The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF)

You can always tell when a new industry niche comes into it's own or becomes so relevent to the mother industry for transitioning to the next level...It gets it's very own "non-profit trade and standards organization" to handle, and hopefully simplfy, all the new incoming industry business concepts, models, etc., created by it's very existence!

Digital publishing is one such new publishing niche that has exploded in acceptance and popularity to such a degree that it now requires some semblance of standardization to bring order to it's application across many formats and platforms over diverse electronic devices.

Enter The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) !

The following Marketwire press release will give you more insight into this trade organization with a very noble and needed mission, indeed...AND an upcoming IDPF conference in New York:

IDPF Unveils Program for Digital Book 2011 at BEA

Highly Anticipated Conference Will Be May 23-24 2011, NYC -- Platinum Sponsors to Include Ingram, OverDrive

The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) announced today the program outline today for Digital Book 2011 at BEA (idpf.org/digitalbook2011). The conference, held in partnership with BookExpo America (BEA), will be held May 23-24, 2011, in New York City's Javits Center, and is expected to draw global leaders in the publishing industry, technologists, marketers, retailers, supply chain management, publishers, agents, and authors. Following on the sold-out success of last year's conference, the 2011 event is expected to sell out once again, and Ingram and OverDrive have renewed their commitment as platinum event sponsors.

The longest-established executive and professional conference focused on digital publishing, IDPF Digital Book 2011 will provide attendees with the opportunity to network with trailblazers and leaders in the digital publishing industry through keynote sessions, expert panels and in-depth demonstrations. Attendees will hear from and about Adobe, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Google and others, as well as major publishers and service providers.

"This event is going to provide attendees from across the globe with a deeper understanding and insight into the accelerating digital transformation of the book publishing industry. Our featured speakers and multiple hands-on workshops are designed to equip attendees with the tools required to achieve success during this critical time of change," remarked Bill McCoy, Executive Director, IDPF.

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Publishing in 2020 - Problems to Solve

I wrote about the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) on my Publishing/Writing: Insights, News, Intrigue blog back in October 2010.

Basically, the BISG is a research and think tank group that analyzes and researches all aspects of the publishing industry to anticipate and solve problems to improve the professional lives of all in the industry and set standards and best practices.

Phew! That's a big order...and a noble cause...and they've been at it for 36 years, since 1975. Of course, they have evolved during that time to become what they are today.

One way they perform their mission is to reach out to all professionals for input. Now the BISG is giving YOU a chance to have your say. What is the key publishing problem that must be solved by 2020?

Here is an open forum request from Publishing Perspectives by Edward Nawotka:

What is the Key Problem for Publishing to Solve by 2020?

Today’s feature story discusses how the Book Industry Study Group works to improve the professional lives of those in the publishing industry and establish a set of standards and best practices. This Thursday, BISG is hosting the latest in its series of NEXT conferences. Entitled “Developing the 2020 Publishing Program,” it focuses on innovation and the issues that publishers are going to confront over the next ten years, such as coming up with a mobile strategy and how to get closer to customers.

So, now is your turn to play “futurist.” Tell us, what do you think is the key problem for publishing to solve by 2020? Is it how to avoid being subsumed by Internet companies who merely want to turn publishers into “content farms,” like those sci-fi movies where computers raise humans to use them as living batteries? Is it becoming even more relevant to the mass market by promoting reading as a more attractive pass-time than playing video games or surfing Web video? Is it trying to stay ahead of the curve on technology and device development so writers and editors can devise stories and formats for the new ways in which people will read?

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Publisher Results: Better on Facebook or Twitter?

When we set out to market our newest published work online, does Facebook or Twitter really deliver? Which of these deliver the most exposure, internet buzz and actual sales?

Vadim Lavrusik, of Mashable.Com, has made a study on how these two internet venues delivered results for Mashable...And, although the study had to make certain assumptions...the methodology, parameters and calculations involved are explained in some detail.

By Vadim Lavrusik in Mashable.Com:

Is Sharing More Valuable for Publishers on Facebook or Twitter? [STATS]

In the age of micropublishing, how many people are actually reading what you tweet or share on Facebook? And more importantly, how does the click-per-share ratio compare between the two very different social platforms that are utilized by millions of users every day for consuming and sharing content?

