I just returned from the 2011 edition of BookExpo America (BEA), North America’s largest gathering of book trade professionals. BEA is organized with the support of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the American Booksellers Association (ABA), and it always attracts an international audience.

Attending major publishing conferences and trade shows such as BEA always helps me to feel the pulse of the industry. There’s nothing quite like walking the exhibit floor and sitting in on various conference sessions to really hear what is on the minds of executives and to track what the latest developments are in the marketplace.

This year, I detected a clear shift from last year in one important trend: publishers are clearly moving from a reactive to a proactive attitude when it comes to their digital publishing strategies.

In past years, publishers would send various employees to attend shows such as BEA, listen to what was being said, digest that information, and then take it back with them for discussion with their colleagues. However, more often than not, that’s pretty much where things ended. But this year, these professionals came with specific agendas for what they wanted to learn, brought their decision makers with them, and were clearly ready to take action on the information they gathered at BEA.

Another interesting thing that stood out to me at BEA this year was the increased size of the “Digital Book Zone” at this year’s event — which included 17 booths and 16 kiosks in 5,000 square feet of space, not including Google, Amazon, and HP, all of whom had substantial booths outside the Digital Book Zone. Clearly, we have more and more companies showcasing their products, and it’s very interesting to see the various start-ups with unique technologies and products. During the show, we all heard about announcements made by Amazon and other companies regarding the significant rise in eBook sales versus print sales.

With BEA 2011 behind us, it will be interesting to see how publishers respond to Amazon’s dominance with their new publishing division, Amazon Publishing. While our position is neutral, we have always maintained that publishers need to take control of their digital infrastructure so they can build direct relationships with their end customer – rather than let retailers own those relationships.

It’s a good feeling to know that iPublishCentral is regarded as one of the “short list” options that publishers consider when they look for a technology platform to support their digital publishing strategies. At BEA, we received warm feedback everywhere we went from folks who consider Impelsys to be true thought leaders in the industry.

It’s been a month since we released iPublishCentral 3.0. I’ll try to explain some of the features we have added in this release. The most significant one is clearly the ‘Book as an App’ and ‘Bookstore as an App’ Frameworks. The frameworks are the first step for us to help publishers to build rich and interactive eBook apps. The bookstore is aimed at a collection of books and book app framework is to help create rich single book apps. I had mentioned in an earlier blog how rich book apps can create an entirely new business opportunity and how publishers and consumers have began to endorse rich book apps. The frameworks make it possible to create an abstraction of common essential functionality that spans across apps so that teams building new apps can focus on enriching the content rather than building common functionality over and over again.

The second significant feature of iPublishCentral is the ability to integrate eBook and print book sales from one location. This helps avoid the costs of maintaining separate infrastructure for print and eBook sales. It also provides the opportunity to create new bundles from one point of sale, buy 3 books get an eBook free or offer print and eBook combos at a new special price. Can this feature be integrated seamlessly to your existing electronic or print infrastructure? Absolutely! The services team at iPublishCentral will help make this transition seamless and with minimum downtime.

The third significant feature is the enhancements to the distribute module. Sameer, Founder and CEO – iPublishCentral, in his presentation at The Tools of Change Conference had mentioned how publishers are creating infrastructure to tackle the needs of a global market. This demand prompted us to make the enhancements that increase the scalability and reliability of the distribute module. Large pushes of book info and metadata can easily be done to span large number of end points. The status of these pushes can also be monitored in real time with any failures being clearly identified. The reason for failure is also provided so that corrective action can be done for that specific push without redoing the entire action again.

If you would like more information or would like a new feature to be added to iPublishCentral, please email us at info@ipublishcentral.com.

The latest version of iPublishCentral, iPublishCentral 3.0 went live a few weeks ago. The team has worked hard towards making our platform the most robust in the industry and we are excited to finally announce its completion. Publishers registered on iPublishCentral can now enjoy a host of new features and modules such as the ‘Mobile Apps module’, the ‘Distribute feature’ as well as the ‘Print Book eCommerce feature’. All these features have been built keeping in mind the evolving needs of publishers and to help them stay one step ahead of the industry.

