London Book Fair 2011: Digital Summing Up

"Platform is key, distribution will be a challenge, but the digital numbers are finally beginning to live up to the hype." Andrew Albanese & Nicholas Clee at Publishers Weekly

“Enhanced e-books are dead, discoverability is the most important issue facing e-book vendors, while pricing strategies should be measured against other digital content, not physical books.” Philip Jones, TheBookseller.com

                                 Digital Book World's roundup of the London Book Fair's Digital Conference

We understand the importance of platforms and why discoverability will be key. It's how we at blackbirdebooks are planning our future as a reputable epublisher of quality new fiction and non-fiction. But how can enhanced ebooks be dead when they're barely off the starting block yet? The UKEbookblog asked a technical wizard at the Fair. 'Because Apps are so expensive to make, there are too many of them. Nobody knows what's there and the retail pricing is too low to be profitable. An App that costs thousands to make can only sell for pennies.' He demonstrated an enchanting enhanced ebook App he'd made for one of the UK's top children's publishers. The retail price? £2.99/$4.90. And that's top-end. Many Apps sell for 0.59p/97 cents.

The buzzword we kept hearing in the digital corner of the Fair was ePub3.0. This enhancement to the Adobe system is set to appear sometime in the middle of this year. There was quite a bit of Apps verses ePub3 banter but it looks like ePub3 is set to challenge, if not replace, Apps at the visibly creative end of the eBook market. Ebooks produced in this format will be able to support multimedia content such as video, audio and much more. A child will be able to colour in a picture and email it to their parents for example.  Unlike Apps, these eBooks can be sold in ordinary digital bookstores (like our own blackbirdebooks) and so will be a major step forward in solving the current "platform problem". Adobe's new ebook reader software  supports ePub and is already out there, downloadable for free here. 

Having seen what ePub3.0 will be capable of (by courtesy of the terrific Crius-group demo stand at the Fair) we are preparing to commission an author/film-maker to write one of our slated books with this exciting new format in mind. 

Read more summing up and analysis of the London Book Fair 2011 at DigitalBookWorld.com: DBW Weekly Roundup: Special London Book Fair Supplement | Digital Book World http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2011/dbw-roundup-london-book-fair-special-supplement/#ixzz1Ja78SBA9

Please consider buying this ebook put together by Enhanced Editions to raise awareness and money for the Red Cross:

#quakebook is an amazing book that has been produced in record time about the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan on March 11. It features short stories and pictures / drawings contributed by people affected by the disaster, and those with a deep connection to Japan such as William Gibson, Barry Eisler, and Yoko Ono.

The book is currently available for the Kindle, from the US and UK Kindle stores. These versions will also work in the iPad, iPhone and iPod versions of Kindle, and all proceeds from the sale of the book will go to the Japan Red Cross Society.