Microsoft Returns to the eBook Business

In mid-August of last year Microsoft announced that it would be pulling the plug on its eleven year old Reader software and the .lit format it supported. No official reason was given, and the company stated unequivocally that they would not produce a new e-Reader software or even help their customers migrate their .lit files to another ebook platform. They would continue to provide downloads of the Reader software for a year - until August 30th of this year - but after that you're on your own. The online Reader store closed up in mid-November, and it looked to be the end of ebooks for Microsoft.

I had been a fan of Reader and the .lit format almost since its inception back in August of 2000: ClearType was a huge improvement over the basic text files I'd been gleaning from Project Gutenberg, making the text crisp and clear on the tiny iPaq Pocket PC that I had bought on its release that April and had carried with me ever since. The device's 32 Mb of onboard storage, augmented by an additional 128 Mb SD card, meant that I could carry dozens - if not hundreds - of ebooks with me wherever I went! Between the two my reading intake increased ten-fold. In addition, the ability to highlight passages and insert notes or scribble doodles with the stylus, as well as searching through the document, was a quantum leap in reading. For me, the digital revolution began way back there with the new millennium, and I haven't looked back since.

More importantly, the Reader add-on for Word allowed me to create .lit ebooks instantly from any document, and Gutenberg soon began doing so themselves. This meant that I would never run out of content to read, so long as the software was supported.

So it was with great sadness, and some bitter disappointment, that I bid farewell to Reader. My iPaq had long since given up the ghost, and a newer version purchased after HP's acquisition of Compaq was soon replaced by a new kid on the block: a first generation Kindle. Things would never be the same, and Microsoft new it.

In retrospect, it's one of the more curious business decisions of that first decade of the 21st century that Microsoft chose not to press its advantage in the ebook space by producing a hardware device of its own to support that pioneering digital format. But Microsoft have always been a software company rather than a hardware manufacturer, and perhaps they didn't see a future in competing with a retail giant like Amazon in that arena. Or maybe they just misjudged the impact the Kindle would have on the world of publishing. They had, after all, seen a hundred other ebook formats come and go with little or no impact on the reading world. For all its advances, their own format had barely left an impression on the general book-buying public, and the ebook market was essentially non-existent, so one can hardly blame them.

So not surprisingly, it was with much interest that I read the press release this morning announcing that Microsoft had partnered with Barnes & Noble to create a new subsidiary company that will house B&N's digital content, including the Nook devices and app software, as well as their educational division. Microsoft will infuse $300 million into the venture (currently dubbed "Newco") for a 17.6% stake in equity, and bundle the Nook app in its upcoming Windows 8 OS. At one fell swoop this lifts B&N's digital outlook from troubled waters to fast track for global domination, while virtually dooming its brick and mortar stores to second-rate obscurity in a heartbeat.

According to the press release, the intention of the new partnership is to "accelerate the transition to e-reading." "We're on the cusp of a revolution in reading," it says. What this tells me is that the captain is jumping from a sinking ship in shark infested waters to firmer ground aboard an ocean liner bound for the tropics. While Barnes & Noble's announcement states that Newco "will have an ongoing relationship with the company's retail stores," it goes on to say that "The company intends to explore all alternatives for how a strategic separation of Newco may occur." B&N had announced back in January that it was exploring just such a "strategic separation" of the digital side of the business from the physical, and we have now seen the means by which this will occur: Newco will thrive, Barnes & Noble will not.

Partnering with Microsoft does a number of important things beyond the obvious monetary clout it brings. It gives them a global platform in the form of Windows, allowing Nook to piggyback on Microsoft's extensive reach: with the release of Windows 8 later this year Barnes & Noble will go from virtually no international presence whatsoever for its ebook format to near absolute saturation overnight. Expect to see a massive winding up of its online presence in the meantime, if not an all-new web store for "Newco". Secondly, this makes absolutely clear BN's intentions with regards to divesting its digital revenue from the shackles of the brick and mortar store. Nook "boutiques" are likely to remain in place so long as there's a place for them to remain, but henceforth they'll reside in rented space that they can easily move elsewhere should such a move prove beneficial. My guess is Nook boutiques will start to spring up in mall kiosks and stand-alone outlets as print books disappear.

Most importantly, however, is the reinforcement this brings to the digital consumer. I have personally avoided buying Nook ebooks for the very reason my .lit experience dictates: with Barnes & Noble teetering on the brink of financial oblivion, why in my right mind would I invest in a library of content that may or may not be supported just a few years down the road? After the demise of Borders last year the stability of Barnes & Noble came far more into question, whereas the chances of Amazon or Apple going by the wayside anytime soon don't appear too probable.

