Ebook Publishing & Self-Publishing Trends

ALA eCourse
Mirela Roncevic
mirelaroncevic@gmail.com
April 7 – May 2, 2014

Week 2: Availability & Publishing of Ebooks
 Types of ebooks (free, low cost, open access)
 Business of publishing ebooks (traditional vs. e-publishing)
 The phenomenon of digital self-publishing
 Sources of ebooks online (nonprofits vs. for-profits)
 Online ebook stores (Amazon.com, iBooks, etc.)
 Online ebook repositories (e.g., Project Gutenberg, HathiTrust, Google Books)
 Google Books Settlement
 Online reading communities and ebooks (GoodReads, Shelfari, weRead)
 E-textbooks

Types of ebooks
 Public domain ebooks
 Free "not in the public domain" ebooks
 Low-cost (inexpensive) ebooks
 Paid-for ebooks
 Open access ebooks

Public domain ebooks
 Public domain ebooks are free ebooks available via a
range of online repositories and book stores (including
both non-profits like Project Gutenberg and for-profit
outlets like Amazon.com). Works in the public domain are
those published before 1923, plus some works published
between 1923 and 1963 whose registration was not renewed.
Unlike current free ebooks, public domain ebooks are
considered to belong to everyone and can therefore be
copied and altered by those who choose to re-distribute
them.

Free "not in the public domain"
ebooks
 Free "not in the public domain" ebooks usually include current
and recent titles available to consumers free of charge. Most free
ebooks in the United States are copyrighted, which means users
can access them for free but there are limitations to what they can
do with the content (this is often imposed by a variety of Creative
Commons licenses). These types of ebooks sometimes serve as
advertising vehicles to raise awareness of an author or drive traffic
to a site. Some free ebooks are available (and appear to the user) as
free web sites. In this case, "free" does not mean freedom to own
the content. It only means no cost to the user for basic access.

Low-cost (inexpensive) ebooks
 Low-cost (inexpensive) ebooks usually include self-published
by authors who skip the traditional print publishing process and
make their titles available in e-format only and for a fraction of
the cost of standard ebook titles distributed by major publishing
houses. A plethora of self-publishing tools exist online luring
aspiring authors to publish their books by by-passing literary
agents and publishing houses. Amazon, for example, offers
access to thousands of low-cost, inexpensive ebooks.

Paid-for ebooks
 Paid-for ebooks usually include ebook versions of new, recent,
or popular fiction and nonfiction bestsellers from trade houses,
including the “big five” publishers like Penguin Random, Simon
& Schuster, HarperCollins, etc. They are available via online book
stores, publisher web sites, and lending platforms designed for
use in libraries. Most cost the same as their print counterparts,
usually ranging in price from $15 to $30.

Open access ebooks
Open access ebooks are a type of free ebooks. In academic publishing, they
are tied to the "open access" business model, which began with journal
publishing and has spread into other areas of e-content. Like other free ebooks,
open access ebooks can be accessed at no cost to the user or the institution
acquiring them. Many academic publishers now offer open access publishing
programs for academics looking for widest distribution possible for their work.
Open access ebooks are usually subject to the same peer-review, production
and publishing processes followed by traditional publishing houses of print
books. A number of Open Access initiatives (e.g., Unglue.it, Knowledge
Unlatched) have been making waves in recent years, with the mission to
publish, share, and distribute books via open access business models online.
 DOAB (Directory of Open Access Books) is an online directory with the main
goal of increasing discoverability of Open Access books. Academic publishers
provide metadata of their peer-reviewed Open Access books to DOAB, which is
then harvestable to maximize dissemination, visibility, and impact. Libraries
can integrate the directory into their online catalogs, which helps scholars and
students discover valuable content.

The business of publishing ebooks
 E-publishing is the process of publishing ebooks.
 It has become an integral part of the business strategy
of all major publishers and self-publishing outlets.

The business of publishing ebooks
As the below illustration shows (pulled from CinammonTeal Publishing's Primer on Ebooks), in the case
of ebooks, publisher can do away with the pre-press and printing stages , which, in turn, allows the
publisher to make the title available for consumption faster.

The business of publishing ebooks, cont.
Comparison of Traditional Production Process with E-Publishing ("New Process")
In the business of ebook publishing, the relationship between all parties involved is also different. As the
illustration below shows (also pulled from CinammonTeal Publishing's Primer on Ebooks), the need for
publishers is called into question as the emerging technologies make it possible for authors to reach readers
directly.

