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Publishers need to expand digital backlist, says Bilbary founder
15.02.12 | Lisa Campbell
Publishers need to place a greater emphasis in getting their backlist titles published digitally in order to make the e-reading market more "credible" according to Bilbary founder Tim Coates.
Speaking at the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference in New York yesterday (14th February), Coates said in order for the e-book industry to satisfy its customer base publishers need to move away from simply publishing "more" books to providing greater access to their older titles online.
"Specifically readers want more access to the extensive and famous backlists from the major publishing houses. To make e-reading a credible market there needs to be 10 times more backlist titles than are currently available," he said in a statement prepared ahead of his TOC talk.
Coates appeared in a panel discussing the challenges of affording equal access to content in the e-book era and creating a "win-win-win" situation for readers, authors and publishers.
Former Waterstones m.d.Coates, who announced his plan to launch international online consumer site for the sale and lending of e-books, Bilbary, in December, also said devices for reading need to be "cheaper and more disposable".
He said: "A large portion of book readers are older people and children. These individuals need a reliable and affordable way to access e-book content without being pressured to purchase a specific expensive device."
Coates also said there needed to be a shift from simply publishing more titles to providing readers with access to the content that they desire, as the e-book era moves forward.
The O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference is in its sixth year and runs until today (15th February).
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Mein got. Why does the Bookseller continue to give this man the freedom to air his fortune-cookie wisdom? There was far better content from the TOC yesterday yet we get some hackneyed phrases from an 'old flame'.
The e-reading market does not need to be made more credible at all... what utter drivel.
"cheaper and more disposable" reading devices! Try paperbacks - not only cheap and disposable but fully recyclable.
Steve
Would you prefer to have a private discussion? Tim
There was Steve, I've just edited a piece from Gayle Feldman that she filed overnight, and we'll put this up shortly. In the meantime, I thought Tim's point about concentrating on the backlist rather than becoming distracted by the frontlist is well made. When I watch a stream on Lovefilm (as I do often) it is rarely a new film (perhaps because the selection is so abysmal but that's another story). That said I don't agree that the e-book market isn't currently credible.
The ebook market is certainly credible. I find it easier to promote ebooks than print books this year, although we publish both and we don't have a low price for our ebooks (although they are lower than the cost of the print books). I've been surprised at how much easier it is to get sales for the ebooks. The main factor seems to be the convenience - almost immediate delivery of the books and ease of payment. Ebooks are often impulse buys and people want them instantly.
I agree backlist is important as customers are saying they would buy an ereader if they could see a bigger selection of books. They do want to find everything available for their ereader and I've been frustrated myself when a book I want isn't available in ebook form - a very well known novel from not too many years ago.
People also want to buy the backlist by an author when they discover them with their latest book. So we want to have the backlist available for all authors as soon as we can. So I do understand this interpretation of 'credibility' for ebooks as an alternative to print books. The thing is that people who start reading on an ereader often prefer it and want to read everything on their gadget (I do, much to my surprise) so we do want that backlist so we have a full selection, and the book we most want to read at any moment is likely to be available.
Ebooks are better for the environment in very many ways. Not that I'll stop publishing print books. They also make it possible to publish forms that can't pay for themselves in terms of print runs - like short stories, which are very popular with ebook readers but not print book readers.
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