The latest in the Digital Book World webcast series, Ebooks' Real Impact on the Book Publishing Market: 2009-2011, provided a comprehensive overview of the last few years in digital books as well as gave predictions on the future direction of the market. The panelists were Guy LeCharles Gonzales, director, content & digital product development at Media Source, Inc.; Frederique Meriot, consultant on the state of the European e-book industry; Eric Freese, solutions architect, Aptara.
Freese spent a large part of the webcast breaking down the newly-released Aptara Survey (full survey can be found here) and its implications. His main takeaway point: "The survey is a confirmation of the vast e-book market opportunity. [Publishers have just found] the tip of the iceberg." Among the figures from the survey: publishers' own eCommerce sites generate the greatest percentage of e-book sales for every segment except trade. This shows, Freese said, trade's lack of direct-to-consumer initiatives.
Meriot laid out the difficulties of cultivating e-books in Europe and cited as one major reason as the fact that Amazon.com is just now launching in Spain and Turkey, the lack of a dedicated e-reader, and unstructured distribution channels around the continent.
Gonzales was posed a question regarding the role of public libraries in the e-book equation. He was optimistic, citing 3M's entrance into the market (stressing it's not just OverDrive's market anymore).
The subject of EPUB 3 also came up, and Freese predicted that it will lead to fragmentation and confusion until the market settles and consumers figure out what they want to pay. He was also quick to point out that a significant segment of consumers "just want to read the book," so, despite all of EPUB 3's bells and whistles, developers need to account for differening preferences.
