Hi again, jhabley, it's nice to hear from you (I haven't noticed one
of your interesting questions for a while).
Ok, here we go. I think I've found something that should keep you busy
for quite some time. Lucky for you, Canada launched a Standing
Committee to look into the Canadian book industry (chaired by Clifford
Lincoln, one of my favorite Canadians). It's a formidable work, posted
online in its entirety, and free. Although it is true that much of the
material is Canadian in content, I think most of the trends can be
applied globally.
THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE:
A CONSIDERATION OF THE CANADIAN BOOK INDUSTRY STANDING COMMITTEE ON
CANADIAN HERITAGE
Clifford Lincoln, M.P. Chair June 2000
http://www.parl.gc.ca/InfoComDoc/36/2/HERI/Studies/Reports/heri01/04-toc-e.html
To address your specific requests, I've copied and pasted relevant
bits from various websites below, but please click on the links to
read the entire articles.
>>>>>> Trends (4)
1) TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS
CD-ROMs and DVDs
"Text that is prepared on a computer can be stored as a digital file.
This digital file can be used to print a book or it can be transferred
to a disk and sold for use by someone with access to a computer. While
few novels have found their way onto CD-ROMs, a great many reference
works have. In fact, one can now buy every issue of publications as
diverse as The National Geographic, The Canadian and World
Encyclopedia and Mad Magazine on CD-ROM or DVD (Digital Video Discs).
CDs are attractive because they can store vast amounts of information
and can include sounds and pictures. They can also be searched very
quickly. These attributes make them ideal for reference works. They
also can be updated regularly and take up less shelf space than most
dictionaries. CDs are also extremely cheap to manufacture."
"Books on CD and DVD have been available for just a few years. Young
people are more familiar with them than most adults and find them
attractive and easy to use. The growth of the market for these types
of products could very well lead to changes in the publishing,
distribution and retail sales of reference materials. For example, the
Encyclopedia Britannica no longer publishes a bound, paper edition.
Instead it is offered in the form of an annual subscription over the
Internet. Other reference materials, such as dictionaries,
encyclopedias, indices and textbooks are likely to undergo similar
changes. For this reason, it is not hard to imagine a specialised Web
site offering a subscription to dictionaries that are updated
regularly."
Electronic Book Technology
"The adoption of the electronic book will be another source of change
in the distribution of books. In theory, electronic books could be
sold as small "chips" or disks that are inserted or downloaded into a
personal "data-pad." In either case, it is possible that the sales
will not take place in traditional bookstores. This will represent an
additional change that will nibble away at the survival of traditional
bookstores."
Printing on Demand
"Printing on demand is likely to have at least two major impacts.
First, it will make publishers' back lists more attractive as they
will be able to sell copies of books without a major print run. (150)
Second, it will probably have a positive impact on larger stores that
can share the necessary warehouse equipment costs, or in one or two
branches of the store in a particular town. If printing on demand
helps publishers and larger stores, it will probably have a negative
impact on smaller stores unless they develop co-operative mechanisms
that allow them to offer the same quality of service, or themselves
use the services of a large distributor. (151)"
Personal Electronic Agents
"The creation of personal electronic agents -- described as shopping
'bots' or 'shopbots' -- is already feasible and a field trial is
currently being carried out in England. (152) Personal electronic
agents will radically transform electronic commerce. One observer,
Steve Juretson, an American venture capitalist, has gone so far as to
suggest that, "Amazon.com is an anachronism."(153) If true, it is
quite likely that personal shopping agents will lead to further
changes in the distribution and sales of books, with the largest
impact being reduced margins for retail stores."
http://www.parl.gc.ca/InfoComDoc/36/2/HERI/Studies/Reports/heri01/10-ch6-e.html#R2
2) INTERNET BOOSTS OVERALL BOOK SALES
"One of the biggest innovations in the book industry in the 1990s was
the ability to order books over the Internet. As the first player in
the field, the U.S. company Amazon attracted many Canadian book
buyers, a development noticed by Canada's larger players, who soon set
up competing online divisions, including Chapters.ca, Indigo.ca and
Renaud-bray.com.
Conventional retail finds itself increasingly in competition for
business as more consumers make purchases over the Internet. (157) As
can be seen in Chart 6.1 below, books, together with recorded music
and computer software, have emerged as the three most frequently
purchased online items. (158) Industry observers estimate that
eventually, up to one-fifth of book sales will be made over the
Internet."
http://www.parl.gc.ca/InfoComDoc/36/2/HERI/Studies/Reports/heri01/10-ch6-e.html#R2
"The rapid growth of Amazon has forced traditional book retailers in
Canada and the United States to change their business in fundamental
ways. In the United States, Barnes & Noble attempted to buy Ingram, a
large privately held book distributor. Press reports indicated,
however, that the United States Department of Justice would disallow
this acquisition, so the parties did not pursue the merger. Barnes &
Noble has since set up its own distribution system to compete with
Amazon."
