Books Born Digital

It used to be that a book was published first as a hardcover, then as a lower-cost paperback. With increasingly tech-savvy consumers demanding instantaneous access to content in various formats, that publishing protocol has in the last decade changed to one in which the book in codex form often remains the focus, but digital “extras” like audio excerpts and e-chapters act as enticements toward the purchase of the hard copy. More recently, a new phenomenon has emerged, one in which a title comes first in digital form and then—if at all—in physical form.

It's not so much a buffet-style approach to content as it is a dishing out of select content at select times and, often, at discounted prices. Though it's still too early to assess the upshot of “digital firsts”/digital exclusives for authors, publishers, distributors, librarians, retailers, and—most important—consumers, three popular approaches dominate for serving up digital content in this manner.

To promote the simultaneous September 2008 release of Thomas Friedman's Hot, Flat, and Crowded in print, audio, and ebook formats, Macmillan Audio offered listeners a 40-minute downloadable audio preview along with a free audio download of his 2005 book, The World Is Flat. These prepublication digital giveaways, says Macmillan Audio publicist Liz Noland, “allowed us to save costs on printing and also focus our marketing and distribution of the free download on a more targeted audience.”

Similarly, in May 2008, Random House and Del Rey copromoted the concurrent print/audio/ebook release of the final entry in the nine-part “Star Wars: The Legacy of the Force” series, making available the first series entry as free audiobook and ebook downloads.

And building up to the November 2008 release of Stephen King's Just After Sunset, Scribner partnered with Marvel Comics, CBS Mobile, and Simon & Schuster Audio to adapt “N.,” a previously unpublished story from the anthology, into a series of animated “webisodes” that viewers could purchase through iTunes and Amazon or download onto their cell phones.

In addition to helping to promote multiformat hardcopy releases, digital firsts can also help to bridge the gap between a book's hardcover print and audiobook CD publications. In 2007, for example, Griffin: St. Martin's published simultaneous hardcover print and ebook editions of Tatiana de Rosnay's Sarah's Key. When the book made the New York Times best sellers list, that certainly spelled a boon for any of its future iterations, but momentum was bound to be lost in the eight-month lag between the September 2008 publication of the paperback and the May 2009 release of the audiobook CD by Macmillan Audio. So, before putting out the audiobook on CD, Macmillan Audio released Sarah's Key as a digital audiobook, in December 2008. According to Noland, that helped the publisher to capitalize on the book's original hardcopy sales and ride the wave of its critical success.

Another approach publishers are taking with digital releases is bundling multiple formats together at reduced cost. Thomas Nelson recently launched its NelsonFree program, wherein consumers can purchase a title as a physical book, a digital audiobook, and an ebook—all for the combined price of a hardcover. The first two NelsonFree titles—Scott McKain's Collapse of Distinction and Michael Franzese's I'll Make You an Offer You Can't Refuse—were released in late March; another ten will follow through the end of 2009 (check news.thomasnelson.com for updates). As Joel Miller, publisher of Thomas Nelson's business and culture division, explained in announcing the launch, “The book is, in a sense, trapped by its format. And so is the consumer—locked into choosing one format over another or shelling out scarce funds for the same book in different wrappers.”

Since 2008, Tantor Media has been offering free PDF ebooks with its MP3-CD audiobooks as part of its Audio & eBook Classics line, and Disney has been packaging standard DVDs and Blu-ray discs together with digital copies. (According to Variety, Fox, MGM, and Lionsgate will shortly also be selling these DVD/Blu-ray/digital combo packs.)

Perhaps their thinking is influenced by the nearly doubled sales of vinyl LPs in 2007 after independent music labels like Sub Pop and Matador packaged LPs with MP3 download codes, proving that bundled digital content could help spur sales of older formats.

Arguably the most intriguing of these trends has been that of digital-exclusive publications, of which The Chopin Manuscript, a serialized novel written by today's best-known suspense writers and edited by Jeffery Deaver, is an excellent example. The title, which won the Audio Publishers Association's prestigious Audiobook of the Year Award in 2008, was originally published in 2007 as a downloadable-only audio available exclusively through Audible.com. Then in 2008 it was published on CD and MP3-CD (Brilliance Audio), as a preloaded digital audio (Playaway), and as an ebook (Amazon).

