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Pif Magazine
Pif Magazine |
On November 6-7 at the Marriott Marquis in New York City, the burgeoning ebook industry gathered for the first ever Ebook World conference and exhibition (www.e-book-world.com) The Conference included panel discussions and featured addresses on topics ranging from "How the Traditional Book Business Meets the New e-Book Business" and "Becoming Electronic" to "How We Read." Assembled movers and shakers of the industry, including host Michael Wolf (author of Burn Rate), NYT Book Review editor Chip McGrath, Random House New Media President Richard Sarnoff, Xlibris CEO John Feldkamp, and Spinal Tap-er turned publisher Tony Hendra discussed the current state of the ebook industry and attempted to answer some of the nagging questions that surround its future, such as: How big is the potential market for ebooks? Which reader will emerge as the industry standard? What barriers are preventing the public from embracing this technology? Bold predictions were made: bookstores outfitted with kiosks where, by typing in a title, we'll be able to order up a copy of a book which will then be printed and delivered at the checkout counter, the glue of its binding still warm; software that will allow us to flip the onscreen pages of an electronic text as we would a printed book; pocket-sized ebook reader devices on which we'll be able to store all of our work-related reading for the week along with a hundred or so of our favorite novels; even combination ebook readers/MP3 players/personal data assistants/cellular phones that will become as standard a part of our everyday equipment as the ballpoint pen. All in all, the panelists and moderators of Ebook World painted a pretty tantalizing picture of the ebook's not-so-distant future. In fact, some of the downright Bond-ian gadgetry described above is either on its way or has already made it to market. The EbookMan by Franklin, due this winter, might be seen as a first step toward a personal reader/player/everything device, and Borders is test-marketing a print-on-demand kiosk in select West Coast locations. Nonetheless, when the smoke cleared, and the last bit of promo literature had been distributed — when the last of the free pens and logo-emblazoned trinkets had been given away and the multitude of monitors, laptops and display tables folded up in preparation for the next big event, only one Great Truth had been revealed by all who'd persevered through two full days of ebook cheerleading, naysaying, uncomfy chairs and mediocre coffee. Ebooks are hardly poised to deliver a deathblow to their print-based counterparts, even if the digitization of text-based "intellectual content" (books to you and me) is already standing publishing on its traditionally techno-fearing ear. The main question the various publishing types, journalists, would-be developers and consultants who attended Ebook World were dying to have answered was why Americans aren't scrambling to shelve their printed (or "p") books and embrace the books of the future? Despite modest increases, sales over the last year and projections for even better numbers by the end of 2001, ebooks have hardly found favor with consumers. They remain, essentially, a technology without a market — a great idea whose time has yet to come. The reasons for the less-than-enthusiastic reception of the ebook are as complex as they are numerous. To begin with, the term "ebook" itself is the source of no small confusion among consumers. Industry types use the term interchangeably to describe everything from Web-based texts of the classics like those found at Bartleby.com and Project Gutenberg, to downloadable adobe .pdf files, to titles that have been formatted in special software, like Readerworks (www.readerworks.com), for viewing in Microsoft Reader or one of the other ebook-viewing programs. The major players in the ebook industry, such as Random House, Time Warner Trade Publishing, Versaware, MiLibrary and Microsoft, recently formed the Open Ebook Forum with the goal of establishing, "common guidelines for the presentation of electronic content over various electronic book platforms." Yet, despite the impact of this partnership and its work in recent months (readers can download the "Open eBook Publication Structure specification" standards document from the OEB website), little has changed in the marketplace. Titles designed for one reader remain incompatible with others; a handful of different reader devices currently compete for consumer dollars. Fearful they'll end up with the ebook equivalent of the Betamax, even likely adopters wait for the emergence of an industry standard rather than take the ebook plunge. |
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