Another important achievement for us was the launch of the Sesame Street iPad App that went live on March 28th, 2011. Having already launched the online Bookstore in May 2010, the iPad app was well received by customers and in less that a week we have already seen over 1000 downloads. The phenomenal success of the app can be attributed to the way it complements the Sesame Street online eBookstore. The app is already in the top 10 free downloads and on the top 10 grossing amongst book apps. The Sesame Street iPad app has been a true learning experience for us. The difference in market acceptance between selling on the web or through a tablet device is as contrasting as night and day. We often wonder if tablets are indeed the tipping point of our industry and our experience with Sesame Street clearly indicates that it is.

As we move forward in 2011, we know that the key for us to stay ahead lies in innovation. To innovate we need direction and information. Luckily for us, we are in a position to study and understand both the consumer as well as the publisher. This helps us revisit our road map constantly and build or rebuild features into iPublishCentral.

We believe that we are the leaders in our domain and we consistently strive to remain the most powerful books-on-the-cloud solution.

This is just the beginning; in the months and years to come you are going to see much more excitement and additions to iPublishCentral both from a publisher perspective in delivering their content as well as from a consumer perspective in terms of user experience of consuming the content digitally.

Hardly a month into 2011 and news of several large acquisitions hit the papers. Now as the first quarter-end closes in, we see this trend more growing. Is more of this likely to be seen in the coming months? We seem to think so. Read on for the most interesting acquisitions so far and feel free to add more to this list.

Samsung buys Liquavista

In January this year, makers of the Galaxy Tab Tablet PC and several e-reader models, Samsung confirmed the news of its acquisition of a Dutch-based digital publishing company, Liquavista. Liquavista’s Electrowetting technology could help Samsung build better displays that offer enhanced outdoors visibility, like e-ink, and also save on power consumption while delivering faster refresh rates. The Samsung Tablets and smartphones too, are likely to be the beneficiary of such innovative display technology.

http://goodereader.com/blog/tablet-slates/samsung-are-the-new-owners-of-liquavista/

http://www.gottabemobile.com/2011/01/20/samsung-acquires-liquavista-to-compete-in-display-technology/

http://www.sify.com/news/Pearson-gets-control-over-TutorVista-for-Rs-577-crore-news-National-lbtaOhaejfg.html

Pearson increases stake in TutorVista

Pearson, one of the world’s largest publishing groups and owner of The Financial Times, Pearson Education and Penguin, has increased its stake in Indian education firm TutorVista to a controlling level of 76 percent, for approximately $125 million.

The deal, one of the biggest transactions ever in the Indian education sector will expand Pearson’s business in education in India and in global online tutoring. Pearson had previously acquired a minority 17% stake in Bangalore-based TutorVista in June 2009.

TutorVista is primarily engaged in providing online tutorials to students in North America, supplying digital content and technology platforms to schools and providing services like curriculum design, teacher training and school administration services.

Pearson also has another Joint Venture in India with publicly traded learning solutions company Educomp, which develops vocational and professional services for the Indian market.

Google buys eBook Technologies

Early in January 2011, Google acquired eBook Technologies, a company that focuses on hardware and software distribution of e-books and e-book readers. The firm sells technology used to operate digital reading devices as well as publishing software and tools. Speculation is that Google wants to jump into the tablets, e-readers and other portable devices.

The acquisition came weeks after Google opened the eBookstore e-commerce site, where readers can browse and search through more than more than three million free books.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/12/google-acquires-ebook-technologies/

http://mashable.com/2011/01/13/why-google-acquired-ebook-technologies/

Proquest buys Ebrary

Ebrary, one of the pioneers in aggregating books and other print content online, hosts more than 273,000 digital books, handbooks, reports, maps, journals and other content from about 500 publishers that it offers to libraries and other institutions under a variety of services and platforms.

Ebrary, which has recently been acquired by ProQuest will continue to invest in Ebrary’s products and services for the academic, corporate, and public library markets. ProQuest will also expand Ebrary’s selection of research tools and ability to support new e-book devices as well as broadening language coverage from its current support of major European languages to include Chinese, Arabic and others.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/industry-deals/article/45700-proquest-buys-ebrary.html

MPS Ltd. and The BookMasters Group Inc. form strategic partnership

MPS Limited, a Macmillan company and The BookMasters Group, Inc. (BMI) announced a strategic partnership that will offer customers the benefits of a combined service across digital publishing, fulfillment, and print and electronic distribution.