The business of publishing ebooks, cont.
 As with traditional print publishing, most ebook manuscripts start out as
standard office documents, such as those produced by Microsoft Word.
Publishers then take the manuscript and design the layout for the ebook
using professional tools (e.g., Adobe InDesign, Quarkxpress). These
documents are then exported to the required ebook format. In most cases,
edits can then be made using a variety of professional tools (instead of going
back to the original text in Word).
 Non-professional publishers (including self-published authors) will produce
the manuscript using Microsoft Word and then use ebook management tool
such as Calibre to convert the manuscript into one or more ebook formats.

The Phenomenon of Self-Publishing
 Self-publishing no longer holds the same reputation it did in the years
past, when books not bearing the imprint of an established publishing
house were considered to be of questionable quality, poorly written, or
inadequately edited.
 With the advent of ebook management tools (like Calibre) and self-
publishing services (which incorporate technological and editorial
asistance), anyone can publish a book.
 Unlike with traditional publishing, where the publishing house absorbs
all of the initial cost accumulated during the production of the book,
self-publishing requires the author to be financially responsible for all
or most stages of the process, from writing and editing to marketing to
distributing. Likewise, the author is fully in charge of the things usually
out of authors' control in traditional publishing environments: cover
images, font and layout, overall structure, title, price, and copyediting.

 There are two main reasons why self-publishing services are appealing
to authors. Some choose the route because they have depleted all other
options, while others choose it because they want to have control over
the entire publishing process, including the ability to retain full rights
to the book. In traditional publishing, rights are negotiated via
elaborate agreements that usually give authors very limited options in
terms of future royalties.
 There are a number of self-publishing service providers, which allow
authors to pick the services they want and charge them accordingly.
Their services include, among others, editing, cover design, type-
setting, distribution, and even translation into other languages. The
authors usually retain all rights to the book and receive all profits from
the sales. They also choose if they want their ebooks to be
simultaneously available in print.

The following are some of the better known self-publishing platforms and self-
publishing service providers, each with a unique business model, both in terms of
royalties offered to authors and the services provided. Some of them are owned by
well-established players in the ebook business, while others started out as "start-
ups" and were acquired by a larger company.
 Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Amazon's own publishing platform
 Barnes & Noble's PubIt
 iBooks Author, by Apple
 Scribd
 Smashwords (one of the pioneers in the business of self-publishing online)
 Author Solutions (one of the biggest self-publishing services in United States,
purchased by Penguin)
 BookTango (focused on DIY, owned by AuthorSolutions)
 Createspace (owned by Amazon)
 Book Baby (sister company of CD Baby, an online music store)
 Tate Publishing
 CinnamonTeal Publishing
 Lulu (distributes books to Barnes and Noble, Apple's iBookStore, and Lulu.com)
 Project Gutenberg Self-Publishing Press

Highlights from eBook Survey of Publishers, released
in late 2012 (by Aptara & Publishers Weekly)
Ebooks are here to stay.
 4 out of 5 publishers now produce eBooks.
 31 percent of ebook publishers produce enhanced ebooks
(those that include multi-media and various other interactive
features).
 The majority of publishers now produce more than 50
percent of their titles as ebooks.
 Almost half produce more than 75 percent of their titles as
ebooks.
 36 percent of ebook publishers are realizing double-digit
annual ebook revenues.

Highlights from eBook Survey of Publishers, cont.
Online book stores are here to stay.
 Amazon.com is the most popular sales channel, used by 68 percent of
ebook publishers.
 Apple’s iBookstore is the second most popular sales channel, coming in
second at 58 percent.
 Amazon is the most profitable ebook sales channel. Publishers’ own
web sites do not generate nearly as many sales of their own titles.
 Apple’s iPad is the preferred eReading device of publishers themselves
over Amazon’s Kindle and Kindle Fire tablet combined.
 About 53 percent of publishers would rather read eBooks on an iPad.

Highlights from eBook Survey of Publishers, cont.
Print books are here to stay.
 86 percent of eBook publishers still produce a print version of every
title.
 60 percent of eBook publishers still employ print-based editorial and
production workflows that add time and cost to each eBook.
 More than half of publishers’ content is going to “digital waste”: 65
percent of eBook publishers have converted less than half of their
legacy titles (backlist) into eBooks.

