E-Books as a New Media That Allows a Promising Future for Book Lovers - Literature review Example

Introduction Technological advancements have created a new media, a digital one. The new digital technology allows the new market of Electronic Publishing. Electronic books (e-books) are blooming into a profitable business. The electronic publishing industry is creating new possibilities for libraries and individual avid readers. E-books permit readers to peruse and download from Internet e-book stores. E-books are also available in electronic stores worldwide. Various handheld devices are obtainable for usage with the different formatted e-books depending on the e-book publisher. Electronic Publishing creates the need for copyright protection for authors publishing electronically. Digital Rights Management (DRM) software plays an important role in the management and production of e-books. Digital Rights Management addresses a few of the concerns of both author and publisher. E-books have turned the publishing industry upside down in recent years. Different business models are made for e-books and the different players they are read on. The e-book market has potential for an unlimited future. To make the e-book market successful several facets need to be examined. This paper will deal with three main areas concerning e-books; the different types of e-books; the role of DRM in e-books, and e-books in the market place. Electronic Books: Overview The e-book is the most important development in the electronic era for several years. It is a term used to describe a text analogous familiar to a book that is in digital form to be displayed on a computer screen (Cox and Mohammed 2001). Rao (2003, p.86) has provided a comprehensive definition for the e-book as text in digital form, a book converted into digital form, digital reading material, a book in computer file format, an electronic file, words and images displayed on a desktop or note-book computer, portable device, and can even be formatted for display on dedicated e-book readers. There are various types of e-books models available in the market place. Different characteristics are used to categorise the types. According to Hawkins (2000) there are four types of e-book based on content availability and access. Downloadable e-books are the most common. The contents of these e-books can be accessed on the internet for downloading to the user’s PC. The major players of this type of e-book are Glassbook and Librius. Dedicated e-books are e-books with contents which are downloaded to corresponding hardware devices with special screens and capabilities for book reading. Print-on-demand books are stored in a system connected to a high-speed, high quality printer. These bound e-book copies are produced on demand. The last type is Web-accessible e-books, published on the provider’s Web site. E-books from the provider’s Web site may be accessed for a fee or can be purchased by the buyer who is allowed indefinite access. Crawford (2000) identified nine types based on proprietary formats, standards, media form, length of contents and access. These are listed in table I with their characteristics and major players in the market. E-books: Pros and Cons E-books have advantages and disadvantages. The overall advantages include the following: 1. Easy method of publication; once the electronic text is created, it has the potential for instant worldwide distribution over the Internet and access from virtually any location. 2. Economic advantages; the overhead publication and distribution cost of e-books is considerable lower than using printing mode. 3. Increasing capabilities of hardware; a single e-book reader can hold more than one electronic text and the content of electronic document can be expanded, customized as a user desires. 4. Business application; e-books can be used conveniently at a substantial cost savings. 5. Convenience, e-books are very convenient and are always in stock. 6. Environmental friendliness; unlike conventional printed books, not single tree must be cut to produce an e-book. 7. Ability to improve literacy and education in less developed countries. 8. The rise of national literacy and educational standards. These pros aid publishers and authors along the way (Raw 2003). The cons for e-books can be traced to two causes: 1. The shortcomings of current e-book technology and its derivatives; including cost. 2. The incongruence with current user expectations about how books are handled (Raw 2003). The Role of Digital Right Element in Electronic Books The profusion of electronic resources necessitates libraries and publishers to find the best way to manage their intellectual property rights. Digital Rights Management (DRM) was developed to protect, manage, distribute and promote digital content. DRM’s role in e-books is crucial. From the moment an author submits his work to an e-book publisher, DRM plays a part. Before an e-book can be published, DRM is incorporated to protect the e-book from piracy by encrypting the e-book with a DRM key (Rao 2003, p.90). The DRM key helps the publisher market, manage and track the e-book online. With DRM technology e-book distribution has become simplified. Some publishers claim the need for DRM companies to assert asset and content management as a top priority. DRM helps with one of the major advantageous aspect of e-books; profit. The electronic market is booming. Dkystra (2002, p.22) quotes North from Harper Collins who said: “Harper Collins now has 10 percent of the e-book market share and we are seeing a 15 to 20 percent growth per month in e-book sales”. E-book sales are very profitable for publisher. Digital Rights Management helps authors sell more e-books legitimately, thus increasing profits for the author and publisher. Libraries have started using not only electronic journals, but e-books in their collections as well. The need for libraries to expand their collections electronically has been demonstrated over the