
require better displays than those on current
notebooks and handheld devices. Language
is another consideration as English – the lingua
franca of today’s ebooks – is the medium
for only a minority of Lebanese. And,
though the French publishers Hachette are
reportedly looking to digitize their own
books, it may be some five years before
Arabic ebooks are available. Another problem
is the position one must sit in to read from a
notebook or desktop PC screen. The fact that
an ebook can easily be held at a normal reading
angle makes a difference.
There are also psychological considerations.
Avid readers tend to be people who take
pleasure in owning books. Even though a personal
library of about 200 books could fit into
one ebook, many people would find that a far
less satisfying alternative.
Bandwidth and storage capacity do not
appear to be big issues. Ebook content is relatively
compact and can therefore be
downloaded quickly. Obviously, the file
size will increase with the amount of text
and illustrations so that,. for instance,
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland will take
considerably longer to download than
Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.
One of the problems with the current generation
of handheld electronic devices is
that they are not terribly robust mechanically.
Dropping one onto a hard surface may
crack the case, cause internal damage, and
even if the LCD isn’t broken, the impact can
result in part of the screen permanently
turning black. Dropping an ebook in the
bath could see hundreds of dollars going
down the drain. Reports from the United
States suggest that current ebooks have a
problem with battery life, just like earlier
notebook computers and mobile phones.
Also, while the screen resolution is acceptable,
it falls short of what’s really needed.
Another issue is that people often lend or
give away a book or magazine when they
have finished with it, and there is a sizable
trade in second-hand books. Ebook content
can be encrypted for use only on a specific
ebook. It is obvious why publishers and
some authors like this idea, but unless the
price of electronic editions is pushed low
enough, there may be consumer resistance.
Common standards are important.
Publishers don’t want to struggle with producing
multiple versions of their content for
similar media. From their perspective, it doesn’t matter whether th.,a t standard comes
about by industry agreement (as with DVD)
or by market forces (as with VHS).
Consumers have more to Jose if things are left
to the market. ”The decision may quickly
change from ‘which of these competing
products would be the best for me?’ to ‘which
is least Likely to fall by the wayside?”‘ warns
Hakimian. In these circumstances, marketing
savvy and market clout can result in success
for a second-rate product.
It’s too early to say how ebooks will
stack up against ‘dead tree editions.’ As
with much of the electronic economy, the
switch from books to ebooks transfers capital
and running costs from the producer to
the consumer. In the old model, the supply
side invested in printing presses and so on,
and the product was self-contained. Now,
consumers are expected to invest hundreds
or possibly thousands of dollars in hardware
so they can access the product or service.
The ebook industry may follow the example
of the mobile phone industry and, in the
longer term, ebook prices will probably
reach generally affordable levels.
When all is said and done, electronic distribution
should be substantially quicker and cheaper than paper, especially as it
avoids the cost of unsold copies. “This will
drive the transition to ebooks,” believes Abi
Nassif. He is not alone. Microsoft is pushing
an aggressive timeline for ebooks, predicting
that over I million ebook titles will be
sold this year following the introduction of
its Reader software for desktop and notebook
PCs. It predicts that by 2003, ebook
prices will range from
$99 for a small mono-chrome device to about $899 for a magazine-
size color model.
By 2005, the
ebook and ‘e-periodical’
market is predicted
to reach $1 billion,
and another$ I billion
in advertising revenue
will support free publications,
all reaching
an audience of 250 million ‘e-readers.’
The price of ebook
content has yet to settl down. In the West,
vendors talk about distributing cost savings
between authors, publishers, booksellers and
readers, but this rhetoric has yet to be
proven. Free titles are mainly out-of-copyright
works or books by undiscovered authors,
much as new bands release music in MP3 format.
Budget titles cost a few dollars and tend
to be similar to those in the free category.
Finally, there are ‘full price’ editions of current
– sometimes even the latest- books.
There are two basic models for loading
content into an ebook. The Rocket uses a PC
as an intermediary: You download content
from vendors’ websites to the PC, then
transfer it to the Rocket. The alternative, as
used by SoftBook, is to include a modem
interface so the ebook can connect to the
Internet and then to an ebook shop. A onestep
download is obviously more convenient,
but putting a PC into the loop provides
a local backup copy of the content.
Given that the devices have yet to go on
sale here, it’s not surprising that there isn’t
much activity on the content side. Librairie
Antoine’s site currently only sells items
stocked at its main shop, which does not
include ebook content, but the company is aware of the possibilities. Georges Tabet,
senior vice president of Librairie Antoine,
says: “We’ re not unenthusiastic about
ebooks, but we’re not in the front lines of
those saying they will replace bound books
in a couple of years.”
Ebooks are a bigger threat to our booksellers
than offshore suppliers such as
Amazon. Selling content is a puree-business
opportunity unhampered
by the short comings of shipping.
Publishers could bypass bookshops.
Established authors
could bypass publishers
and book sellers, bringing a
new meaning to selfpublishing.
“I think
this is going to spark a
renaissance in literature,”
says Abi
Nassif. “Authors will
no longer have to kowtow to the publishers
and write
something they want to sell. lfyou’ve got a
book you want to publish, you will be able
to do it yourself for a modest sum.”
Most authors, though, will lose out if the
book market turns electronic. Royalties are
based on the retail price. On a $20 book, a
15% royalty – the typical percentage – earns
the writer $3. If the ebook version has a drastically
reduced price, as its proponents claim,
authors may lose out- royalties on a $2 sale,
for example, would be 30 cents. So unless
authors and publishers work out a new pay
structure (or ebooks remain as expensive as
print), technophiles might largely be reading
test patterns or a lot of college fiction.
So far, a smalJ portion of the world’s books
– some 3,000 titles – is available electronically.
And because the market is so new,
industry analysts have yet to produce estimates
of its future potential or to profile
ebook users.
None of which, to be sure, is likely to hold
off the rise of ebooks, especially for kids
already more comfortable with laptops and
PalmPilots than printed books. It remains to
be seen whether Gutenberg’s adherents
will go without a fight.