According to BookStats
According to BookStats, the book industry statistical program overseen by the
Association of American publishers and the Book Industry Study Group:
 Ebook sales of trade titles rose 44 percent in 2012.
 Ebook sales have skyrocketed 4,660 percent since 2008.
 Ebook sales surged from under $900 million in 2010 to over $2 billion in 2011.
 The ebook's share of the entire book publishing market was 20 percent in 2012.
 Within the trade category, sales of YA titles jumped 117 percent in 2012.
 The 2008-2012 period "qualifies as the boom years for e-books, a period during
which the format moved from something of a curiosity to a vital part of the
publishing industry" (according to a Publishers Weekly, May 2013 article).

Sources of ebooks
 For individual consumers, ebooks are usually available
from three main sources: online book stores, various
online repositories (e.g., Project Gutenberg), and
publisher web sites.
 For libraries, ebooks are available from several sources:
publishers, distributors (including ebook lending
services and wholesalers), and aggregators.

Online book stores (for-profits)
 Amazon Kindle Store— Amazon is a leader in the distribution of ebook
content to the masses. Its ebook store provides an unparalleled number of
titles, featured primarily in AZW format (though some are still in MOBI
format, depending on the types of agreements Amazon has with various
publishers). Amazon also offers free ebooks that are in the public domain. The
Kindle app is used to access Amazon titles on Apple products and other
competing mobile devices.
 Barnes & Noble eBook Store—Books featured in Barnes & Noble's eBook
Store are called NookBooks and are formatted for the Nook, Barnes and
Noble's e-reading device. Most have DRM protection and are sold in the
following formats: ePub, eReader (.pdb), and PDF. Barnes & Noble e-Reader
app is used for Apple products and other mobile devices.
 Sony Reader Store— Reader Store is Sony’s online ebook store, which offers
new releases, bestsellers, mysteries, thrillers, romance novels, literary fiction,
as well as newspapers and magazines.

 Apple iBookStore — Apple sells books formatted to be read on
Apple products only. All ebooks are in the ePub format, include
embedded videos and hyperlinks, and are downloaded via the
iTunes interface.
 Google eBooks— Google eBooks uses the Google search engine
to search the Internet for eBooks (some hosted by Google, others
by publishers and distributors). Included are new ebooks as well
as those from the public domain. This is a good place to start to
find the books in many different formats and an ideal starting
point for those not tied to a specific e-reader.

 eBooks.com—This store supports multiple formats and devices.
Users can download books to computers and portable devices.
They can also read books online, from a computer, without
needing to download or install anything. Included are popular
consumer titles, professional and technical titles, and a large
number of academic titles in various disciplines.
 FeedBooks—This ebook retailer distributes millions of ebooks
worldwide, with a base operation in France. Included are the
latest bestsellers as well as thousands of public domain titles.
FeedBooks was the first service to use the ePub format. Titles are
available in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

Ebook repositories (non-profits)
 Project Gutenberg — Launched in 1971, Project Gutenberg is
one of the first online archives of digitized texts. Most consider it
the oldest digital library anywhere. All texts are available for free
download in a variety of ebook formats, including plain text,
HTML, PDF, ePub, and Mobi. Over 42,000 free ebooks may be
downloaded to read on a PC or portable advices. In 2000, a non-
profit corporation, the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation, Inc. was founded in Mississippi to handle the
project's legal needs as well as to encourage the voluntary
creation and distribution of electronic books.
 Project Gutenberg Self-Publishing Press is Gutenberg's
relatively new cloud service for contemporary writers to share
their works with readers.

The graph below charts the dramatic growth of Gutenberg publications between
1994 and 2008 (from the Wikipedia entry on Project Gutenberg)

 Internet Archive —Founded in 1996 and located in San Francisco, Internet
Archive is a non-profit organization officially recognized by the State of California
as a library, that offers "permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars,
people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in
digital format." It includes the full text of more than 2.5 million ebooks, among
them fiction, children's books, and academic books. The organization's mission is
to buy all the ebooks it can, scan the older books into ebook format, lend ebooks,
and use and promote them in open formats.
Internet Archive gets ten million downloads every month. Books can be read online
or downloaded in Text, PDF, ePub, Mobipocket, Kindle, DAISY, and DJVU.
Included are texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web
pages (260 billion in total), and specialized services are provided for adaptive
reading and information access for the blind and other persons with disabilities.
Internet Archive's In-library Lending program (hosted on Open Library, below)
launched in 2011, which allows the lending of over 200,000 20th century ebooks "in
copyright" via over a thousand participating libraries. Libraries must donate one
book to the program to join.

