Ready for an E-Read.

Here's what pioneering association publishers and partners are discovering as they digitize publications.

If mail e-commerce e-everything it seems. And now even the experience of reading is evolving, with books becoming the rising starts of the screen. Are you ready to take a look at e-publishing?

According to people involved in this emerging field, your members probably are ready--or will be pretty soon. With access becoming the most engaged-in activity of the day, associations must assess whether their information-seeking members are shifting their preference from page turning to point and click. If your members' interest in technology develops into a dependency, your publishing operation will require transformation. You'll find that members want at least some of the books you offer to be available in new, nonprint media.

Members' increasing desire for information in electronic form may even pale in comparison to your association's eagerness to digitize books. Your organization may accrue many benefits from a print-to-digital switch. As with all major, new ventures, entering electronic publishing requires thorough research, adequate funding, and nerves of steel. Knowing the experiences of publishers who have already moved into new media can be of great value as you gather information, consider budget implications, and attempt to drum up the courage needed to make a dramatic e-change.

Out of the blue, e-books are here

Wasn't it just yesterday that you were happily flipping through the pages of books you pulled from a shelf, mulling over which one to buy? Or you were lugging onto your flight to yet another meeting a bag bulging with publications that would help you prepare? Whether most of your experiences with books have been a burden or a joy, you may be surprised by the almost sudden birth of nonphysical collections of words. Sure, information has been available in electronic form for years, but the amount of digitization and its application to books have surged only recently.

This application means that publishers are creating electronic files of content and combining them into a book that is accessed through a computer, rather than printed. Readers view a screen rather than read from paper. (See sidebar, "What's an E-Book?")

Now that e-books have grabbed the attention of the general public, e-book-versus-"real"-book debates are all the rage. Software suppliers sing e-book praises, while publishers express interest and skepticism at the same time. Consumers take a side--or both sides--seeing advantages and disadvantages of getting from a screen what they're accustomed to receiving in print.

Summing up the current status of e-publishing and offering a projection for its success is Carol Risher, vice president for copyright and new technology for the Association of American Publishers (AAP), Washington, D.C. "There are questions in the marketplace now, but there is no question that e-books as a phenomenon will catch on," Risher says. She notes that many of AAP's member companies--both commercial and nonprofit publishers--are testing the market. Publishers from all areas of AAP's membership have asked the association's committee on enabling technology for assistance in studying the possible benefits, draw-backs, and issues involved with digital publications. Says Risher, "The e-book gives publishers a new potential to service their markets in ways that are just beginning to be explored."

Diving in

It's a serious beginning, with significant exploration already under way. Ed Neumann, a director on the board of the Online Publishers Association, Avon, Connecticut, and director of electronic media development, Automated Graphic Systems, White Plains, Maryland, reports that clients have moved AGS from providing only print services 10 years ago, to also providing CD-ROM versions of directories 5 years ago, to offering Internet-based e-books today.

Training textbooks and manuals. The National Ski Patrol, Lakewood, Colorado, is in the early research stage of considering e-publishing. NSP's 28,000 members are volunteer (21,000) and paid (7,000) patrollers at the majority of the ski resorts across the United States. Education Director Judy Over notes that the textbook, study book, and instructor's manual used for the association's premier education program, training in outdoor emergency care, are all print. Ancillary materials include videos, PowerPoint presentations, and a Web site. But, reports Over, with increasing use of technology by NSP's competitors in the training business, "our newer members are asking for better, faster, more flexible ways to deliver our education programs." In response, staff have been investigating electronic alternatives: on-demand publishing, printing, and shipping.

What Over's uncovered thus far leads her to believe that high-tech materials would, indeed, meet the desire of students and instructors for speedier and more tailored training. Digitizing some materials would also provide faster and continual gratification for students as they master each training segment.

The downside for Over is that "we have a fair percentage of members who are comfortable with the print mode and are not necessarily interested in using the new technology or paying for it." To address this issue, Over plans to continue producing training materials in print while beginning to copy them into an electronic format. But she worries about the cost of doing both and even the cost of eventually going totally digital; digitizing requires work performed outside of the association, which would add to NSP's production costs.

"While the biggest challenge with electronic manuals is to sell [the concept]--and the price--to the membership," says Over, "another is to guarantee that all of our performance objectives are met." She says that completing a performance evaluation online is no match for watching a student perform functions out in the real environment for which he or she is being trained. "Because much of NSP's education requires being on the snow, there are many issues to be worked out," says Over. But she points out that increased use of technology cuts down the amount of time required for the training that must be conducted indoors.