These are questions that keep social media strategists awake at night (or maybe just me). So at Mashable, we decided to take a look at our own data and see how user behavior compares between Facebook and Twitter, the two social media sites that generate the most referral traffic to Mashable.com.

After pulling three months worth of our social data and calculating the click-per-share (CPS), it appears that users on Twitter are more likely to share an article rather than read it, whereas users on Facebook click on more articles than they share. According to our social data, Twitter received roughly 0.38 clicks per tweet, whereas Facebook received 3.31 clicks per engagement (the number of times people posted a Mashable link to Facebook through an action on a social plugin or through a Wall post). This would mean that a Facebook action gets roughly 8.7x more clicks than a tweet.

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Google, the Author's Guild, Lawsuits, Publishing Intrigue and Digitizing Copyrighted Books!

Intrigue is popping up all over the place RE the several-year-old lawsuit against Google for trying to digitize millions of (mostly orphaned...[that is out of print]) books.

I previously posted on this publishing intrigue on 2/6/2010: Feds Troubled by Google's Digital Book Deal ...Please feel free to read that post for a little more background.

Back in 2004, authors and publishers first filed suit against Google for copyright infringement...A fairly straightforward lawsuit for scanning millions of books without permission, and then making snippets available online.

Then Google and the Author's Guild (representing these authors & publishers) reached an ASA (Amended Settlement Agreement) that placated all parties.

This, however, angered Google's competitors (like Amazon and Microsoft) who didn't cotton to the prospect of Google effectively becoming the sole publisher of orphan works, and both filed briefs to that effect.

THEN, just two days ago, New York District Judge Denny Chin ruled against the Amended Settlement Agreement (ASA) declaring it would give Google too much power over all authors in the future to digitize complete orphaned books without first obtaining permission from content owners.

What is really a little strange about this case is the fact that the Author's Guild wanted to accept the ASA on behalf of the authors and publishers (original content owners) because it would pay the content owners around 65% of proceeds and make many hard-to-get books readily available to the public (a noble purpose) AND get the authors' names online and in front of millions.

However, the acceptance of the ASA has a problem: the settlement reads like a forward-looking business contract between Google and ALL authors...This would give Google too much leeway for copying/digitizing copyrighted whole books as already mentioned above and is explained in more detail by Sam Gustin of Wired.Com :

Google Books Deal Not Dead, Only Resting, Authors’ Lawyer Says

The current settlement is too broad, and over-reaches, according to Judge Chin, because it draws all authors, including unknown authors, into a class action settlement that exceeds the scope of the original 2004 lawsuit. That was a fairly straightforward copyright-infringement lawsuit by the authors and publishers against Google for scanning millions of books without permission, and then making snippets available online.

In response to the original lawsuit, Google made a fair-use argument, roughly analogous to the one by which it has the discretion to index the entire web and sell ads against search results. It’s important to remember that although Google has scanned millions of books into its database, it only displays a snippet of each copyright book for which it has no license. The purpose of the settlement was to allow Google to open up its database, creating a massive online library of 10 million books, accessible to all.

The problem is that the settlement reads like a forward-looking business contract between Google and all authors.

As New York University law professor James Grimmelmann observed, “This move is what sinks the settlement.”

“Chin has set up a dichotomy,” Grimmelmann wrote in a legal analysis of the opinion. “Google’s past conduct in scanning and searching was the subject of the lawsuit, but it is Google’s future conduct in selling whole books that would [be] authorized by the settlement.”

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A Little About the 'Audit Bureau of Circulations'

People outside of the advertising world (and I'm one of them) probably never heard of the ABC (the 'Audit Bureau of Circulations'), right? Right.

Up front I have to tell you that I hate ads and commercials...especially when I am enthralled in a good documentary, drama or mystery...and my program is interrupted by a f---ing commercial...complete with blaring volume!

"Could switching to GEICO really save you 15% or more on car insurance?" (Like I really give a shit for that chump-change money anyway?)

This commercial answers with another dumb question: "Does a little piggy cry 'wee, wee, wee' all the way home?" (This really has a lot to do with car insurance, right? I wished the damn piggy would 'wee, wee, wee' all over the commercial's creators AND GEICO for putting it on and polluting the airwaves!)

