1. Developing an E-book
Business Model: too new
for standardization?
John Cox
Managing Director
John Cox Associates Ltd
07/13/09 John Cox Associates Ltd 1

2. Evolving e-book business
model standards
 Obstacles to standardization:
- Anti-trust law: illegal to discuss
business models
- No typical e-book: different types of
book for different purposes
 E-books ten years behind journals
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3. Important distinctions:
different types of e-book
 ‘Encyclopedia’ or reference works
 ‘Monographs’, or research &
scholarship
 ‘Textbook’, or learning tools
- Course textbook adoptions
- Recommended reading
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4. E-books are not just books
 Today’s e-books are facsimiles of print
 Tomorrow’s e-books will be more
complex and functional:
- searchable databases – reference
- learning objects – textbooks
- narratives – literature, monographs etc
 Re-flowable text to display on a variety
of devices, with personalization and
visualization tools
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5. Different market segments
 Libraries: collections of reference &
monographs from large publishers
and aggregators
 Individuals: chapters or pages to
meet the need of the moment or
incorporate as objects in course
management systems
 Different markets require different
business models
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6. Subscription models
 For reference & monograph collections
 Access limited to set number of
books/pages, or unlimited access
 Reference databases often have additional
functionality
 Principal models: concurrent users, FTEs or
other “size”-based structures
 Collections: self-select or pre-selected
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7. FTEs: weighting by type of
institution – OUP approach
 4-yr Academic: 100% of 1st 35,000FTE staff/
faculty/students; then 50%
 2-yr Academic/
Specialized/Tribal: 50% of FTE staff/fac./ stud’ts
 Middle/High Schools:15% of no students Grades 9-12
 Public & State 4% of population up to 100,000;
Libraries: sliding scale to 2% of 1 million +
 Corporations/Govt./
 Military Agencies: 100% employees network access
 Non-Profit: 50% employees network access
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8. E-books included in journal
packages or collections
Non-Journal Material in Bundles by Publisher Size
100%
90%
80%
70% 9
60% 35
36
No
50%
Yes
40%
30%
20% 5
10% 10
7
0%
Small Medium Large
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9. Size categorization:
Carnegie and JISC
 Carnegie Classification only applies in
the USA
 JISC Charging Bands based on UK
Government funding; only applies in
the UK
 Not a ‘universal’ business model
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10. E-book purchase models
 Purchase & download at most
publishers’ sites and online retailers
 Price depends on content or type
- Monographs: 10-20% off print price single user, or
surcharge for multiple access e.g. Ebrary 150%
- Reference is different, e.g. Wiley
Print price Online pricing for purchase
<10K FTEs 10-40K FTEs 40K + FTEs
100 158 221 309
 Textbooks: 50% discount off print
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11. E-book rental – the short
term subscription
 Why is a subscription always for a
year?
 1, 7, 30, 90, 180 day rentals
 Pricing from 20% for 7 days to 75% for
180 days
 7 day rental most popular for T&F –
aimed at students
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12. Compilation & PPV models
 Customized textbooks not new. Compilation
of chapters from different titles now standard.
For Pearson it is a major revenue source
 Compilation facilities now spread beyond
adopted textbooks to monographs and
recommended reading, e.g. T&F’s eCompile.
Priced at 15-20c per page
 Pay-per-view not unlike purchasing individual
journal articles, e.g T&F’s eCopy/ePrint
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13. Micropayment facilities
 A payment mechanism is required
for small amounts- micropayments
 T&F ‘MyWallet’ – a prepayment
account used for any e-book service
 Proven technology, like pay-as-you-
go cell phone schemes
 A role for PayPal?
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14. Non-cash elements: access
& usage rights
 Access: browse, download, print
 Authorized users: remote/walk-in?
 Display: HTML, PDF, XML, GIF etc
 Copy & paste: limited or unlimited?
 Download: limited or unlimited?
 Printing: by page, chapter or book?
 Output devices: PC, PDA, iPod etc
 Reader software@ Acrobat Reader etc
 MARC records supplied? If so, free or for
additional charge?
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15. Standardization now?
 E-book business is too young and too
varied
 Emerging consensus on supplying
MARC records, copy & paste and
printing
 Standards inhibit experimentation
 Nothing to stop librarians creating a list
of requirements
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16. Thank you for the privilege
of sharing my thoughts
with you
John Cox
John Cox Associates Ltd.
International Publishing Consultancy
john.cox@johncoxassociates.co.uk
www.johncoxassociates.com
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