The partnership allows BMI to offer its customers cost-effective services for eBooks, enhanced eBooks, and apps. MPS customers will gain from BMI’s Converso service, which distributes eBooks hosted on MPS’ ContentStore to Amazon, Apple, Overdrive, Barnes & Noble, Gardners, and 35 other critical eRetail sites. In addition, the partnership will enable the two companies to jointly offer US clients a complete fulfillment and distribution package.

http://macmillanpublishingsolutions.com/News/PressRelease/BMI-MPS_partnership.aspx?utm_source=press_release&utm_medium=LinkedIn&utm_campaign=
BMI&goback=.gde_38278_member_41040150

Until recently, eBook publishing was all about making print content available in electronic form. Although such electronic content was enriched by adding audio and video, the real power and potential of the medium was not fully explored.

Now, the advent of iPad and Kindle is revolutionizing the way readers access books. The proliferation of these highly graphic intensive and compute capable tablet devices has created new opportunities for enhancing the content of books. This enriched content, the most exciting feature of e-publishing called applications or apps, can be packaged and sold in apps stores. The availability of app stores that provide help in marketing and selling content has facilitated publishers and authors by increasing their options to enrich and deliver content. End users are increasingly accessing content from these devices because of the convenience and richer nature of the content. This, in turn, has increased the return on investment of readers, authors, and publishers.

There is a high demand for apps that are brilliantly interactive and rich in content. The Solar System app for iPad is an excellent example of how feature rich apps can take mobile experience to a whole new level of reading and entertainment. 3D models, gallery of pictures, videos, animations and groovy sound effects make apps more exciting.

With digital strategies to manage the brand, publishers can now make enriched and branded content available to their readers. The trend states two strategies that are being nimbly adopted by publishers—Book as an App and branded Bookstore as an App.

Book as an App is a single title app that enables the publishers to make select titles available to readers as an individual app for purchase on the app Store. Similarly, some publishers are stepping up the game by offering a branded customized bookstore app that supports their entire catalogue of books with the option to purchase books from within the bookstore app. With such apps, readers can easily download and access their favorite title on their mobile device.

Technology enablers like iPublishCentral offer customizable applications that a publisher can leverage for their branding, recommendations, announcements, surveys, database creation and to directly establish relationship with the readers. The data collected by custom apps can be used to analyze and understand the success of the book and provide insights into what type of new content is to be created.

The competition in the market is growing stronger than ever before and the only distinguisher for a publisher in this race will be to offer top quality relevant content at optimized costs. In order to draw readers and sustain their interest, publishers would need innovation not only on blueprint but also in execution.

The opportunity is real. The new enabling technology is in place and the audience is ready.

[Anil Gopinath, joined the team in October 2010 as Executive Vice President - Global Engineering - iPublishCentral]

Its been about 4 months since I joined the iPublishCentral team. With no prior experience in publishing the last four months have been a real eye opener for me. It has taken me this long to get a feel of the different aspects related to publishing, the different segments and the different needs and requirements of the ecosystem.

Working with the team at iPublishCentral has so far been a great experience. With their help and  through discussions with our clients and other publishers I am now beginning to feel like I am  a part of this community.

The opportunity to attend the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2010 and the more recent O’Reilly Tools of Change Conference in New York, gave me a good understanding of the transformations that are happening in the world of publishing. At both events, I met with several authors and publishers who were kind enough to share their experience and thoughts about the changes they are seeing in the industry.

The publishing industry is now at a crossroads of sorts, with technology being the major game changer. Publishers now have new capabilities and new markets to explore and are questioning some of the older business models.

For us at iPublishCentral, innovating to find solutions and products to ease this transition for publishers is what is foremost on our minds. In these past few months we have transformed our product road map and have made several process changes within the iPublishCentral product team. We have broken up development into formal release cycles and are streamlining  internal and external communications. We have also strengthened the network operations team to keep up with the growing requirements for eBook delivery.

We hope to continue to innovate and help our publishing partners keep pace with and grow with each and every evolution of technology.

What is HTML5?

HTML5, preceded by HTML4, is the latest version of the HTML standard, which will take internet browsing to a whole new level. Started in 2004, HTML5 is the current project of the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) that includes companies such as AOL, Apple, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Mozilla, Nokia, Opera etc.

