Learn to Duck

This week there was a ton of rumblings, leaks and rumors about Apple’s big “eBook” event that took place earlier this am.

Apple is going to change education!

Apple is going to destroy publishing!

(Interesting that no one really said “Apple is going to sell more iPads!” but we live in a world that hopes that everyone leans towards doing good for goods sake.)

Did it happen? Did the world turn upside down causing the worlds publishers to weep?

No.

Apple’s move into the education market is an important one. This year, for the first time ever, Amazon sold more digital books than print books. Print, for lack of a better word, is dying. People are still buying books, in fact some could argue that more books in total are sold — the diversity of purchases has increased (as defined by the total number of titles), even while the sales of printed books has slowed.

At lunch with Ron we talked about how the science fiction of our youth was actually coming true. Cable has passed its usefulness; people are watching TV in 3D, and the government is still run by troglodytes that believe the can control the flow of communication and information. (One would think they saw the Christian Slater film Pump Up the Volume…). Technology is no longer a “thing” to marvel and discuss, it just is.

Publishing is probably the last bastion of old school media that digital is disrupting. With low(ish) price points and the amazing smell and feel of paper, and the romanticism we still attach to the printed word, it seemed that digital was almost an after thought.

Amazon, with its Kindle, began to widen the crack in the wall, and now with Apple’s ebook Authoring tools, the walls have fallen down.

Or have they?

We all love the interactivity of tablet based books, and the application for text books is clear, but its not as simple as that.

Currently there are more than 30 different marketplaces that an author could distribute their work digitally — if they own the digital rights that is. Most markets have wildly different file formats, so that building for one certainly doesn’t work as well for another — especially if the book is any other than flowing text. Most markets have different payment terms, revenue splits and requirements, rights requirements, and thats just if you are writing a flowing text-based book.

You want to do a fixed format children’s book? A graphic novel? An illustrated novel? Cookbook?

You’re screwed.

Apple’s authoring tool comes with another kicker — if you build a book in their authoring tool, and IF you can get it to work on another marketplace, you legally can’t distribute through the other marketplace without a financial arrangement with Apple.

Yup. You read that right.

Im not going to spend much time on that, Paul Carr over at PandoDaily (great work Sarah!) does a great job of writing about it, and I agree with his assessment.

Being an independent author or publisher has just gotten more messy, rather than less.

I am excited that Apple has entered the eBook space, especially the education space, as I know it will do wonders for readers.

But, there is something wonderful about a book. There is something beautiful about being able to read that book (on any device), in any way you want, and hopefully, one day this gigantic mess of rights, distribution, file formats, etc. will be cleared up.