Will Kindle replace “real” books or newspapers?

By Bimal Mehta

Six months ago, Amazon introduced a new product called Kindle. Many predict that Kindle sets out to change the way we read books, newspaper, weblogs and more. The Kindle is a watershed event in electronic publishing. It is not the first eBook device, and may not ultimately be the one that will prevail. Yet, Amazon’s Kindle is touted as one of the most ambitious projects after the Gutenberg’s printing press. Recently launched in India, priced at Rs.13,100, Kindle wirelessly downloads books, magazine, newspaper and documents to a high resolution 6-inch e-Ink display which looks like real paper.

Reading on Kindle is remarkably comfortable. Unlike a laptop or an iPhone, the screen is not illuminated, so there’s no glare, no eyestrain — and no battery consumption. You use power only when you actually turn the page, causing millions of black particles to realign. The rest of the time, the ink pattern remains on the screen without power. You can set it on your bedside table without worrying about turning it off.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says that the first goal the Kindle team set was to emulate the book’s most crucial feature: that it disappears into the story as you read. However, Kindle does work differently than a paper based book. Kindle allows the user to experiment with different type sizes. A paper book offers nothing like this (just the thing for older people). Kindle is also designed to facilitate access to multiple or several books at a time. In the home screen, the most recently read items are at the top of the list (you can sort by title or author). When you leave any book, Kindle remembers your place so you can jump back in where you left.

Reading a newspaper is interesting on Kindle. Kindle newspapers are hyperlinked, like web pages. When you open a paper, you see its logo and front page with headlines and short summaries, followed by a table of contents. Click an article to read it; click the Back button to return to the article list; or just keep paging forward to the next article. But Kindle’s limited grayscale display makes photographs almost a complete loss. Kindle’s technology certainly deserves a mention. The single most interesting component is its paper-like display. Rather than the LCD displays used in most previous book readers, this display uses E-Ink technology invented at MIT’s Media Laboratory. E-Ink film has hundreds of thousands of tiny capsules containing white and black pigment. A circuit layer, underneath, applies electric fields to swap these pigments from top to bottom – turning the surface light, absorbent or reflective. Another notable feature of E-Ink is that it can be laid onto plastic substrate, even a flexible one! This means that Kindle is very resistant to the greatest threat facing LCD displays in laptops – cracking and shattering.

Kindle is not just a book reader. Thanks to its wireless connection, it is very convenient reader for many types of content: books, newspaper, magazines and blogs, not to mention Wikipedia and the web in general. One can access the Amazon online store and download any book from over 200,000 English titles within 60 seconds.

Kindle is also making an impact on the environment. According to a new study, eBooks are better for the environment than traditional paper books. Focusing on Amazon’s Kindle eBook reader, the study was produced by Cleantech Group and stated that after 12 months of using it, the emissions it creates will have been offset. ”The new study finds that eReaders could have a major impact on improving the sustainability and environmental impact on the publishing industry, one of the world’s most polluting sectors,” Cleantech asserted in a statement published online, which added: “In 2008, the U.S. book and newspaper industries combined resulted in the harvesting of 125 million trees, not to mention wastewater that was produced or its massive carbon footprint.”

Technology continues to make changes in everyday life. We have seen musical recordings change form numerous times, until they became digital files; the once cumbersome reel-to-reel film is now downloadable; and many newspapers are now online.

Will books may be the latest victims of technology?

Till date, despite hundreds of millions of PCs in use around the world, only a few hundred thousands of their users have downloaded eBooks. The slow start is partly due to the perception that an eBook doesn’t fully replicate the book reading experience. Kindle does not give you the “holding, feeling, smelling” experience. Nor is it convenient to read to your children in bed.

According to Steve Kessel, Amazon’s vice president for Kindle, about 48 per cent of book sales in the US now happen via Kindle. He expects products like Kindle will replace physical books in future.

According to the Association of American Publishers, annual eBook sales had gained 150 per cent as of April 30th 2009. This contrasted with overall book sales, which dropped over four per cent. Overall, US$ 112 million (approximately INR 600 crore) worth of eBooks were purchased last year – a figure predicted to rise to $400 million in three years time.

