E-Books, iPads, and the Next-Big-Thing

April 23rd, 2010 Posted in Digitization, Electronic Publishing, XML/SGML

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They may have gotten off to a shaky start, but it seems that e-books have finally gained some real traction. And to the great relief of the publishing industry, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that they are here to stay. Thirteen American publishers recently reported that in 2009 their aggregate e-book sales increased 176.6%—not bad for a relatively new format trying to find its footing in an industry still reeling from the influx of free digital content available on the web. The consumer frenzy surrounding Apple’s newly released iPad supports predictions that, indeed, the e-book’s day has truly come.

But lest any publishers find themselves swept away by the excitement, a word of caution: Don’t put all your eggs in one e-reader basket. For all the buzz surrounding Apple’s recent release of its iPad tablet e-reader, it’s critical to keep in mind that it is merely one in a series of upcoming Next-Big-Things. It may be tempting to rush to convert all your tomes into the latest and hottest proprietary digital format, but it’s important to understand that doing so will leave you and your content vulnerable to being left in the dust as soon as a brighter, shinier e-reader emerges. (Editor’s Note: The iPad does use the public-domain ePub e-book format, but Apple’s DRM prevents these files from being readable on any other device — even other Apple products.)

This doesn’t mean that e-reading itself is just a passing fad (on the contrary, the numbers suggest huge growth potential)—just that formats which are tied to e-reading devices can be expected to become outdated as soon as the devices do. And after that, what is there to do but reconvert?

The key to keeping your digital content relevant, then, is not to commit to producing content in electronic formats that are exclusive to only one product (hello, Kindle), but rather to keep your options open. Publicly available standards like ePub aren’t going away anytime soon. Since these standards are free and widely used, they can be expected to evolve and grow to accommodate consumers’ changing needs with little risk of becoming obsolete.

This isn’t to say that publishers shouldn’t take advantage of the latest consumer technology trends. Publish for iPad or Kindle by all means, but don’t burn bridges; retain your source documents in the most structured format possible (HTML or XML is best; word processor formats are a close second) so that you can accommodate with flexibility whatever format the Next-Big-Thing in e-readers happens to require.

From Publisher’s Weekly: “e-readers (dedicated or multifunctional) and their software come and go, but the basics—in this case, the ePub and the underlying XML standards—are here for good.”

Read the full article from Publisher’s Weekly »