Industry Survey Dec-Feb

Overall there is more optimism in the air. Christmas proved to be good for both analogue and digital. Though sales in physical bookshops were badly affected by the snow. Hardback non-fiction sold well as gifts as well as other more ‘novelty’ books. This ties into a general feeling that the books are being valued as a gift. Even if they are not read, as we value them as the object and the feelings they represent. On the digital side of things Amazon sold an incredible amount of Kindles. This led to some of the more savvy publishers out there timing there books to be available as people unwrapped their devices and looked for something to download.

There are predictions that devices like the I-pad will become more common, as like the I-phone, people will become used to them and what they offer. This will lead to more single use devices dying out as people expect more from their technology. The I-pad remains the toy of young affluent males whereas the Kindle picks up the silver surfer end of the market. Possibly a good place to be as at the moment they are the only ones with any money!

Apple has also released i-books1.2 and with that some illustrated art books. Suggesting that Apps are perhaps not the future of book formats. As such, in terms of e-books themselves developers are finding that it’s best not to create too much functionality within a book. As this had led to too much competition with games, something a book is not and fails to compete with. However inroads are being made into digital illustrated books as the new e-pub format enables text and image to work better together. There are also rising concerns about English becoming a universal language as more books get released via the Internet.

The V&A sets a good example of high quality publishing. With a new set of high-end art books being made to each stand out individually. Special attention has been paid to the physical aspect of the design with delicate detailing along each spine. They also have digital plans as they are now developing app guide books for the museum.

In terms of libraries there is a feeling that digital lending is being misinterpreted as a problem. However the pace of change is making it difficult for them to plan for the future.

With this year being the first that the Children’s Bookseller conference discuses digital it is interesting to note that it may also be the last for the pop-up book. New health and safety legislation due to come in by 2013 looks to make pop-up too expensive as a project.

The rate of decline has slowed in the market overall and on the whole it is the same people buying e-books as print books. Both of which are selling mostly from the bestseller list. This has interesting implications for the industry, as despite the change in format they are still yet to attract new customers and revenue streams. Furthermore there is some stagnation in the way in which selling is going to work as an ongoing court case drags out concerning the use of the Agency model.

Amazon Kindle

In the interest of fairness I read work by Oscar Wilde as my road test of the Amazon Kindle as I had done so on the kindle app for I-phone. Overall, I am pleased with the way in which the Kindle works. I found it easy to get books onto it and the whole thing was intuitive. I really like the way the screen looks in comparison to using it on an I-phone. The e-ink makes it feel much more like a book and it has more of a sense of being a 'page' as it looks m0re permanent. This is also reinforced, as you have to press a button to turn the page rather than swipe the screen. This makes turning the page a more deliberate action, you are much less likely to skip ahead by accident.

As a physical reading experience it's not bad, it's light and so no real effort to hold. You can balance it on a table or lap to read unlike the I-phone which is a real plus. However it's slimness works against in some ways as I often feel like it could easily break. As the books I read travel with me wherever I go they have to put up with quite a beating inside my satchel. It is with some trepidation I have been carrying it around. However it being so light means it is winning the battle with a large tome of a book that I am also reading. I have rattled through Wilde whilst on the go on the kindle.

I also like how I can alter the line length on the screen. Reading from line to line is something I struggle with in large bodies of text. Often I find myself lost within a text so being able to narrow the text made it much easier to read longer passages. This is problem common for dyslexic people so I think the kindle has great scope as a tool for dyslexic students with long texts to read. I know I would have appreciated being able to do that with some of my readings. Also being able to have all of the texts you need in one place in light weight form will also increase its selling points for students.

The fact that you can very easily put your own work onto the Kindle is also a great plus. Something which is much more difficult with apple products. This is very useful for presenting my work for assessment. Using the hack 'Calibre' also has great potential. This is a programme which allows you to turn any online content into an e-book. For example a blog. This means I can put these blog entries straight onto my Kindle for assessment in an organised way, without time consuming reformatting.

I find the internet usability on the kindle quite cumbersome, however this is an e-reader primarily so for the function of finding books to download it's fine. This differs to the I-pad which for me is an internet using device primarily and an e-book second. This is also reflected in the way things can be laid out on the different devices. The PDF version I have of my ‘zine on the kindle looks pretty terrible. The text is hard to read as it becomes very small on the screen. The layouts also no longer work as it was designed as double page spreads. The kindle also has an irritating habit of trimming the white space on a PDF. This means that some of my designs are suddenly closely cropped and look very different to how I intended it. I am looking into other ways of coding my work in order to overcome these problems. Ideally I would like to find a way of having the books user editable but still in an attractive layout.