And while I can convert my .lit archive to other formats via software such as Calibre, the conversion isn't perfect and it's a lot of time and trouble I just as soon avoid. So the support of Microsoft goes a long way to assuaging my anxiety with regards to the Nook platform. The physical stores my go away, but for now at least, it looks as if the Nook is here to stay. And it will probably be running a Windows Mobile OS next year.

Why Encyclopaedia Britannica Went Out Of Print

The Encyclopaedia Britannica has been publishing its behemoth multi-volume compendium of human knowledge for 244 years, since it first appeared in 1768. That first edition consisted of just 3 volumes running 2,670 pages, growing through continual revision and expansion until it reached its final size of 32,030 pages spread across 32 volumes with the 15th edition in 1985. Production of the initial 15th edition required ten years at a cost of $32 million. The cost of a full set would run you $2,200.

The glacially slow pace of production has always been a difficulty with print, and all the more so when its content is in need of continual revision. With the pace of information changing at an ever increasing speed, it was only a matter of time before the rate of change outpaced Britannica's ability to keep up. With a new edition being published only every quarter-century such innovations as the Internet or the iPad might not have gained an entry into Britannica until better than a decade after their advent. By the time the $32 million dollar 15th edition appeared it was already outdated.

Although a policy of "continual revision" had been instituted in 1933 to deal with just this issue (in which new printing was done every year, with time-sensitive entries being updated in the intervening months), rapidly evolving fields of knowledge such as science and technology have continued to escalate at an exponential rate, making even a year too long a span of time to stay up to date, particularly in the face of a globally networked information age where news appears online the moment it occurs.

But the beginning of the end for Britannica in print actually began back in 1980, when the publishers declined an offer from Microsoft to produce the first comprehensive CD-ROM encyclopedia, believing it would cheapen their brand and undermine print sales (sound familiar anyone?). Undeterred, Microsoft went on to create Encarta using content from Funk & Wagnalls Standard Encyclopedia instead. Encarta would become a mainstay of computer reference works for years to come, with the result that within three years of its release in 1993 sales of Britannica had declined by half, from an all-time high of $650 million in 1990 to $325 million by 1996, with print edition sales dropping from 117,000 to 55,000 units.

Meanwhile, the publishers had seen the errors of their ways and released a CD-ROM set of their own in 1994 (for just $995), as well as launching Britannica online, with a subscription rate of a mere $2000. Within two years the CD-ROM had dropped to two hundred bucks. The company was sold that same year to a Swiss financier for a paltry $125 million, a fraction of its former worth. Today, you can get the iPad app for free, with access to full content for just $1.99 per month. Information, they say, is power, and in a world where information is available only to the wealthy that power remains concentrated. When information is free, everybody is enriched.

The Britannica today: an interactive hyperlinked network of knowledge

Britannica has not been without its scandals or controversies either. From its cheapening through doorstep hawking during the Sears & Roebuck years (1920-1943), with its subsequent "simplifying" of information for a common populace, to the publication of Einbinder's scathing 1964 exposé, The Myth of Britannica (which found enough faults to fill up 390 pages of diatribe), it's hardly any wonder the free online resource Wikipedia flourished virtually overnight (Wikipedia is currently ranked #6 by Alexa, while E.B. Online is #114,852). Of course, it's two-thousand dollar price tag hasn't help much.

And lest you scoff at the vagaries of a public information database such as Wikipedia compared to the staunch authority that is the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the journal Nature undertook a study in 2005 that showed articles in Britannica to be hardly more accurate than those on Wikipedia: the former had an average 2.92 mistakes per article while the latter rated only marginally worse with 3.86. Of course, few would argue that the credentials of Britannica contributors are vastly more authoritative, although Wikipedia has gotten much more stringent in its reference requirements over the years. And if you're talking about online authority, Alexa reveals that 2,123,583 sites link in to Wikipedia, while only 7,180 link to eb.com, which tells us where people are getting their information these days.

But the real point of all this is the general shift from print to digital that's occurring globally. Print suffers in nearly every way when compared to digital. Not only is digital dynamic and interactive, but it's unhindered by print's inherent limitations via an infinite network of hyperlinks. It allows for instantaneous access to a wide array of media, its content is specifically targeted to the user's needs, and it's continually evolving as the network itself evolves: every link leads to a destination that may have been updated since your last visit, even if that visit was just an hour ago. It will not fade or age with time, every copy is an identical reproduction of the original, and it doesn't take up any space.