Another example is the July 2008 Holt Paperbacks/Macmillan Audio best seller Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, which originated in September 2007 as a dedicated web site for podcasters (quickanddirtytips.com). More than 20 million Quick and Dirty podcasts were downloaded last year. Macmillan saw so much potential in the venture that in March 2009 it began charging $5.95 for one-hour downloads that expand on themes discussed in the free six-minute podcasts.

“We have been publishing in the digital-only format for many years and plan to continue, as digital downloads are the fastest-growing part of the audiobook business and a profitable publishing channel,” says Random House Audio publisher/VP Amanda D'Acierno.

Amazon.com subsidiary Audible Inc., too, has long been publishing original digital content, though solely for the retail market. In August 2008, together with the Center for Independent Publishing, Audible debuted the digital-only imprint IndieFirst, which delivers original works from independent publishers in digital audio one month prior to their print release. One such Audible-commissioned work is METAtropolis: The Dawn of Uncivilization, by five award-winning sf authors, including Elizabeth Bear. Written much like The Chopin Manuscript, i.e., with the conscious intention of being listened to, it was published in digital audio format in October 2008 and will be released in print by Subterranean Press this summer.

Digital is at times the only course on the menu, with no intention of additional formats to follow. The case of Stephen King's novella Ur, released in February 2009 as a $2.99 Kindle ebook exclusive, which coincided with the launch of Amazon's Kindle 2, is one successful example: after just three weeks on the market, sales of the title reportedly reached five figures. (Since Kindle 2 features text-to-speech functionality, Ur is also technically a digital audio exclusive.)

For publishers, this digital-first/digital-exclusive approach to content can help to reduce production and distribution costs and indicate potential sales of future hardcopy output. For the review press, because digital content facilitates quicker distribution from author to publisher to reader, the entire reviewing process may need to change (i.e., to generate more timely reviews, digital galleys will have to be reviewed instead of the traditional hardcopy galleys). But putting aside as-yet-unresolved questions of copyright, digital rights management, and price maintenance, what does it mean for the rest of us?

Sno-Isle Libraries, WA, is well positioned to face whatever challenges the proliferation of digital firsts/digital exclusives might introduce. The library network currently offers digital audiobook, music, and video titles and will shortly be offering ebooks as well. That said, collection development assistant manager Jim McCluskey has some concerns about the digital-first/digital-exclusive model, among them methods of distribution (one-copy/one reader, unlimited access, or something in between?), digital content lending integration that can interface with preexisting library loan computer programs, and questions of ownership. “Will a library that purchases a digital-first title lose access to the title if the publisher decides to pull it from its servers?” he asks. “Libraries are going to want to know the title will be unavailable so that we can remove it from our catalogs, so customers aren't disappointed.” Additionally, he'd want to know, “Has the title gone though an editorial process, or is this simply the digital equivalent of a vanity press POD title?”

At CLEVNET, a northeast Ohio library consortium, the digital collection currently includes some 29,000 ebook, audiobook, music, and video titles, with additional items added weekly. On average, upward of 43 percent of this collection is circulated each month, with audiobooks representing approximately 55 percent of circulations and ebooks some 40 percent.

Amy Pawlowski, web applications manager at Cleveland Public Library (CPL), a CLEVNET member, believes that a proliferation of digital-first/digital-exclusive publications won't significantly impact the acquisitions process at libraries already offering digital content. “We see the e-media collection as another point of access to titles for our patrons,” she says. “We wouldn't decide not to purchase one format because we have it in another. People prefer to read books in a variety of different ways, and the e-media collection simply offers them another option for accessing materials.”

While Pawlowski saw a positive response from patrons already borrowing digital materials when the library began gaining access to simultaneously released digital publications, she wonders whether those preferring print will be seduced into the digital fray by these first/exclusive publications. Many of these patrons, she feels, are likely to be disappointed when a title they want isn't available in print on its initial release. “Whether or not it inspires more patrons to use the e-media collection,” she says, “is yet to be seen.”

Given the rising cost of business, the environmentally friendly aspect of digital content, and the instantaneous access it can afford, wider application of digital-first/digital-exclusive publications seems inevitable. A 2008 Frankfurt Book Fair study surveying 1000 publishing professionals from over 30 countries showed that 40 percent believe e-content will overtake traditional books in sales by 2018. It's safe to say you can expect more digital firsts and exclusives in the interim.