Reference handbooks. Considerably enthusiastic about e-publishing is ASM International, Materials Park, Ohio. This 40,000-member association brings together professionals, suppliers, educators, and students involved in the field of materials engineering. It was about 20 years ago that ASM began publishing electronically, offering databases of bibliographic abstracts. That level of electronic effort remained the same for about 15 years, then rose significantly. Today the association offers journals, books, and database compilations in various electronic formats, but mainly CD-ROM.

Since 1995, the association has focused its e-publishing efforts on converting its 20-volume, flagship reference series, the ASM Handbook, to media-independent electronic files. In other words, content was translated to, and is being stored in, a standardized tagging format (SGML format) that allows for content to be modified for, and made available on, various media. "This provides us with maximum flexibility for publishing the content in print and electronic formats," points out Scott Henry, ASM's assistant director of reference publications. The complete handbook series is now being sold in print and CD-ROM formats, and ASM is making plans for a Web version,

Comparing the digitized handbook to earlier ASM e-products, Henry says, "We started off somewhat crudely, offering products with scanned pages, some linking, and minimal searching. We spent the past five years developing the capability to offer products with full text and much more dynamic searching." Full text is a met-challenge to be celebrated for such a lengthy handbook, which includes graphs, line drawings, and photographs. And this is just the type of publication with which any user would appreciate fast and efficient search mechanisms.

Users of technical reference books have "a real urgency to find information quickly," Henry notes. "I think that is the most important thing that people are looking for in electronic products. It's the ability to search across large amounts of information quickly and target the answer needed."

Does electronic have the edge?

The list of e-book advantages goes on [ldots] Also high on the list of benefits of e-books are their compactness and portability. For example, Henry says, the content of five or more large, heavy books can be stored on one CD-ROM.

Plus, e-book users can manipulate the display of information, resizing text and images for improved viewing. Tables, for instance, can be enlarged electronically.

Customization is a key advantage. Some ASM e-products let users select from a menu of choices and pay to unlock only those portions of the content that meet the user's specific needs.

Customization also applies to the inventory of books. In an article on digital publishing for the Lorain, Ohio-based National Association of College Stores, Alison Stern-Dunyak writes, "As long as the publisher makes the book available on a print-on-demand basis, essentially no book ever has to go out of print again."

Appearing in the January/February 2000 issue of The College Store, Stern-Dunyak's article also commends the e-book features that allow readers to highlight key words in text online--a practice that, of course, is widespread particularly among students. Plus, e-books include links to Internet sites with related subject matter.

[ldots] but there are certain things better about print. Obviously, you don't need a computer to read a print publication, and to many people, this distinction is important. You still hear (and perhaps you're still saying) that print books are better for reading on the beach, in the bathroom, and in bed. But the fact of the matter is that, with the right handheld device, viewing a computer screen can be done comfortably almost anywhere.

The real question probably is: Are you comfortable with change? And are your members? With change comes the need for education about adapting to new conditions. Specifically with e-books, one needs to learn how to use the supporting software. Are you--and your members--excited by, intimidated by, or simply bored by such training? Henry has observed that, for many readers, the searching ability offered by a print publication's table of contents and index is sufficient.

Henry goes on to say that tables can now be displayed "pretty well" electronically, but tables in print "are maybe a little bit prettier." The print quality is what you trade if the ease of searching offered by digitization is more important to you. Resolution of text and images is usually better in print, Henry adds. "Currently, it is much more comfortable to read text on a printed page than on a screen.

Line art and photographs are crisper and show more detail."

Don't digitize these [ldots] With the pros of print books seemingly out-shined by the pros of those electronic, it may be tempting to think in all-or-nothing terms and decide to digitize all. Despite his vested interest in e-books, programmer Steve Potash points out types of publications that he believes will always work best in print. Potash is a programmer with OverDrive, a Cleveland-based e-publishing software and services firm. He cites "your coffee table book, your art book. Certain e-book devices may not do justice to high-quality images."

Potash also acknowledges "a certain emotional bond" that people develop "with certain forms of paper reading." He believes that books that are longer on textual information than on visuals do well in electronic form, but "as you go toward a more aesthetic art value," print is the preferred medium.

Are e-books right for your association?

Despite personal preferences and beliefs, whether or not you want to read from a page or a screen, before stopping the presses on your association publications, you must do the usual organizational assessment. AAP's Risher suggests asking these starter questions when evaluating whether or not to offer e-books to your members:

* What is the purpose of the particular product that you are considering changing to digital form?

* What functionality does it need?

* What is the best way to appeal to your particular audience?