The end of Britannica in print should serve as an object lesson for other entrenched publishers and slow-moving behemoths. The world we live in today is changing rapidly, and one can either change with it or be left behind, because that change is coming whether you're onboard with it or not. The end of Britannica in print should not be marked with sadness for its passing, but rather as an affirmation of the march of human progress.

Dedicated eReader Use Rises 250% in 2011

According to a new report by TDG Research, 20% of U.S. households with Internet access now also own at least one dedicated e-reading device. That represents a 250% increase from the 8% just twelve months earlier, at the end of 2010.

The new report focused specifically on "dedicated" reading devices - those designed and intended to be used solely, or primarily, for reading digital content, as opposed to multi-media devices - as this is a practical concern for current device manufacturers and retailers with a digital product line and content designed to be read on it.

With the recent introduction of lower priced, full-function tablets, there has been much speculation as to whether a market for dedicated e-readers would continue to exist, and if so, how significant it might be. Yet while multipurpose devices have begun to reach a price level more accessible to the general populace, e-reader prices have dropped proportionally as well, bringing them well within the grasp of average users rather than early adopters and tech aficionados. And this is almost certain to remain the case for years to come - we'll very likely see dedicated e-readers fall below the $50 mark within a year or so, with low-end models eventually retailing under $30 (subsidized largely by content sales). This would give them a great advantage over tablets for such institutions as schools and libraries, for example.

Conversely, it's unlikely multi-purpose tablet devices will fall below $100 for several years, although a $99 Fire or Nook Tablet is not unthinkable at some point down the line. Still, less functional devices will always remain less expensive than more complex machines, due simply to the cost of production, making them naturally more appealing to a broader audience. The fact that digital reading has increased at a more or less proportionate rate to the decrease in device cost only goes to prove the point. With e-reader prices dropping below $100 for the first time last year, digital adoption has hit its highest peak.

Finally, readers will be readers, and in the end what they want in their hands is a book, not a computer. The advantages of digital make dedicated e-readers attractive, and the added features are a great benefit, but it doesn't make the leap to app-based tablet computing a given (although for some this is certainly the case, and tablet saturation will surely continue to increase at its current remarkable rate as well). In addition, they are easier to use and lighter to hold or carry around, which makes them ideal for travel and commuting. In essence, tablets and dedicated e-readers will become the hardbacks and paperbacks of the future.

The 36 page TDG report, "Profiling eReader Users -- A Consumer Snapshot," is available for just $2,500.

Fantasy Castle Books Website Update

My intention when migrating my publishing homepage to a new web host was simply to add some features missing from its prior home at Yahoo and bring a few new domain names into the mix (more on this in coming posts). This almost immediately turned into a major fiasco and has ultimately resulted in a complete rebuild of the site, which is only in its first initial stages. The new banner shown above was first among the changes; the new site needed something a bit more bold and adventurous, as well as slightly more artistic.

Yahoo has hosted Fantasy Castle Books for over three years since its inception in mid-2008. Since then the site has grown to include well over a thousand pages and nearly a hundred downloadable files, including reference works and early drafts of both my first novel and the new one. But it was in danger of becoming bloated and difficult to navigate (if it had not already). So a redesign was hiding somewhere in the back of my mind, waiting for its opportunity to arise.

Meanwhile, Yahoo's Sitebuilder had become problematic in many ways. Foremost of these was its lack of adaptability to a mobile environment, rendering the website all but illegible, not only on small phone displays, but even on the iPad's spacious screen, where the text resized incorrectly so that it overlapped both itself and the images. Additionally, Sitebuilder's e-commerce features are weak and unimpressive to say the least; my first excursion into direct digital downloads a year or two ago was far from satisfactory, and far more difficult to set up and manage than should be necessary. I wanted something vastly more robust than Yahoo offered. In addition I've been wanting to control the site content a bit more closely by including an area for registered guests where the bonus content can be housed, as well as an email newsletter for informing recipients of site updates and events related to my writing.

So it was time to up and migrate, and spring break seemed the ideal time to do it, particularly given that my Yahoo renewal was fast approaching. Initially I intended to transfer the files via FTP and import it into Dreamweaver. But this proved problematic for a number of reasons, due primarily to the inability of Dreamweaver to interpret some of the code in Yahoo files, and the fact that Yahoo Sitebuilder creates a file structure that is not relative to the root folder, but rather to the file location instead, rendering the links unusable once the files were moved to their new host.