Kindle is clearly aimed at the sort of book buyers who save their books to re-read, search, or use for reference — voracious readers with sprawling shelves and stacks of books. Those who read a book and then pass it on to a friend may not find the Kindle as attractive; it doesn’t offer many benefits to those who treat books as disposable items.

The brick-and-mortar experience will also impact Kindle sales. Several book buyers step into bookstores to buy a specific title that brought them to the store in the first place, but the consumer also may buy something that happened to grab his or her attention (for future reading). Most Kindle users will only download a book, when they actually want to read it. One exception is college students. Kindle provides a great advantage in having multiple textbooks available simultaneously without the burden of carrying them around, as students go back and forth to their classes.

Fiction and everyday reading will probably still have a market in physical books. One thing that keeps paper books going as a mass market is inertia. The current generation is used to the habit of reading paper books. Although in the decades to come as older generations die out and younger ones come online, and as generations in the middle try eBooks, and realize their advantages, the use of eBooks will accelerate.

In conclusion, will Kindle replace “real” books?

In Technoland, nothing ever replaces anything. eBook readers won’t replace books. The iPhone won’t replace eBook readers. Everything just splinters. They will all thrive, serving their respective audiences . . . somewhat akin to the old ”TV will replace radio” sentiment. The advent of TV obviously changed the radio industry as the advent of technology will change the publishing industry. However, I don’t think print will ever go away.

Bimal Mehta is the executive director of Vakil and Sons in Mumbai

Copy right and wrong

By Aakriti Agarwal

At the Delhi Book Fair a lively panel session on copyright was organised on 31 August jointly by Kitab, the joint venture of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage and the Frankfurt Book Fair. The panel included Urvashi Butalia, publisher Zubaan; copyright lawyer Chander Lall, two representatives from the Federation of Indian Publishers – Anant Bhushan, General Secretary, Indian Reprographic Organisation (IRRO) and Siddharth Arya, legal advisor to the IRRO. The discussion was moderated by Naresh Khanna, editor of Indian Printer and Publisher.

Butalia with over 35 years of experience in publishing, said that the industry is structured around the copyright issue. “India has been at the forefront of leading developing countries in recognizing the imbalances in the power of place of knowledge and therefore demanding this historical imbalance should be set right. So India led a move in the international copyright arena of compulsory licensing which meant that if a foreign publisher was not willing to make a cheap edition of their book available in India then given certain conditions, the Indian publisher had the right to publish and print the book in India compulsorily by taking licenses and had to pay royalties. But there has not been one book that was published in India using compulsory licensing although this was a very important move for India to make,” said Butalia.

Pirates are not bothered about knowledge, they do it for the money. Butalia adds, “the issue is whether small and big publishers could publish ethically,” and she discovered that it was possible. She said that buying the rights was an issue because it was expensive but foreign publishers can be convinced to make rights available at reasonable rates if they are convinced of the business issues in a particular market.

Reflecting on some numbers, Lall told the audience about the scale of copyright infringements. The Association of Indian Motion Pictures does about 700 cases a year and the Indian Music Industry (IMI) does 3,000 cases a year for the music industry. There are at least 10,000 copyright cases in the criminal justice system of India, he said. There is less litigation over print, Lall pointed out, because publisher’s budgets are lower. However a lawyer who is associated with a Publisher’s Association does 100 cases a year. The average time for resolution is very long, he says and “it does go into years unfortunately.”

There are four intellectual properties -trademark, copyrights, patents and designs. “The moment you create, you get copyright, not only in India but across the world,” Lall said. Any work of creativity is a subject matter of copyright. The six copyright areas are literary works, musical works, artistic works, dramatic works, sound recordings and films. Coming to the digital media, every matter on the Internet is a subject matter of copyright. If you cut and paste, copyright is violated. Even if someone takes a few seconds of a music piece, s/he becomes a copyright infringer. Scripts and films are subject to copyright too.

Copyright is a bundle of rights. Lall explained that to translate a book is one right and to sell it in a different country is another. Publishing it in paperback or hardback are two different copyrights. Music to be sold in VCDs and DVDs require two copyrights and if you have the right to run a movie in one theatre then it cannot be run anywhere else. Copyright is not given verbally, it has to be in written or else it is considered piracy or infringement of law.