http://www.parl.gc.ca/InfoComDoc/36/2/HERI/Studies/Reports/heri01/07-ch3-e.html
"Increasingly, consumers have more access to reviews, background
materials, and sample passages to read. The recent phenomenon of book
groups and online chat sessions with other readers or authors makes
for a highly discriminating book buyer. Oprah Winfrey can literally
launch a formerly unknown writer's career with a single appearance on
her show. Before he retired, Peter Gzowski had, on a smaller scale, a
comparable influence on the sales of the work of Canadian authors
after they were featured on his CBC radio show Morningside."
http://www.parl.gc.ca/InfoComDoc/36/2/HERI/Studies/Reports/heri01/07-ch3-e.html
3) LARGE BOX STORES
"More recently, wholesalers have begun to service an increasingly
diverse book retail sector, with the emergence not only of book
superstores, but also the growth in the kinds of non-traditional
retail outlets that have begun to sell books (drug stores, convenience
stores, supermarkets etc.)."
"Large stores with as many as 100,000 titles can attract customers who
know in advance that there will be many titles of interest to them.
Large stores can also offer seats in front of a fireplace, a coffee
shop, Internet connections, working space, gift items, washroom
facilities, pay telephones and free parking. In this way a large store
can become a destination. Because a majority of book purchases are
made on impulse, this is an important advantage.
The recent emergence of large stores and the sale of books over the
Internet have fundamentally altered the marketing challenge for
smaller bookstores."
"Thus, location, special attractions, a niche and loyal customers are
more important than ever. However, history, tradition and loyalty are
no longer much of a defense. For example, John Smith and Son the
world's oldest bookseller (founded in 1751) in Glasgow Scotland,
announced in April 2000 that it was closing. As Willie Anderson, the
current managing director of John Smith's explained: "the store
couldn't compete against book superstores and Internet discount
shopping." (162)
http://www.parl.gc.ca/InfoComDoc/36/2/HERI/Studies/Reports/heri01/10-ch6-e.html#R2
4) USED BOOKS SALES RISING
The root of all evil
"Why the slippage? One major factor, several experts agreed, is the
recent growth of the used-book market, which has been cutting into
sales of new books. If you can get a perfectly good used copy of a
book for less than half the price -- which is easier than ever now,
thanks to used-book Internet brokers such as Abebooks.com and,
increasingly, Amazon -- why buy new? The used-book trend is especially
notable among heavy book-buyers, Rappaport said, and in the college
textbook market, in which Greco estimates that $1 out of every $3 is
now spent on used books, with the trend heading toward $1 out of every
$2."
http://www.suntimes.com/output/books/cst-nws-insight22_book.html
"The BISG study, ?Book Industry Trends 2004? (May 14) identifies used
books as the biggest factor affecting the new book market."
http://www.abebooks.co.uk/docs/CompanyInformation/PressRoom/05132004.shtml
>>>>>> Google Print
Google Print Expands Access to Books with Digitization Offer to All Publishers:
"Publishers? interests have been protected, according to Susan
Wojcicki, director of product management at Google. The display of
digitized results will not allow copying or printing of a page. ?It?s
not like a Word document. It?s an image, not text. The goal is to let
users see if they would like to read the book and buy it.? While
Google does not publish a complete list of publishers participating in
the program, it already has agreements in place with Penguin, Wiley,
Hyperion, Pearson, Taylor & Francis, Cambridge, Chicago, Oxford,
Princeton, Scholastic, Springer, Houghton Mifflin, Thomson Delmar,
Blackwell, Perseus, and others. According to Wojcicki, publishers may
designate how many and which books from their inventories they want
digitized."
"A clickable link called ?Buy the Book? will connect users to four or
five options: Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Booksense.com (the
American Booksellers Association?s program linking to the inventories
of independent bookstores in America), Froogle (Google?s
shopping-for-anything service), and an optional link to publishers
that sell direct. Wojcicki told us that publishers may not designate
their favorite outlets, only direct ordering."
"For the immediate future, according to Wojcicki, the expanded Google
Print program is focused on digitizing printed books. However, she
indicated that it may expand to digital formats of full-text books
too. For example, she said Google might like to work with netLibrary?s
collection of e-books??anything that would give publishers an
opportunity to sell more books and connect our readers and users with
books.?
"One connection with books that could help readers might be to connect
them to books stored in nearby library collections. Google already has
an ongoing relationship with OCLC?s Open WorldCat database of library
holdings for popular books. Expanding the online links in book results
to all of WorldCat seems a logical route for the company that ?does no
evil.?
"Google Print might hold particular interest for one party?Amazon. The
?Search Inside the Book? program at Amazon reportedly includes some
120,000 books. However, Google?s willingness to accept any and all
contributions from any and all publishers could challenge Amazon?s
collection in time, particularly as Amazon has dropped many smaller
publishers from its operations."