HTML5, while still under development, is basically an enhanced version that better supports applications such as embedded audio, video, graphics, client side offline and online data storage and interactive documents within a web browser on the World Wide Web. Browsers such as Opera, Safari, Internet Explorer and Firefox have already started adding limited HTML5 support to their latest versions of browsers, offering users audio and video embeds, access offline web apps, storage etc.

HTML5 – The future of the web?

With all major web players competing neck to neck with each other to provide major HTML5 features in their browser applications, it is hard to ignore it as the future of the web. Industry honchos such as Steve Jobs and Dean Hachamovitch (GM – Internet Explorer) proclaim that HTML5, with it superior array of tools to fulfill the needs of modern multimedia-rich web applications, will be the future of the web.

The launch of the iPad was a major deciding factor in ushering the HTML5 generation, with Apple releasing a list of ‘iPad ready’ websites having support for some of the features that HTML5 provides.

Steve Jobs while justifying Apple’s refusal to allow Flash player on iPhone/iPad, wrote – “New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too)”.
Highlights of HTML5

Audio/Video Support
One of the main highlights of HTML5 is that it enables audio/video content to be played in a browser without the need for plug-ins and with native hardware acceleration. We still have to note that advanced video capabilities like streaming videos are still not specified in the HTML5 draft specifications, and are not yet implemented by the major browser vendors.

Structure
HTML5 provides new tags which help to improve the Symantic web, and describe the contents of the document in an easier method, allowing search spiders to understand the content of the document.

HTML 5 offers enhanced forms with improvements to text inputs, search boxes and other fields
and provides better controls for validating data, focusing, interaction with other page elements on the page and various other improvements.

Geolocation
The new HTML5 geolocation APIs make location, whether generated via GPS or other methods,
directly available to any HTML5 compatible browser-based application. This is the key to making
location aware applications using this new specification.

Client-side database
HTML5 provides a new SQL-based database API that can be used for storing data locally. This allows a developer to save structured client-side data using a real SQL database. This allows content developers to make more powerful client side applications using HTML5.

Offline Application Cache
An offline application HTTP cache that can be used to make sure applications are available even when the user is disconnected from their network. All browsers have a cache but they have been very unreliable for delivering whole pages and applications.

Smarter search and sharper focus on Web application Requirements
HTML5 provides marketers with new ways to tell search engines about their content, making it easier to find and identify all content on a site. HTML5 makes search on the web smarter by enabling easier page segmentation that can be treated as separate entries. HTML5 makes it easier to build search front-ends, wikis, real-time chat, drag-and-drop tools, discussion boards and many other modern web elements into any site, and have them work more efficiently

HTML5 - Impact on future versions of ePUB

While currently ePUB does not support HTML5, the IDPF Working group have identified several limitations of the format. The Working Group’s mission is to update ePUB to expand its applicability as a delivery format, and as a Cross-Reading System interchange and production format that should be adopted, on a global basis, for textbooks, academic, STM, digital magazines, and news delivery, and facilitate increased interoperability across Reading Systems.

Some of the shortfalls of ePUB as an Universal eBook format are listed, although most of these shortfalls can be addressed by adopting HTML5.

1. Lack of rich media and interactivity support. These capabilities are necessary for interactive digital textbooks and digital magazines, and more generally to enable eBooks to evolve into a new medium, rather than simply be digital equivalents of paper books.
2. Need for enhanced global language support.
3. Need for enhanced article and metadata support.
4. Need for a means to convey page-level layouts and target multiple display surface sizes in a single publication. This is a barrier to supporting books with more complex information designs, as well as digital magazines.
5. Need for enhanced navigation support.
6. Incomplete alignment with broadly-adopted Web standards. Since most distributed Reading Systems utilize Web browsers to present content to end-users, and many standalone Reading Systems utilize Web browser rendering technologies in their implementations, it is desirable to improve alignment with Web standards as implemented by modern browsers.
7. No native support for mathematics. The lack of a native schema to represent mathematical equations (MathML) limits applicability and interoperability of eBook in the textbook and academic publishing segments.
8. No clear relationship to approved national and international standards. While EPUB has enjoyed broad adoption, the relationship to national and international standards has not been clearly articulated. In addition, no roadmap has been provided to address these questions in the industry.

