The move has happened and electronic books are mainstream now. With more than 80 tablet devices expected to hit the markets this year, new markets are going to open up that will allow additional channels to monetize content. Publishers will need to be ready to address these new market opportunities by figuring out customer needs, product offering, pricing strategy, content formats, delivery options, development and marketing strategies. A complete mobile digital strategy, so to say. This series of articles will focus on a few things that you need to get in place to be ready for selling on these devices. This list is in no way comprehensive, but it will get you started on the thinking.

• If you are one of the few publishers still sitting on the sidelines, then this series of articles is a definite must-read for you.
• If you have already explored selling electronically and want to go on the devices with a full-fledged digital strategy, then this series will help you with what to keep in mind when you formulate your strategy.
• But, if you are among those who are already on their way with mobile products, apps and a mobile digital strategy - then this series can offer a few tips and ideas that you may not have thought about.

The term, eBooks, covers a wide range of possibilities, all the way from the familiar PDF to the new yet-to-establish formats. They are also consumed in various ways - on computers, on laptops, on PDAs, on smartphones and recently, on ereading devices and tablets. The ereading device revolution was unleashed by Amazon, with their Kindle reading device, and the tablet revolution by Apple, with the now ubiquitous iPad. These innovations opened the doors of mobile marketplaces for electonic books. The devices combined with their marketplace, have made ereaders and tablets the most preferred devices to consume eBooks.

Electronic Rights

The first place to start will be look at your title’s electronic rights. Though this may seem obvious, it is better to figure this out at the beginning rather than mid-way through defining your strategy. Do you have the rights for digitally publishing your titles? If not, you may need to renegotiate these rights with the rights holder - the authors, their agents or other distributors, who may have these rights. The rights should cover all devices and formats.

Geographic Rights

While figuring out the electronic rights, you may want to negotiate for the overall global rights for your electronic content. If you look at the spread globally of mobile technology and smartphones, the rate of growth is phenomenal in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries. Having rights to sell your electronic content in these countries will be important, as markets mature.

Language Rights

Most of us are familiar about how important the Spanish markets are, due to the huge market within the US. But, what about other languages? Chinese and Russian are three language that must be considered to have a global appeal for your content. These new markets will become important revenue generators in the near future.

Ancillary Rights

Now that the book rights have been figured out, what about the images that were used within the book? Were they a single-use license or print only? What about using the same image across different products? An eBook is essentially a different product from the print book in which the image would have been used originally. You need to make sure that you have the rights to these ancillaries or look around for suitable replacements. Ancillaries can be images, drawings, illustrations, videos, audio, and more.

Media Rights

As most of these tablets are multimedia devices, getting rights to different media adaptions of the book will ensure long-term adaptability for your content. Do you have the audio rights to the book? Can you deliver the title as an audio eBook or have a read-aloud option within the title? What about the rights to convert the book into a game? These media types provide immersive experiences and can provide additional monetizing options for the same content.

In the next part, we take a look at how you can plan your pricing and what you need to keep in mind while devising a mobile strategy. Watch this space for Part II, of Mobile Strategies - Pricing.

[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.

The electronic age has changed the way we explore, access and consume information. Today much of our information needs are fulfilled through the internet, for absolutely no cost. Much of professional and scholarly research is done through data collected from the internet, and through networking with other researchers. Yet, many argue about the perils of free content, as well the authenticity of content. The magnitude of free information, even throws up the argument of the need for books, or data that has a price tag attached to it. What is it about some content, that you can charge a premium for it? How do you get people to buy content rather than rely on free information sought through the internet?

Readers are given the option to search within the book and ensure that they are getting exactly what they are paying for. Up-to date research reports and full volumes of encyclopedias usually only allow for free book previews, through online readers. Access of an entire volume costs the reader, and if the preview shows content that is worthy, readers are indeed wiling to pay a price for it. The new system that is emerging is of “mixed bundling” - offering a product and its components in different permutations to satisfy different consumer needs. In a manner of speaking, your content is no longer just a product, i.e. a book. Today readers are demanding that there are no restrictions on structure and in a way turning your traditional ‘product’ into a service that requires more than just the physical version. Consumers are demanding specifics, and well, today they are getting what they want. Today, content providers give their readers content in the way they wish to consume it. They give them the option of buying part of the content, add supplementary material to the content, allow them to rent content and many more such options. Thus, to some extent curbing the attitude of, “why should I have to pay for something I don’t need/can get free”.

In a way, content, especially e-content, is looked on as an experience. Today, readers want to envision rather than imagine, they want to participate rather than watch. eBooks give them this experience. You can read an ebook, add notes, share notes with friends, discuss with experts, watch videos, take tests, play games, listen to audio and more, with the added advantage of consuming this content, anywhere and at anytime.

The trend of cloud computing, or saving of data on the cloud/internet, enables portability of content from device to device which represents the future of media and content consumption. The device market is constantly evolving, due to changing consumer preferences and the developing electronics landscape. Device manufacturers, marketers and publishers alike are challenged to make content available where, when and how their readers want to consume it—and that is anywhere, anytime and on any device. Multiple devices, numerous access modes and shifting consumer preferences mean, marketers and content owners cannot afford to choose any one single method. Until formats and device platforms get more established, multi-mode, multi-device support remains a must. So the overall expectations have increased and is more about convenience of accessing the content, choice of formats and price. In a nutshell, it’s about enhanced reading experience, and accessibility to needed resources.

The question of revenues for publishing is on top of everyone’s mind. In studying industry trends, and knowing that readers are not willing to pay for content that they can already access for free, the problem needs to be looked at from another angle. The real opportunity could lie in what we have been calling ‘the reading experience’. Publishers need to take on the role of service providers rather than sellers of a product. Real opportunity could lie in options such as is in selling access to repositories of content or in a constant stream of value adds, such as updates, buying in chunks, renting, links, audio, video, networking, gaming, sharing, participation and engagement and giving readers what they are looking for.