The duration of copyright cover on any creative content is the life of the author plus 60 years which implies that till after 60 years of the author’s demise, the work cannot be copied. Lall pointed out that if the author dies in January then s/he gets one extra year because the year the author dies in, is exempted.

The difficult realm of copyright is to gauge how much of the content is an inspiration and what percentage is copied from another source without due credit. If you have created and given rights verbally and not in writing to anyone then it is legally with the creator of the content. Explaining that copyright is a very untested and uncharted area, Lall described a case against a movie rental library where movies were contributed and exchanged among members of the club. It was a non-commercial activity and sounded like “reasonable use” but the High Court ruled it as case of copyright infringement.

Siddarth Arya added that, “It is usually cheaper to get the permission than try to circumvent it.” Arya talked about the Indian Reprographic Rights Organisation (IRRO) which helps authors and publishers with copyrights, photocopying, and scanning issues. The publisher thus goes to one place, applies for the rights and gets it at reasonable price. There is a Reprographic Rights Organisation (RRO) in many countries and IRRO has bilateral agreements with them to help Indian authors and publishers.

Although the discussion mainly centred on illegal use and plagiarism and not strictly on piracy in publishing, the connections were there. It became clear that although this is not a difficult subject there is much to learn and a great amount of detail and compliance to sort out for both publishers and authors.

Delhi police cracks down on book piracy

Pirate warehouse and printing press sealed

The Publishers Association and Association of Publishers of India have met with success in their anti-piracy effort against local a publishers and printer in Delhi. The raids that took place in Delhi over two days – 21 and 22 August 2009 were conducted following an investigation in which the PA unearthed a major book pirating operation covering consumer trade, academic and STM (science, technology, and mathematics) books. Many of these had been illegally reproduced and printed in preparation for the start of the academic year and were intended for sale both on the streets of Delhi and around the country.

The police raid was carried out on a number of targets including the printing press. Over 3,500 illegal copies of trade books were seized, including Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series, Harry Potter titles and Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, all of which are established favourites in the Indian consumer market. Police also stopped the illegal production of three major academic titles, seizing 80,000 incomplete copies of these books as well as negatives and printing plates. Amongst the unfinished books were two software programming titles by Indian authors published by Tata Mcgraw Hill, and a GMAT guide published by John Wiley and Sons. The printing unit was closed down pending further investigation. An FIR under Section 63 and 65 of the Copyright Act, 1957 was registered at the New Ashok Nagar Police Station.

The PA and API state that illegal copying of textbooks and other titles has a lasting and irreparable impact on the investment their members make in reprinting their textbooks for the Indian market. In order to make them available at a reasonable price, these are purportedly published with the aim of enabling Indian students to access academic and educational material at a tenth of the US sale price.

Emma House, International Director of the UK Publishers Association said, “We are delighted the police responded to our complaint and swiftly took appropriate action. Illegal copying destroys the legitimate businesses of publishers who invest in measures to provide Indian students with cost effective access to UK and US published materials. We are extremely grateful to the Delhi police, and in particular Deputy Commissioner Anand Mohan, under whose command the raid was conducted with professionalism and skill.”

Sanjiv Goswami, President of The Association of Publishers of India said, “We congratulate the Delhi Police for their swift and effective action. Effective enforcement against illegal copying will further encourage international publishers to expand their low priced reprint program to benefit the students in India.”

The Publishers Association is a trade organisation serving book, journal and electronic publishers in the UK. The Association of Publishers of India is the representative body of foreign publishers to deal with all matters pertaining to the promotion and advancement of their presence in India and to protect the common interests of members and professionals engaged in publishing in the SAARC Countries. Naresh Khanna

Why a Content & Media newsletter in print?

We have published, printed and distributed copies of two 8-page newsletters called Content & Media at the Delhi Book Fair. These mainly cover the DBF and some of the events held at the show. Why have we brought out these newsletters with the same name as our blog?

As the book publishing industry grows, it will become more complex and interesting for the professionals who drive it. We also think that the professionals will want a networking platform. This could be a virtual platform driven by the Internet and by the blogs which are already proliferating -- but there is the possibility that at certain junctures such as book fairs it would be nice to have a regular print platform as well.