The potential solution to fully or partially address many of the above limitations is to consider adopting new features being standardized as part of HTML5.
HTML5 - Impact on publishers and readers

For publishers and readers alike, HTML5 reading would offer several benefits. The ability to provide and view media rich and interactive content, with enhanced search and navigation options, rich video and audio embeds, global storage and access to content, mathematical, glossary and annotation support are few of the many reasons HTML5 is set to be the future of reading.

One caveat to note is that HTML5 is not yet a final specification, and it will evolve till the WHATWG team finalizes the specification. So any feature currently in the specification could change while it’s being finalized.

References:
http://www.slideshare.net/offir.a/HTML5overviewoa
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/previewofhtml5
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/30/microsoft-weighs-in-the-future-of-the-web-is-HTML5/
http://hubpages.com/hub/HTML5-is-Here-Now-HTML5-Benefits-for-Users-and-Developers http://www.webconfs.com/html5-seo-article-27.php
http://www.idpf.org/idpf_groups/IDPF-EPUB-WG-Charter-4-6-2010.html
http://html5readiness.com/

This short video highlights the challenges faced by publishers today and explains how publishers can use iPublishCentral to power their digital strategies simply and efficiently.

iPublishCentral - The key to the future of publishing

From digital asset management and books on the cloud to Publisher branded ebookstores, delivery on the iPad and other reading devices, DRM protection as well as publisher marketing tools - iPublishCentral has solutions for both individual readers and Institutions, in any industry segment - Trade, STM, University or Childrens publishers.

This year, The Frankfurt Book Fair seemed quieter than the previous year in terms of footfall, but not so in terms of quality of meetings. We saw a higher level of ‘C Level’ visitors prepared to explore their digital strategies and talk about how a technology partner might be able to assist them in this endeavor.

Our stand which was strategically placed right opposite the ‘Device Hot-Spot’ gave us the opportunity to study attitudes towards the several reading devices that have hit the market place in the past few months. No doubt the hype about the iPad and the onslaught of these new devices have led to the explosive growth in eBook sales and has generated a lot of discussion, with more publishers now paying a lot of attention to the future of content and content delivery. The tablet phenomenon is proving to be a major catalyst towards driving user demand for interactive and media rich content on the move, and has spurred many industry leaders such as Google, Amazon, Apple and Samsung to position themselves to own the digital book space, in much the same manner that Apple has taken over the music industry.

While a few years ago, the predominance of this digital trend was limited to the United States and parts of Europe, we are now seeing an increasing interest in digital content and eBooks from developing countries in Asia, the Middle East and South America.

The eBook era is enabling publishers to take more control over their content and deliver it directly to their end-users. Delivering eBooks to the market does not have to follow the traditional print supply chain where the distributor and retailer have such a strong presence. Publishers can now have their eBooks hosted on a neutral platform and sell or deliver it through their own branded eBookstore directly to their end users and institutions. This allows the publisher to set their own price and redefines their relationships with resellers, and of course the discounts they offer.

While matters regarding DRM protection for content still remains debatable, this year we experienced more and more enquires from publishers and distributors regarding safeguarding of their digital content. The market is clearly a friendlier place for eBooks and we saw several publishers from different countries shopping for an eBook platform that allows them to deliver and sell their content as an aggregate set of titles via publisher branded portals. It was encouraging to note that most of them had researched the eBook platforms available in the marketplace, a clear indication that they are in the process of embracing this new age with enthusiasm. The internet and the cloud phenomena that powers global access of content through multiple devices continues to shape the publishing world and we are all excited about what the future holds.

A lot has been said about eBook pricing in the past year. Publishers now are in a stronger position of control, shunning older pricing models for models that fit in with their business objectives.

The Retail model

In the recent past, the retail model, made popular by retail giant Amazon, has been facing a lot of criticism from publishers. Under this model the publishers sells books to online retailers, who then sell it to readers at a price that the retailer determines. Amazon was buying eBooks from publisher for about $13 and selling the same eBook, at a loss-leader pricing, for $ 9.99 for reading on its Kindle eReader device.

The strategy of taking a loss on each eBook was aimed to push sales of the Kindle mainly succeeded in establishing $ 9.99 as an acceptable and popular price for an eBook.