And then I have to watch some damn pig with it's head hanging out a car window yelling 'wee,wee,wee'!

But, I digress and will get off the soapbox.

In the real world, at least the part built by business & commerce, our shows are brought to us on air for free through paid commercials for sponsors.

Now, to move more quickly to point, magazine ads serve the same purpose...or do they? (We still have to buy the magazines complete with ads...WHY is that? Silly question, huh? Can somebody answer this one for me? Come on, just for fun...Give it a shot.)

Back to the ABC, seems they have changed the rules for counting digital editions toward paid-circulation guarantees (a number used by advertisers to decide if they want to pay and how much to pay to advertise in a particular magazine).

Basically, the ABC now says that the digital versions of print magazines do not have to contain all the same ads that were included in their print sisters to be counted toward that digital magazine's paid-circulation guarantees number.

Nat Ives (Adage.com) , writing for Crain's New York Business, has more details on this intriguing magazine business/publishing/advertising rules change:

iPad changes magazine circulation rules

Life is about to become more complicated for advertisers. iPad editions no longer need to include every print ad to count toward circulation guarantees.

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Are E-Book's Surging Sales Damaging Print Sales?

I don't think so...at least not as much as you might think...The e-book sales are up 115% over last year and the print sales ARE down...but kind of negligibly.

Now don't get me wrong, e-books have had an impact, but I feel most of the e-book sales growth have actually come from new reader-consumers that have had their interest in reading tweaked for the first time by the new digital gadgets (and this is a great thing!).

Now there are all kinds of reasons for this downturn in print sales. The biggest and most overlooked one is the economy being in the dump (print books cost more)...But, I believe that printing, paper, binding, distribution, etc. are in for some tech improvements, also, that will lower their costs in the near future. This will be a boon for those that still prefer a physical, 3-dimensional book to curl up with.

Then, too, all the newly-awakened readers (you know, the tech-savvy and e-reader indoctrinated bots) might just want to jump into a 3-dimensional physicality in the future!

So, I'm predicting a print book resurge around the corner.

Audrey Watters of ReadWriteWeb.com has this to say:

E-Books Sales Up 115%, But Does It Come At the Expense of Print?

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) released its figures from January 2011 book sales, and the news echoes what we've come to expect: more readers are turning to e-books, and they're doing so in droves. In face, e-book sales have more than doubled since the same time last year. According to the AAP, e-book sales are up 115.8%, from $32.4 million to $69.9 million year-over-year.

But how does that impact the rest of the publishing industry? Do more e-book sales mean more books are being sold? Are e-readers and iPads engaging a new audience of readers (or at least book buyers)? Or are consumers simply making the switch from print to digital?

According to the AAP figures, the growth in e-book sales didn't save the industry from declining sales. But the drop in sales overall was small - just 1.9% - as total book sales across all platforms and across all categories fell from $821.5 million in January 2010 to $805.7 million in January of this year.

More interesting, however, the breakdown in those sales: the adult mass market paperback section fell the most, declining over 30%. Adult paperbacks dropped almost 20%. Adult hardcover sales fell 11%. Children's hardcover and paperback sales fell, too - 2% and 17.7% respectively. Altogether, the drop in sales of these two key elements of the publishing industry amounted to a $50 million decline.

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Digital Magazine Covers Now Mini-Movies!

And the world of complex content moves ever onward. At the recent MPA Digital E-Reading event, Esquire magazine introduced some of its unique covers that actually come to life as videos if you press the play button.

The already unique Esquire covers have become what I term "action-unique"...

Matt Kinsman of FOLIO magazine shares more detail:

VIDEO: Esquire's Mini-Movie iPad Covers

At the MPA Digital E-Reading event yesterday, several publishers shared "Two-Minute Drilldowns" of some of their best app ideas. Esquire associate editor Julian Sancton shared how the magazine has turned some of its iPad covers into almost "mini-movies," including live action direction of its subjects, such as "Sexiest Woman Alive" Minka Kelly doing her thing and actor Liam Neeson (a former boxer) throwing a couple shots at the cover/screen. (Sorry about the obligatory sponsor message but it's worth the wait.)

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