Thus this newsletter is named after our new blog – Content and Media Asia Pacific – contentmediaap.blogspot.com. Let us know if you think there is a need for this print newsletter to connect authors, literary agents, publishers, translators, distributors and book shops. Our own thought is that as book industry grows it should also become more fun. Let me know what you think at editor@ippgroup.in.

The Book Police

Why would I write about 'Haryana Police Academy'? Or because one of my reporter friends once wondered aloud (in front of the Haryana police!) if all the Haryanvis join the Delhi police who joins the Haryana Police? Or Because of their alleged reputation for less brains and more brawn? Or maybe just maybe they have done something which no other police force in India has done?

The last statement holds promise, but they could have set up any number of infamous records ( our civil society prejudice reflects). No its not a record, its something even Delhi Police with its
"With you, for you, always" slogan and TV show on DD in the late nineties could not do, it is publishing books. Books about FIRs (First Information Reports), how to file them what to do if the police is unwilling to file them, 3rd Degree, its illegal how to take action if you have been subject to it, Women's rights, what are they, how to get justice for themselves, women traficking, juvenile justice. Books on RTI(Right To Information Act) Babus beware !, books on NREGA, books on the consumer act.

Sounds a bit out of character wouldn't you think. Here is the police of India and none other than the Haryana Police publishing books on the very topics we thought one could never get any information from police ( or at least, any thing of value which can stand up for scrutiny).

Had enough pleasant surprises, or should I say 3rd Degree shocks here is another its the police officers themselves who author these books and some are even in the syllabus of the police academy. Don't believe me then visit the Delhi Book Fair, the first time a police force in India is is participating in a book fair to meet people and tell them about their rights and make them aware. They have participated in bookfairs in Goa, Patna, Nainital, Dharmshala, Chandigarh, Noida, Ludhiana and Gurgaon.

All visitors to their stall can expect to fill out one of these questionnaires
1. Gender rights and equality
2. 3rd Degree
3. Legal rights and procedures
4. Castesim and communalism.

There is even more I spent a good 45 minutes listening to what these men and women in khaki had achieved and there is so much more, but more of this later when I visit their website and their model police station.

Its truly a a a... I don't quite know how to put it in phrases (or for that matter prose, which it so rightly deserves) but I will try and describe it--

Its like, the answer lies within the question, the antidote is made from the poison. The answer to police corruption, brutality, heavy handedness, and the many other evils that plague the Indian Police services are not with spotless white khadi cloaked politicians its with the underpaid, overworked and khaki wearing police.

For a more subtle and mature version please visit our website

Is Delhi becoming a real city that demands a real book fair?

The 15th Delhi Book Fair is first of all a fair – a mela. It is a retail event where all types of publishers from around the country come to sell their books to the diverse population of approximately 15 million in the Delhi National Capital Region. It is a chance for families to have an educational and recreational outing at the centrally located Pragati Maidan fairgrounds.

Nevertheless some professional publishers also try to invest the event with a larger purpose – apart from the book readings and author signings to help sell books – to the exchange of ideas and the networking that is essential to not only expand the trade in books but also to make it more productive and profitable for everyone involved. The issue is whether to continue slow and uncertain growth or to try and purposively (and thus collectively) give a serious push to the book publishing industry.

Of course our various associations will have to do a better job of this whole thing. Otherwise a professional and competent organiser will seize the opportunity to organise a great book fair for what with all its politics and problems is becoming a real city. Real cities or agglomerations such as Delhi want real book fairs with all their complexities.

Ban Unbanned

The Federation of Indian Publishers is organising events everyday at the Delhi Book Fair. The events include book releases, panel discussions, copyright symposium, seminars and programs. On 29 August 2009, the federation organised a panel discussion on ban on Jaswant Singh’s book – Jinnah: India – Partition – Independence.

The event was attended by Jaswant Singh, the author of the much talked about book, Salman Khurshid, Union Minister of State (IC) for Corporate Affairs and Minority Affairs; TN Chaturvedi, former Governor of Karnataka; Justice CM Nayar, Judge, retd., Delhi High Court; Ramesh C Govil, President, The Federation of Indian Publishers; DN Malhotra, President Emeritus and Chairman, Freedom to Publish Committee and Tushar Gandhi, Head, Mahatma Gandhi Foundation.