past few years. In a UK study, (Armstrong, Edwards, & Lonsdale 2001) showed an increase in publishers who offered electronic products. An increase in services shows the demand for Electronic Publishing must also be increasing. In the U.S., Bide (2002) showed that the Palm Digital Media’s sales rose by forty percent. These figures show that libraries must expand their electronic collection, or ignore the literary demand for e-books. Some publishers think third party DRM companies are not worthy of their product. Other publishers perceive problems with DRM technology. These concerns weaken the growth of the e-book market. The first disadvantage is hackers. No matter how complex the Digital Rights Management software, a hacker can circumvent the technologies. This harms authors & consumers. J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, refuses to publish her Harry Potter series as e-books. J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter was also being illegally downloaded for free on http://www.#bookwarez.com (Peek 2000, p.50). It appears Harry Potter’s author would rather sell her product legitimately in paper form than use the digital medium that helped perpetrated the theft of the Harry Potter product. Another drawback for DRM is the historical aspect. Digital Rights Management software is made to function on a particular player or computer. Future generations will not have access to the technology present today, since it will have become outdated (Wikipedia 2006). For example, Adobe E-books play on the latest Adobe E-book reader. Yet if technology continues at the present speed, the latest edition of the Adobe E-book as they exist today will no longer be available in one hundred years time. There also is the problem of interoperability among leading digital media sellers. Since e-books cannot play on competitors’ mediums, not only do consumers lose out, but e-book publishers are at a disadvantage. Consumers will end up buying digital content based on what players they have at home. For example, DVD and VHS players, five years ago were both available. Consumers could rent or buy DVD or VHS version of a copyrighted work. Smaller electronic publishing companies and even individual authors want interoperability to promote their product, but some larger companies do not want to share technology created by their corporation (Geer 2004). Improving the weaknesses of DRM promises a greater future of e-books market. E-book and the market place E-books are produced by dissimilar kinds of electronic publishers. This ranges from bestsellers to university presses and even international publishing conglomerates. For example, in the U.S., major publishing companies, like Random House, Simon & Schuster and McGraw Hill, have launched extensive e-book production plans and are rather optimistic about the e-book future (Hillesund 2001). E-book vendors fall into two groups. Pay-per-view and limited-time subscription-based access (lynch 2001). In general, the commercial model sells e-books on a user licenses basis with limited access. However, this restricted user license became unlimited access after the case between the California Sate University libraries and Netlibrary (Rose 2001). The pricing options of publishers vary to include: 1. One time purchases for perpetual access. 2. Purchases of annual memberships which allow access for a year. These annual memberships have the option of premium and regular subscriptions. (E-book Task Force 2001) The first group is full-service hardware, software and content providers. These include Everybook, NuvoMedia and Softbook Press. These vendors cover trade press, periodicals and partnering deals. The second group is software and content-only providers. These include Librius, which used to offer its own viewer, but discontinued the line and Glassbook, which focuses solely on conversion, library control and viewer software. Currently, business models for e-book vendors contrast substantially. Some e-book vendors work solely with libraries and others market to individuals. Some examples of E-book vendors and their business models are; 1. Netlibrary (netlibrary.com) provided subscription to individual titles with access of single-user per copy and a premium for ownership. 2. Questia (www.questia.com) provided monthly model of subscription for access to the entire database. They are marketing only individuals and not LICs. 3. iBooks24X7 (www.books24x7.com) provided annual subscription model that is Full-Time Equivalent based; allowing Bibliographic Centre for Research to aggregate FTE for academic institutions for greater econmoies. 4. Ebrary (www.ebrary.com) provided free browsing of the entire database with fees for printing and down loading. They are marketing both to LICs and individuals. 5. iBooks.com supply both short and long-term subscription for e-books and also sell regular printed books. 6. Cognet (www.cognet.mit.edu) offer unique lower prices for schools, universities, and libraries, because these academic institutions normally subscribe annually (Rao 2005). The propagation of the e-book market is untenable. Some figures insist the increase in distribution of e-books, other statistics point out the contrary. Hoffert (2001) suggest that the e-book market is growing: “Nearly one in every three of LJ public library respondents has purchased e-books, and of those who have not, nearly one in three say they will purchase e-books within the year”. The Association of American Publishers declared that the e-book segment grew from $211,000 in net sales in January 2002 to just over $3.3 million in January 2003 (Blough 2003). Macworld (2004) proclaimed that e-book sales represented the publishing industry’s fastest growing sector. Sales in the first quarter of 2004 increased 46 percent and revenues increased 28% year-on-year. In comparison, Flash (2000) reports that the existing treatment of e-books is minuscule considering the prospective market potential of the electronic