The problem publishers have faced with this model are two fold. Besides having limited control over pricing, publishers believe that a standard pricing of $9.99 devalues the book — negatively impacting sales of the hardcover paperback.

The Agency model

Many publishers such as Macmillan, unhappy with the Amazon eBook pricing model that resulted in devaluing the content of the book, began pushing for an ‘Agency model’ for the sale of eBooks.

Under this model, the publisher shall remain the sole seller, and an online vendor like Amazon would merely act as an “agent,” in exchange for a percentage of the commission. This ensured that the publisher had full control over prices, rather than having to accept the standard $ 9.99 price made popular by Amazon. Under this system, Amazon would probably earn extra dollars from publishers as compared to their current loss-leader pricing model.

The war against the $ 9.99 eBook price was started when Macmillan challenged Amazon head-on and refused to settle for the $ 9.99 price. Macmillan was soon followed by the Hachette Book Group and Harper Collins. Amazon initially retaliated by refusing to sell Macmillan books through their online store. But in a short span of time, Amazon accepted Macmillan’s terms and put their books back on the Amazon store — but not without insisting that Macmillan prices were still needlessly high for e-books.

Apple too has adopted the agency model for eBooks on its iPad, by signing up with publishers such as Harper Collins, Hachette Book Group, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster and Penguin.

The Subscription model

The problem that publishers faced with both the above models, be it the wholesaler-retailer model or the agency model (selling through agents), was lack of access to buyer statistics and behavior. In the future, publishers are largely going to shift from B2B to B2C business models i.e. selling directly to readers / end-users or institutions.

Under a B2C business model, the publisher enjoys certain advantages. Publishers have control over prices, get to know the readers directly and can gain insights into the usage of their content.  They can also sell several supplementary / ancillary assets at incremental prices directly through their website. This type of content monetizing is possible by adopting newer models such as marketplace Apps or subscriptions.

Many publishers are now choosing to supplement their retailers by distributing books and eBooks via their own branded eBookstores that have e-commerce systems built into them.

A buyer looking to purchase a particular book can visit the publishers’ eBookstore and buy the book directly from them. This is useful particularly when readers wish to gain access to several books in the store. Along with selling the titles individually, publishers can offer a monthly or yearly subscription to all the books in the store. Publishers can also go one step ahead and offer eBooks, eBook supplements or content chunks to customers on ‘rent’. i.e. enable micro-payments to provide access for a short periods of time. For example, a reader no longer has to buy an entire book just to access say Chapter-7 of the book. He can instead loan out the content for just as long as s/he needs it.

In the future, it is likely that more and more publishers will create and manage their very own eBookstores to supplement sales through their retailers, intermediaries and other online distributors. The advantage of reaching out directly to the end user, not only allows publishers greater control over prices, but also helps them understand their reader buying and consumption habits better.

Other Noteworthy Business models

Harper Studio

One model worth taking note of is the game changing business model by Harper Studio that pays the author 50% of the profit sharing as compared with the traditional 7-15% royalty that an author gets.

The model aims at seizing the doors of opportunity that technology has opened. Harper is looking at packing and supplementing their products with multimedia tools such as DVDs and / or embedded videos or narrative blurbs.

Odyssey editions

A group of well known and well respected authors, have formed Odyssey editions to sell their titles as Kindle ebook editions. Most of the books are priced under Amazon’s target eBook price of $9.99 and mostly undercut the price of the paperback edition. The model which offers self ePublishing authors 70% of sales, is facing flak from traditional publishers who have, under newer contracts been claiming exlusive eBook rights, offering authors only around 25% for ebook sales.

With the agent taking on the role of the publisher, Publishers such as Random house are disputing Odyssey’s rights to sell the ebooks.

References:

http://blog.macmillanspeaks.com/macmillan-ceo-john-sargent-on-the-agency-model-availability-and-price/
http://www.digitaltrends.com/gadgets/three-publishers-now-reject-amazons-9-99-ebooks/
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/135/fast-talk-the-experimenter.html
http://industry.bnet.com/media/10006134/harpercollins-inkpop-another-step-in-the-digital-publishing-revolution/
http://www.i-programmer.info/the-stone-tapes/1098-publishers-bypassed-by-kindle-ebooks.html