It was a very lively discussion and all the panelists criticised the ban. Chaturvedi said, “No one can create history and make facts. One can collect facts, collate and re-assemble them.” Khurshid said that people are talking of the book being against national interest but what is the national interest, nobody knows. He said, “Maulana Azad banned his autobiography for thirty years because he felt that his book had some very straightforward comments which he probably thought would create uproar or upset his colleagues. Area of intellectual disclosure cannot be banned. This book comes nowhere near the ban zone.” Khurshid opined, “We all are against the ban and all sensible people should be against it. It is not a very exciting thing to worry about. We have faith in honorary Supreme Court and right decision will be taken.”

Jaswant Singh was invited to speak but he said that he had no intention to speak about his book at a panel discussion because it may seem like a self promotion which he felt was not right. But he continued and reflected on some historical events. Singh after the event went to the stand of Rupa & Sons, publisher and distributor of the English version of Singh’s Jinnah: India – Partition – Independence. He diligently signed copies of his title, making sure not to give an autograph to anybody who would come to him without a copy of his book.

Inauguration Delhi Book Fair

The 15th Delhi Book Fair along with the stationary fair was inaugurated on 29 August 2009, by Union minister and Congress leader Salman Khurshid, at Pragati Maidan (Halls 8-12). Also present at the inauguration were Jawahar Sircar, Culture Secretary with additional charge of I&B, Dr. Subas Pani, secretary Planning Commission, RC Govil chairman FIP and Rajiv Yadav executive director of ITPO. At the inauguration just below the auditorium in hall 8 of Pragati Maidan was a display of books from the North East on loan from the Sahitya Academy, approximately fifty from each state. The walls were covered by biographies of some of the more celebrated authors of the North East.

At the inauguration the speakers addressed the issue of declining readership and the advent of other forms of media which some people perceive as threatening to books in their present form. They also spoke about the focus of Delhi Book Fair on publishers from the North East. More about the North East will be learnt with the seminar on “Publication scenario of North East states-past and present,” organized by the Tripura Publishers Guild and the FIP on 31 August from 10 am to 1:30 pm. This will be followed by a panel discussion on Copyright Issues organised by Kitab from 2 pm to 4 pm, and a seminar on “How to get maximum from Frankfurt Book Fair” organized jointly by the FIP, CAPEXIL and GBO from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm.

The first day saw a slow start to the fair with most exhibitors still opening up and stacking their shelves till late afternoon. Some of the exhibitors we spoke to at the fair said that the fair was a very prolonged affair and because of the duration there wont be any serious business enquiries in the first one week and all of the pile up will be on the second weekend and the last two days of the fair. From a business point of view quite a few exhibitors were enthusiastic of the business they would get at the fair -- both retail and wholesale. Business networking will mainly happen on the sidelines and not at the fair as there will be a loads of visitors to the fair looking for good books and even better deals.

Building the community

As at most of the IFRA India conferences, the hottest topic is how newspapers need to adapt and change. Years ago, at one of these events N Murali of The Hindu in his speech spoke about the need for daily newspapers to build “communities.” This is not an easy concept for a daily newspaper and it is still not clear how Indian newspapers will do this in a way that strengthens or protects their business.

Of course the implication was that there should be more interaction with customers and readers but whether it meant helping to organise sports and cultural events or taking part in local education or developing readers as reporters beyond the letters columns was not exactly clear. There was a subtext that the Internet and the cellphone would play a role, and these were part of “cross-media” and “convergence” as concepts and technologies. However it is still not clear whether or how publishers can monetise new media. And ultimately the idea of building communities is also not clear. This seems to now mean for the most part, social networks on the web. Even blogging, which seems to have caught on in India, seems to be growing without much link to the local publishing industry except that it borrows and leans on published content.

Our organisation of course is smaller than the smallest newspaper in the country but since it tries to cater to the printing, publishing and packaging verticals, it is ideally poised to try and create a community. It does this by holding seminars and conferences such as the recent Monsoon Summit for process standardisation and ISO 12647. And it can also do this with its websites; weekly email newsletters, and a new set of three blogs – the Print Asia blog, the Print Experts Asia Pacific blog and the Content and Media Asia Pacific blog. Have a look – comment – and let us know if you would like to join the blog team. See links and web addresses on contents page 5.