 Open Library, an Internet Archive initiative with a goal is to "provide a page on the web for
every book ever published." The project began in 2007 and has grown to include access to 1.7
million scanned versions of books and over 20 million edition records. Many consider the
Open Library as an open source version of WorldCat. Internet Archive's In-Library Lending
Program is hosted on Open Library.
 HathiTrust Digital Library — HathiTrust began in 2008 as a collaboration of the 13
universities of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, the University of California
system, and the University of Virginia, with the common goal of establishing a repository to
archive the members' digitized collections. It has since grown to include more partners in the
United States and around the world (over 60 as of 2013). The Library is described on its web
site as a "a digital preservation repository and highly functional access platform that provides
long-term preservation and access services for public domain and in copyright content from a
variety of sources, including Google, the Internet Archive, Microsoft, and in-house partner
institution initiatives." Over ten million digitized volumes are made available in Plain Text and
PDF formats.
 The following are HathiTrust's early 2013 stats:
 over ten a half million total volumes
 over five and a half book titles
 nearly 300,000 serial titles
 nearly four million pages
 nearly three and a half million volumes in the public domain

 Online Books Page — This compilation of full-text literature (including over one
million ebooks) resources was founded in 1993 by John Mark Ockerbloom, who is a
digital library planner and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. Hosted by
University of Pennsylvania Libraries, the site includes sections on general-purpose
collections with substantial English-language listings, foreign language and literature
resources, and specialty archives, including audiobooks and children’s
literature. Ockerbloom is solely responsible for the content of the site and is its editor.
The site's major parts include:
An index of over one million online books freely readable on the Internet
Pointers to significant directories and archives of online texts
Special exhibits of particularly interesting classes of online books
 Google Books — Google Books is a partnership between Google and some 20,000
publishers and authors, including several major academic and public libraries, to make
their publications discoverable online through Google's platform. While only limited text
"snippets" can be viewed from books still in copyright, visitors can access the full text of a
large number of public domain books. Books are available in PDF and ePub formats. The
launch of Google Books in 2004 led to the much-talked-about-and-written-about lawsuit
filed against Google by Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers.

Google Books Lawsuit & Settlement
 The Google Book Search Settlement Agreement is "an
agreement between the Authors Guild, the Association of
American Publishers and Google in settlement of Authors
Guild et al. v. Google, a class action lawsuit alleging Copyright
infringement." (source: Wikipedia)

Google Books Lawsuit Milestones
Major milestones in the Google Books Lawsuit:
 In late 2004, Google announces the Google Books project and the scanning begins, with
the cooperation of the following libraries: Harvard University, Stanford University, the
University of Michigan, the University of Oxford, and The New York Public Library.
 In a December 14, 2004 press release, Lary Page, Google co-founder, makes the following
statement: "Even before we started Google, we dreamed of making the incredible
breadth of information that librarians so lovingly organize searchable online...Today
we’re pleased to announce this program to digitize the collections of these amazing
libraries so that every Google user can search them instantly."
 On September 20, 2005, the Authors Guild (a non-profit organization of and for authors,
with 8000 members) files a complaint against Google in New York, calling Google's Print
Library Project "a massive copyright infringement" and arguing that it engages in the
creation of digital copies of copyrighted works. Google suspends the scanning of
copyrighted works and allows copyright owners to submit books they want to exclude
from the project.
 On October 19, 2005, the Association of American Publishers (representing more than
300 members) files another lawsuit against Google for copyright infringement. Google
responds that its use is "fair" because only "snippets" of books are shown if permission
isn't given by a rights holder.

Google Books Lawsuit Milestones, cont.
 From a 2005 press release: "The suit, which seeks a declaration by the court that Google commits
infringement when it scans entire books covered by copyright and a court order preventing it from
doing so without permission of the copyright owner, was filed on behalf of five major publisher
members of AAP: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Pearson Education, Penguin Group (USA), Simon &
Schuster and John Wiley & Sons."
 In Spring of 2006, all involved parties begin negotiations to settle the lawsuit.
 On October 28, 2008, Google agrees to pay $125 million to settle the lawsuit. The settlement
agreement would allow Google to sell personal and institutional subscriptions to its database of
books.
 In February 2009, a Google Book Search Settlement web site is created where rights holders could
claim their books for the purposes of the settlement.
 On November 9, 2009, the parties file an amended settlement agreement after the Department of
Justice files a brief suggesting that the initial agreement may violate U.S. anti-trust laws.
 On March 22, 2011 supervising judge issues a ruling rejecting the settlement.
 On October 4, 2012, AAP announces a new settlement deal with Google, with the following terms
and conditions: For books already scanned, publishers can choose to have them removed. For all
other books, publishers will have to "opt in" and engage in individual agreements with Google to
digitize their book catalogs.