So to make a short story long, I've just decided to completely rebuild the site. It was time for a new look anyway, although I wasn't planning on spending the time on it right now. Still, what needs doing must be done, so there's nothing for it but to get on with it.

This means my Nook project will be put on hold for a few weeks or so, although I plan to get back to it as soon as possible, for those of you who've been wondering. Also, be sure to visit the new site and register with the email opt-in, as I plan to start sending out updates as new content is created and added to the site. There will eventually be an e-commerce function with direct downloads available (and possibly signed print editions as well). All ebooks sold from the website will be DRM free and include access to all formats available, not just one, with free updates to any future revisions (another reason to sign up for email notifications).

Finally, I will be starting another blog sometime down the line, which is something I've been meaning to do for quite some time. This blog has been, from the start, fairly technical in its orientation, focusing on various practical issues involved with self-publishing - from print on demand to marketing to ebook formatting. But I've been wanting to start a blog where I only talk about the creative aspects of the process, for those more interested in what it is to be an author or an artist. That site will be hosted at my own domain (www.rscotjohns.com), but that's another project for another day.

For now, click on the "Fantasy Castle Books" tab above to visit the new site. Once there you can click the "Scot's Blog" tab to return here. At the moment there's not much up - just a homepage and a contact form - but more is coming soon. Leave me a note to let me know what you'd like to see, and if you've visited the previous site, what you'd like me to keep from the prior version. I plan to retain a lot of the content, but much of it is outdated (such as the blog tour archive for example), and will be jettisoned.

As always, this is yet another obstacle in the way of getting down to some serious creative work, and it will likely put my current project off by another month or two. I'm already better than a year behind schedule, so that's nothing new. But in the end it will all be for the best.

Website Temporarily Down

I am currently in the process of migrating the Fantasy Castle Books website to a new host, so it will be unavailable for a short time. While doing so I may use the opportunity to do a redesign, so bear with me as it will likely take a few days. I've been planning to do this for awhile, but have put it off due to other obligations and more pressing concerns. All file links from the tutorial posts are still working, as I've transferred those first. But the page links at the top of this blog will be non-functional for a little while.

Nook Digital Replica Plus

Not satisfied with leaving out that third of the three leading ebook ecosystems, I purchased a Nook Tablet this weekend to complete the triumvirate of Amazon, Apple, and Barnes & Noble (I don't count Google Play among them, and likely won't until they get a major reader of their own going). While Barnes & Noble have yet to release their fixed layout spec to the general public, there is (I think) enough info out that I can piece together my sample chapter in their Digital Replica Plus format. I will post it here as soon as it's completed, and/or provide updates on the progress, depending on how it goes.

The new Nook format, by the way, is just another iteration of an ePub morphed to meet the needs of their particular device, both in a way they like and one which is unique enough to separate it from the competition (i.e. Amazon), as well as making it proprietary to their content ecosystem. It has some unique features that set it apart (and one I tend to like, at least so far), but underneath it's just an ePub.

BN are, in fact, still working on the DRP format, which is why it has not been officially released, even though the major publishers are already using a version of it to fill the shelves with children's books and comics. The latest rumors have BN working on an In Design plug-in that will allow content creators to save their ID files in the new Nook format, and if that comes to pass in a way that functions better than Amazon's half-ass attempt it will be a major coup. But BN should have a far easier time of it, as their new format is vastly simpler in its structure, with full page images for the "fixed" part and reflowable overlays for the magnified text view, giving us the best of both worlds.

So while the spec and ID plugin should be forthcoming in the not-too-distant future, I'm not one to stand around and wait if I can help it. Unfortunately, with the release of the Nook Tablet and titles in the new format, the BN partition of both this device and the Nook Color have been hidden from prying eyes so that no one can look at what's underneath the hood in these fixed layout ebooks. Downloads from the website or the iPad app have also been disabled for titles in this format, and they do not show up in the B&N Downloads folder on the device. Of course, the first thing I did was root the Nook to run Android and dug into it with File Explorer, but there's nothing there to see that's of any help. Fortunately, there's a test file up online and a bit of information on the replica map over on the ePub Revision Wiki page, which should be enough to get me started. They are working on some very cool stuff, by the way, so I'm more excited than ever now to see what they come up with.