publishing industry. Jupiter Research forecasts 1.9 million users of e-book by 2005. Mayfield (2001) informs of a study by a business related media research agency. Forrester’s study predicted e-books would form a small part of the total publishing market for some years to come. In the United States, e-book sales were anticipated to attain around $251 million in 2005. The progression of electronic publishing illuminated various changes in the publishing industry as a whole. These changes to the organization of the publishing industry were found to have three emerging aspects, changes within technology, the overall demand of the new electronic publishing products, and unification and buying of the industry on a whole. The invention of the personal computer and the Internet created the new medium of the e-book; this change would cause the first revolutionary aspect in the publishing industry. Computers not only created e-books, but they also changed the writing process from creation to distribution. Books could now be wrote and edited with greater ease. The printing, binding, and marketing have also undergone changes due to technological changes. Consumer needs also have created a new demand within the publishing industry. Since the some consumers’ buy not only printed books, but e-books as well. Consumers even have preferences between the two. The publishing industry has had to accommodate both sets of consumers. Because of the demand of books and e-books, the accommodation the publishing community had to adjust to make up the last facet of changes made. These changes will forever alter the publishing industry, electronic and traditional (Keh 1998). There are significant obstacles that affected the industry of e-books. These problems include the overall poor quality and high prices of reading devices (Armstrong, Edwards & Lonsdale 2002). The increasing ease with which people purchase books over the Internet have highlighted a few problems. The many e-book readers which only work with their e-books make the standardisation of presentation formats important factors in improving the e-books market. (Landoni, Wilson & Gibb 2000). This indicates that the quality aspect of compatibility between competing companies creating e-books becomes crucial and for this reason the design process must be reviewed in order to create an effective electronic book. Gunter suggested (2005) cost factors and convenience of access and storage are likely to surface as key drivers in the e-publishing market. This applies to readers and publishers. Getting the right business model through which to sell e-books is as important as the actual price for consumers. When King subsequently released The Plant online in 2000, readers were invited to buy it in instalments. Within a few months, however, King stopped posting new chapters because less than half the readers bothered to pay for new chapters (Hartman 2002). Another factor is the lack of proper and interoperable digital rights management systems. Proper DRM systems cool the eagerness of publishers to take on the costs of producing e-books. Until a universal DRM accepted by all publishers is invented, DRM will likely be a controversial issue. The lack of a clear, open standard for operating system is the major problem for e-book industry. Having a single standard system that can be used by all companies to further refine and enhance their specific product will ensure stability for potential users. Integration is another hot issue should be considered. The industry needs to work to create a seamless interface between viewing ‘books’ and other types of information. This process could start to build off the existing base of portable devices in the marketplace. The above factors, when taken into consideration by the members of the publishing industry, could help this industry flourish. If all of these obstacles are addressed, the benefits to consumers and those who profit from the electronic publishing industry will be innumerable. Conclusion E-books are a new media developed division of the electronic publishing business that allow a promising new and modernise future for book lovers everywhere. Various types of e-books business models include; print on demand, monthly subscription fees, fee browsing of content with fee for downloading and printing, one-time purchase of the content with perpetual access or annual access fees, and subscription fees with or without ownership. These methods are developed to satisfy the user needs. The methods also have help activate the e-publishing market. Technology, content, Digital Rights Management, pricing, and standards are all important factors influencing the need for and development of e-books. The industry still must face a number of serious challenges in the future. Hillesund (2001) suggests that we should be asking such questions as “what were the scientific and technological premises for the development e-books? What purposes are e-books mean to fulfil?” If there is no understood logic or pedagogy for their acceptance and use, is it any surprises that libraries and other users of e-books are hesitate to trust the market? E-book distributors need to find a business model that works and that users find acceptable. An acceptable model would also reassure publishers about their intellectual property rights. E-books models also need to find a way to provide reliable and speedy access. The most important factor in a business model is the right e-books. If all of these factors can be incorporated into a affective business model, the future of e-books shows potential. References Armstrong, C., Edwards, & Lonsdale, R., 2001. Electronic Books: challenges for academic libraries. Library Hi Tech [online], 19 (4),332-339.< http://www.emeraldinsight.com/ft>, [Accessed 15 .04. 2006]. Bartlett, M. 2000. E-book market set for explosion-IDC study.< www.newsbytes.com/news/00/159594.html >, [accessed 27.04.06]. 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