Other sources of free ebooks online
 ManyBooks.net
 American Memory (by Library of Congress)
 DailyLit
 Free Literature
 World Public Library
 Children's Books Online
 Children's Literature Bookshelf (by Project Gutenberg)
 Big Universe (for Grades Pre-K to 8)
 Fiction.us
 Classic Reader

Online Reading Communities
 Online reading communities (or online book clubs) are getting more
popular each year. They attract casual readers looking to interact with
those with similar reading tastes as well as those looking for more
books to read based on recommendations of others. They also include
many other benefits for all 'links' in the publishing chain. For
publishers and authors, for example, they serve as effective
promotional and marketing vehicles, while public and school libraries
are discovering their value as Reader Advisory tools. According to an
informal poll conducted by GoodReads, about seven percent of
GoodReads members are librarians.
 While they differ in the tools and functionalities, the goals of online
communities are similar and usually revolve around the following:
 to help readers discover new titles (in many cases, these include ebooks
and born-digital content)
 to help readers connect with those with similar interests
 to help readers discover books that are popular in their circles of friends
 to influence peers by encouraging ratings and discussions of books online

Online Reading Communities, cont.
 GoodReads — Launched in 2007, Goodreads is an online community
site for readers (often referred to as "casual readers and bona-fide
bookworms"). It lets members (13 million in total) rate and review
books, create reading lists, and share them with other members. To
date, members have added more than 460 million books to their
shelves. After creating their own profile and building a list of friends,
members manually upload their book, and then create an Author
Profile, which is merged with their regular profile.
 Library Thing — Library Thing markets itself as "the world's largest
book club." It searches the Library of Congress, all five national
Amazon sites, and more than 690 world libraries for its information. A
free account allows users to catalog up to 200 books. A paid account
allows users to catalog any number of books. Paid personal accounts
cost $10 for a year or $25 for a lifetime. Users can edit their information,
search and sort it, "tag" books with their own subjects, or use the
Library of Congress and Dewey systems to organize the collection.

Online Reading Communities, cont.
 Shelfari — Based in Seattle and marketed as "a community-powered
encyclopedia for book lovers," Shelfari is a virtual bookshelf that is somewhat
similar to GoodReads, but it requires users to sign in using their Amazon profile.
After the sign-in, Shelfari populates the member's bookshelf with prior purchases
on Amazon (including print and ebook purchases). Shelfari does not support
authors whose books are not available on Amazon.
 weRead — weRead is similar to Facebook, allowing users to connect with people
through networks of friends and interests. It has some three million members,
who have to date added 60 million books. weRead may be accessed via the
following social media sites: Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo, Orkut, and Hi5.
 Riffle — The last to enter the market, Riffle (a product by a tech company Odyl)
is similar to GoodReads in that it invites readers to join via existing social
networks and then share details about the books they are reading, loved reading,
or would love to read. Co-founder Neil Baptista shared the following in a recent
interview with Publishers Weekly about what sets it apart from sites like
GoodReads: "I think a lot of people will use GoodReads and Riffle in the way
people use Twitter and Facebook...GoodReads is much more focused on browsing
and status updates and user-generated reviews. We made the fundamental
decision to focus on recommendations."

Online Reading Communities
 Online reading communities have not been without controversy. Some in the library
profession see them as a direct threat to what is at the core of the library profession—direct
interaction with patrons and reading recommendations—arguing that the lack of "human"
connection and transparency can lead to questionable outcomes when books are
recommended in virtual environments. In addition, in an effort to drive sales, some authors
have publicly admitted to creating fake GoodReads accounts to promote sales of their own
books by recommending them to their "friends."
 The benefits, most agree, outweigh drawbacks. Public and school librarians are often
encouraged to mine the sites of GoodReads and Library Thing to help them stay ahead of the
curve. They are also advised to consider creating "library group" pages on such sites.
Professional book reviews are still seen as the integral part of the process.
 The connection between online reading communities and the promotion of ebook reading is
an integral part of the picture. Although books are recommended for their content (rather
than their formats), such online reading communities inevitably promote digital reading and
lead to more discovery of free or low-cost ebook content available via all online retailers, non-
profit repositories, publisher and author sites, etc.
 Online reading communities are proving to be powerful tools in the discovery of ebooks. As
more publishers, authors, and librarians tap into their potential, they are bound to fortify
their future role as the preeminent ebook discovery tools.