"Clearly only time will tell how successful the program will be. As
Gary Price of ResourceShelf and Searcher magazine?s Webmastery column
said, ?Maybe I?m getting cynical with the reduction of hair on the top
of my head, but, as with all things Google and all things Yahoo!, one
has to give 6 to 7 months to see if it succeeds. Nevertheless, this is
useful material. I?m particularly watching to see how long it takes to
get books from small publishers into the program.?
http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb041006-1.shtml
"A9.com offers users search results from five powerful information
sources, which are presented through convenient selectable and
adjustable columns: Web and image search provided by Google, book text
of more than 100,000 titles from Amazon.com's Search Inside The Book".
http://www.webpronews.com/news/ebusinessnews/wpn-45-20040915A9comtoMakeSearchingtheInternetMoreEffective.html
>>>>>> Textbooks
AN ONLINE TEXTBOOK CASE
by Angela Pascopella
"Look at the teaching trends. The classroom is much less
textbook-driven. A textbook is something to be referred to, rather
than having it used day in and day out. ... The likely biggest
challenge to online textbooks is us adults. We're more used to reading
on paper. For students it's not going to be a challenge."
"The online book is "really not accepted" without a printed book to go
along with it, Blevins says. Textbooks are usually left in school
lockers, while students use the online version at home. If students
are ill or have snow days, they could still do work from home and hand
in their assignments via e-mail. "The sacred snow day is over," she
says."
"And students have access to links for background information, she
says. Students just need a password to log-in. "It gives the book
depth," Blevins says. "Kids get bored with the same old textbook, fact
after fact."
"She adds that the books come with corrections, which printed versions
can't. The books also come with a teacher management system that
includes a grade book so every grade is weighed and averaged for the
teacher. Teachers could also open their class page and see who did and
didn't do homework, Blevins says."
"Kight sees online textbooks becoming a trend. "Our ultimate goal is
having students acquire information and loving the content," she
says."
http://www.districtadministration.com/page.cfm?p=277
The Outlook for Textbook Publishing
A conversation with Pat McKee of McGraw-Hill
by Carole E. Scott
"The relative profitability of books at the different grade levels
varies from year to year. The pupil editions themselves generate
profits from textbook publishing, as ancillary materials are usually
provided at no additional charge. As a result, profitability is
substantially dependent upon controlling the cost of these materials.
The acceptance by teachers of CD-ROMS and sites on the Web has
significantly reduced the cost of providing ancillary materials."
"Because many K-12 students do not have computers at home, students
must have textbooks. Higher education, she says, is more accepting of
e-books and on-line than is 6-12 because the equipment is there. On
all levels, she believes, the success of on-line learning is
substantially dependent on the "energy and effort" the instructor puts
into it. Instructors tell her that teaching an on-line course is
harder than teaching a regular class. At the secondary level on-line
courses tend to be either a course such as advanced chemistry or a
course such as Latin for which the enrollment is such that a
self-contained classroom is not economically feasible."
"McGraw-Hill's Primis Online eBook delivers students courseware via
the Internet. Provided by Primis Online are 450 textbooks from which
professors can create custom courseware. Students can either access
these materials from a website hosted by ebrary or download them from
the Primis Online site."
http://www.westga.edu/~bquest/2002/mckee.htm
Distance Education
"Many educational institutions are finding distance education as a
means to expand their geographic reach. The development of distance
learning technologies has eliminated geographic boundaries that have
traditionally defined an institution's service area or area of
interest. The rapid expansion of learning without commuting to a main
campus presents unique demands on the selection of textbooks.
Before discussing the characteristics of a good textbook that is
suitable for distance or off-site courses, we first need to examine
what is meant by distance education. In today's world, education off
the main campus is known by many names: distance education, distance
learning, online learning, virtual courses, Internet courses,
satellite courses, cybercourses, and extended studies. No matter what
name is affixed to this effort, the common thread is that an
instructor or professor is normally not in a classroom with the
students on a full-time basis.
As the physical presence of a human instructor becomes less, the
importance of good textbook selection increases. In effect, the
importance of a textbook is inversely proportional to the instructor
presence. In a traditional setting, a professor in the classroom can
explain, expound, and clarify. In distance education, the instructor's
amplification becomes more difficult to accomplish, but at the same
time, more important. At one end of the spectrum are satellite courses
where an instructor is present at a remote site and students can
interact with the professor. At the opposite extreme is an Internet
course where any interaction with the professor is conducted via
e-mail or an online discussion group."
http://www.course.com/techtrends/distanceed_04200.cfm
>>>>>> Additional Links of Interest
Textbooks e-books:
http://www.hopcott.plus.com/ebooks/textbook.html
BISG Book Industry Trends 2003
http://www.bisg.org/docs/BEA-TRENDS_2003_Preview.pdf
A Look at Current Children's Book Trends:
http://www.right-writing.com/child-trends.html
Reversing the Trend
http://www.idealog.com/010823.html
Book Industry Statistics:
http://www.parapublishing.com/getpage.cfm?file=statistics/index.html
BISG Report:
http://news.bookweb.org/news/2548.html
IPSOS Book Trends:
http://www.ipsos-insight.com/consumer/publications/books/
Well there you have. I hope I've been able to find what you were
hoping for. If you have any questions or if I've misunderstood your
question, please post a clarification request before closing/rating my
answer and I'll be happy to reply.
Thank you,
hummer
Google Search Terms Used:
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used book sales affecting new books retail
etc |
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