Danielle Fontaine
5/1/12
VAST 231
Portfolio 4
The Importance of E-Book Publishing
One of the most important things we have discussed in this course is the rise
of the e-book and of e-readers. E-readers, such as Kindles, Nooks, and iPads have
taken books to an entirely different level. Books can now be easily downloaded with
the click of a button for a low price of $9.99. This revolutionary technology is
affecting consumers of all economic standings, as e-readers are becoming less
expensive with each new edition that comes out. Libraries that support e-book
rentals are further making e-books more affordable and more convenient for
consumers. Yet recently, there has been a great deal of legal issues surrounding the
industry of e-book publishing. There have been arguments over how much e-books
should cost and how the price of an e-book can benefit or hurt customers and
authors alike. The importance of e-book publishing stems from the fact that our
society is changing rapidly from the days where paperbacks were the predominant
form that books came in. E-book publishing an important aspect of copyright
because it directly correlates with the way we buy, learn and read from books in the
future.
There are many complexities behind e-book publishing. As this is a relatively
new field for publishers, it has been interesting seeing how publishers have decided
to market the e-reader friendly versions of their already physically published books.
These companies are trying to make the most off of the profits off of the e-books
they publish; they have had to be strategic with how they market their e-books. This
is where the issues between the top publishing companies and varying prices come
in. If e-books are not all sold at the same price, is it really that big of a deal?
Evidently, price discrepancies between different publishing companies are a
publishing faux pau. According to various websites, this incident has made headlines
worldwide.
In one particular cnn.com article, discrepancies between how much
publishing companies pay authors versus how little companies like Amazon sell ebooks for is discussed. The Department of Justice charged 6 major publishing
companies (including Apple and HarperCollins) for conspiring to raise their e-book
prices from Amazon's low $9.99 selling point. The Department of Justice stated that
these publishing companies charged customers millions of dollars for raising the
price of their e-books to $12-14 from the set $9.99 (Coker 1). This article further
explicates how corrupt this system is. Another similar article, from the Wall Street
Journal Online, further explains the outrage behind this increase in the price of ebooks (Catan 1). E-books are supposed to be sold for less, as it gives consumers
more of an incentive to not only buy an e-reader and subscribe to an online
database of e-books, it also encourages people to read more. The fact that publishers
would come together and decide to collectively raise the price of e-books (minus
Amazon) is unfair to many people, especially those who depend on the more
affordable way to buy books that many e-readers provide. This legal suit exemplifies
that the practices behind e-book publishing are not perfected yet.
In Sue Polanka’s book, aptly titled No Shelf Required: E-books in Libraries, the
complexities of e-book publishing are discussed. Polanka raises the argument that
even the preliminary transition from standard to e-book publishing is a difficult one
for publishers, as the content of a physical copy of a book must be distributed
digitally (Polanka 155). Electronic rights also had to be obtained in addition to print
rights, even if print rights had been granted to a publishing company (Polanka 155).
Polanka raises significant points in her work about how e-book publishing is greatly
changing the face of publishing as a whole. She further explicates e-book publishing
an its tie to the article and journal driven learning community that has become more
prevalent since the start of e-book publishing. This is an imperative aspect of our
society, especially as college students: many of the articles and journals that we use
in our college level courses stem from those published online.
Building off of this argument, Polanka further raises the argument about how
publishers have started to think about selling bits and pieces of larger works (such
as encyclopedias and handbooks) in the form of individual chapters and entries
(Polanka 159). This is significant, as this quick form of e-book publishing can be
further connected to the convenience of smartphones.
“
Several publishers are considering adding an application to the iPhone
service that enables their content to be discovered at the article level...A
small chunk of related content that could be updated or revised could then be
sold via a subscription model, which would allow customers to have
continual access to the content that want, when they want it, and at an
affordable price (Polanka 159).
As this excerpt identifies, this new system of e-book publishing would please
consumers, especially those who rely greatly upon their smartphones for access to
data. E-book publishing is infiltrating many aspects of our society, as publishers are
finding ways to make e-books more convenient and affordable for their customers.
E-book publishing is so important to copyright history because it uproots
hundreds of years of standard publishing. As there is no paper or ink required for ebook publishing, this form of publishing is more convenient. It is also becoming
increasingly more affordable with the set $9.99 selling price of the majority of ebooks and the dropping price of e-readers, such as Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes and
Nobles’ Nook. Although e-book publishing does challenge the importance of the
creation of the Printing Press, it does not undermine it. Rather, e-book publishing
epitomizes how far our society has come in terms of technologic advancement and
the way that we learn. E-book publishing is so important because it provides more
opportunities for people to obtain equal access to information, minus the hefty price
tag that usually comes with the rights to information. Overall, e-book publishing is
significant to the future of the way we read and learn from digitalized materials.
Danielle Fontaine
5/7/12
VAST 231
Work Cited
Work Cited
Catan, Thomas, Trachtenberg, Jeffrey A., Bray, Chad. “US Alleges E-Book Scheme.”
Wall Street Journal. 11 April 2012. Web. 28th April 2012.
Coker, Mark. "A Dark Day for the Future of Books - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News
Network, 16 April 2012. Web. 28th April 2012.
<http://edition.cnn.com/2012/04/15/opinion/coker-bookpublishing/index.html?iref=allsearch>.
Polanka, Sue. No Shelf Required: E-Books in Libraries. Chicago: American Library
Association, 2011. Google Books. Web. 07 May 2012.
<http://books.google.com/books?id=FZ8QJwD1Nm8C>.