E-textbooks
 E-textbooks (sometimes referred to as "digital textbooks") belong in the group
of educational ebook types. At their core, they are electronic versions of the
bulky textbooks carried around campus in student backpacks. This makes
them replicas of existing print books (the majority of e-textbooks are still not
born digital but are being derived from existing print volumes).
 Although they have been getting major exposure in the last three years (even
Apple joined the K-12 race with iBooks Textbooks), e-textbooks have been
around for about eight years. They are usually discussed in the context of the
various content management systems (purchasing platforms) where they can
be bought and consumed and/or various other educational tools where they
cannot be bought but can be uploaded.
 Ebooks can also be described in many other ways. They are often "enhanced"
with multi-media and various other embedded tools to promote an interactive
learning experience (much like the "interactive" books for the K-8 market).
These stretch beyond video and audio clips to include graphs, charts, 3D
animation, diagrams, interactive galleries, interactive maps, study cards, built-
in quizzes, etc.

E-textbooks: Key Players
E-textbooks are available to students via a number of online platforms and content
management systems, including:
 VitalSource Bookshelf
 CafeScribe
 CourseSmart
 Moodlerooms
 Barnes & Noble Nook Study
As in the case with all other ebook types, publishers of textbooks are marketing
their own e-textbook and learning products. The leaders in the field include:
 Wiley's WileyPLUS
 Pearson's MyLab & Mastering (formerly CourseCompass)
 Cengage Learning's CengageBrain.com
 Macmillan' DynamicBooks
 McGraw Hill's Connect

E-textbooks, cont.
 Some companies in the e-textbook business specialize in creating e-textbooks
designed for specific devices. Inkling, for example, specializes in creating e-
textbooks for the iPad. An interesting graphic is provided on the company's
About page, along with the following text pointing to the need to rethink how
textbooks are perceived in digital environments.
 "Publishing in this new era will cast aside the constraints of the printed book and
embrace the opportunity of multi-touch devices and their impressive computing
power... [In this world] the iPad is the canvas, not paper.... There’s no such thing
as a page. There’s a 1024 by 768 screen that can change in response to your
fingers. There’s a display instead of ink. There’s memory instead of paper. There’s
a world of new opportunities, and whole new set of constraints.“

E-textbooks, cont.
 Apple entered the K-12 e-textbook market via a partnership with McGraw-Hill Education,
Pearson, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, whose titles are available in the Textbook section
of the iBookstore. Students can choose to download a sample or purchase the entire book,
usually for $14.99 or less, making them significantly more affordable than their print
counterparts. Textbooks purchased from the iBookstore are immediately available for use,
alongside other purchased ebooks. In addition, Apple recently launched iBooks Author, a
free authoring tool that allows Mac users to create their own multi-touch iBooks textbooks.
 VitalSource Bookshelf® is the most used e-textbook platform in the world. It is a content
management platform that lets publishers create and distribute their own content and
provides schools and universities with the tools needed to integrate them into the
curriculum. It has about 2.7 million registered users on 6000 campuses in 180 countries.
When the announcement came in December 2012 that 60 new publishers had added more
than 35,000 new digital textbooks and online course materials to the platform, the product
and the company cemented their leadership roles in e-textbook distribution. The most
recent publishers to join VitalSource include 14 of the most recognized university presses.
 Open e-textbooks are expected to grow in popularity in the coming years. They include
course materials produced by teachers and professors which are shared openly online. Many
reputable universities around the world support the open e-textbook model.

WEEK 2 REVIEW
By the end of Week 2, you should be able to answer the following:
 What types of ebooks are available to consumers and libraries?
 How are free ebooks different from public domain ebooks?
 What are open access ebooks?
 What are the distinctions between traditional book publishing and e-publishing?
 What are some of the characteristics of self-publishing?
 Why are authors attracted to the self-publishing models?
 What are some of the most dominant self-publishing platforms and outlets?
 What sources of ebooks exist online?
 Who are the most dominant ebook retailers?
 What are some of the goals of various non-profit ebook repositories?
 What is the premise of Project Gutenberg?
 What is Internet Archive and what is its purpose?
 What is the mission of Google Books?
 What is the context behind the Google Books Settlement?
 What is the role of online reading communities?
 What is the benefits of online reading communities for librarians?
 What role do online reading communities have in the discovery of ebooks?
 What are the characteristics of e-textbooks?
 How is the e-textbook business evolving?
 Who are the dominant e-textbook providers in the market today?

Ebook Publishing & Self-Publishing Trends

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