Delhi Book Fair
Beyond this we will be taking part at the Delhi Book Fair together with Quark in an effort to meet the more than 200 book publishers there. Apart from demonstrating software, Itu Chaudhuri will speak at our stand in Hall12A on Typography and Book Design on 1 September at 4pm. On 3 September NS Manku will speak about Excellence in Book Binding at 4pm. Other activities at the stand include valuable prizes for the Best Book and Cover Designs. Come by to Stands 15 and 16 in Hall 12A for a chat, and to submit your entries for best designs. We will also write and produce together with Quark on the stand for the most part, two A4 show bulletins called Content & Media. These will be dated and distributed on 31 August and 3 September.

IFRA Expo Chennai
Further, at the IFRA Expo and Publish Asia conference in Chennai in late September we will together with IFRA India publish the IFRA Gazette on 24 and 25 September. This will also be an A4 publication containing all the show news and some feature articles and interviews generated at the show. We also hope to develop the Content & Media blog at the IFRA Expo.

IPP XII The Wake Up Print Conference
Our main effort at building the community over the last 8 years has come from IppStar our industry-supported organisation for standards, seminars, and conferences. This year IppStar will hold its 12th Conference on 19 December in Mumbai. IPP XII will be a one-day event on Marketing Strategies for direct mail, transpromo and digital print. New print marketing strategies for the new consumer are required. The Indian printers too must re-invent themselves and they must become part of the print buyer’s marketing strategies aimed at the new consumer. This event is planned as a “thought leaders” or a “wake up” print conference. This is our way to take part in the building of our community.

From Austrailia -- a Print 21 online article about the Melbourne Writer's Festival

I am pasting an article from the Print 21Online newsletter (print21@bluelinemedia.com.au) published by my friend Patrick Howard. It is interesting not only because of the phenomenon of printers realising that their best friends could be their own national writers and publishers, but also because of the larger issues of territory based publishing rights for English language books. Printers in many countries want to export printed books and to some extent to limit the import of printed books. Publishers on the other hand often feel ill-served by their local printers and in some cases find them uncompetitive as well.

Printers set to lobby Melbourne Writer’s Festival
Tuesday, 18 August 2009

Members of the printing industry are being urged to rally along with authors and book publishers at a forum opposing the Productivity Commission’s recommendations on parallel imports of books at the Melbourne Writer’s Festival this weekend.

Part of the week-long festival will feature an open forum discussion featuring opponents of the recommendations including publishers, leading authors and printing industry representatives along with representatives of major booksellers and the Productivity Commission. The forum will be held at 7pm on Saturday 22 August in ACMI 2, Federation Square, Melbourne.

Printing Industries CEO, Philip Andersen, is urging those in the printing industry to attend and raise their concerns. “Together with our coalition partners of the Saving Aussie Books campaign, we are encouraging members to attend the forum and, where possible, to provide some practical support through signing and handing our petitions,” he said.

“We are also looking for assistance with the preparation of signage that attendees can use to show their support for our campaign.”

Discussions are currently taking place with book printer, McPherson's and local government members from Maryborough, where book printing is a major source of employment for residents, to see if either parties can attend the forum.

Andersen added that organisations and individuals outside of Victoria can also help by signing petitions which can be downloaded here and by participating in the Choice online poll on the parallel importation of books which has been re-opened following a temporary absence.

New beginnings and sorting out

This a fresh initiation of our blogging efforts. The idea is to create a discussion of the content and publishing issues peculiar to Asia and maybe even more provincially to India and South Asia. There are two sides to playing with geography and nationalities especially with cultural issues. On the one hand everyone wants to know about the other (including other regions and cultures) and on the nothing is really very interesting unless it is grounded in detail or particularity.

Ideally we would like to create a texture or backroom for ideas, content, and publishing. The publishing could pertain to books, magazines, newspapers, eBooks, podcasts etc. There will some things of technical interest but hopefully also a good discussion of ideas and content shaping media as well how technology mediates media. This will be a team blog and we will invite people who we think are expert and articulate. If you would like to join the team of bloggers please contact editor@ippgroup.in. You can suggest names of experts that we could invite. Alternately you can join the conversation with your comments.