Says Risher, "If you have a marketplace that is technophobic, you'd better not think about e-books." However, she adds, if your association generally offers timely information that changes frequently, "and it's voluminous, and you want people to have the portability to carry the information with them, definitely look at e-books."

Financial considerations. Perhaps your association has been as fortunate financially with print publications as the National Ski Patrol has been. NSP's Over is not eager to spoil that record, so she is closely evaluating--just now in the starting stages--what a switch to e-publishing would mean in terms of money. Issues for consideration include not only the comparison of costs for e-publishing versus print, but also how the development of electronic products could cut into sales of products that are kept in print.

The cost comparisons draw differing opinions. OverDrive's Potash considers the up-front costs for entering e-publishing "relatively modest" to "very modest, compared to print," depending on the service provider that assists you. "The economics certainly favor the e-book publisher," he says. "First of all, you have no waste--you're not guessing that you are going to run off a thousand copies and then possibly have a third of those returned. It's very much a just-in-time or on-demand publishing opportunity. You build this piece of inventory, and it's ready to be replicated as often as you like, and the cost of replicating it is nominal. There's an investment in the digitizing or converting to an e-book format, but that investment is a fraction of what it would cost to produce a print product."

AAP's Risher counters with: "The e-book vendors will say to you that you are saving on printing, you're saving on paper, you're saving on binding, you're saving on warehousing, and this is such a wonderful thing. But the main costs of publishing are finding the author, acquiring the title, working with the author, editing, the promotion, and the publicity. None of those costs change, regardless of the medium. Therefore, the argument that e-publishing is cheaper is not realistic, because it assumes that you've already published the book in print and gotten people interested in it, and that there's no additional cost to convert to a digital format that can be used for e-books." Plus, like Over, the publishers with whom Risher works are saying, "I'm not so sure that the e-book won't compete with my print sales," leading Risher to conclude: "It's too early to tell the cost effect."

Pricing and selling in an electronic environment

ASM's Scott Henry is frank in describing one of the biggest challenges he faces with e-publishing: lack of an e-business model. "Until there are well-established models," he says, "publishers need to be flexible. In some sense, we need to make it up as we go along."

Using his best judgment based on experience and what he's learned from discussions with colleagues, Henry helps ASM set prices for electronic products. He points out that "some people believe that content in electronic format ought to be a lot cheaper than it is in print. Certain types of electronic books, like the mass-marketed encyclopedias, actually are much cheaper than the printed versions. In the realm of professional publishing, though, I don't really think that holds true."

Henry has heard about other associations either matching the price of an e-book to that of the print version or adding a premium. "It's really all over the map in terms of approaches that people have taken. At ASM we've taken various approaches to it. In most cases we've used the print price as a starting point, then tried to factor in some additional premium for the added electronic functionalities."

CD-ROM sales. Henry reports that, with ASM's CD-ROM e-books, "there hasn't been a whole lot of resistance to our prices. People are more interested in what the product does for them."

Still, ASM's sales of CD-ROM handbooks have lagged behind initial projections since the products were introduced in 1998. One of the reasons for that, Henry says, is "you can't offer every configuration or format that people want right away. You need to kind of get your feet wet a little bit first. We have had some people say, for example, that they don't want the content on CD-ROM; they want to wait until the content is available on the Web, because they think that will be a much more flexible way to access the information. And some people have said that they are perfectly happy with the print volumes of our handbook and they really don't need the extra functionality that electronic books offer."

Selling Web books. As ASM continues with the development of Web-based products, the organization wonders whether people will be willing to pay for them. "We are confident that, across time, people paying for select usage of content on the Web will become more predominant," Henry says, "but as the Web grew up, the implication was that content would be free. A lot of people are trying to build business models around offering free content and selling other things on the Web. We're doing some of that on our Web site, but traditionally, as a publisher, we've sold access to the content."

Marketing isn't marketing isn't marketing. When evaluating whether e-publishing makes sense for your association, also consider what it may take to market your products, Henry urges. "We had a print-book marketing program that was largely based on catalog direct-mail sales. We've discovered that selling electronic products is a whole other animal entirely. It is much more based on having individual salespeople over the telephone or on site visits introducing the material, providing demonstrations, following up a number of times."

Determining rights to digital information

As with print publications, e-books come with a whole range of rights issues--ones even more complex due to the intangibility and newness of electronic information. Ed Neumann, with Automated Graphic Systems, notes a core concern: keeping buyers of your e-books from distributing (perhaps reselling) them. Neumann describes software that has been developed to prevent this. The software will only allow the e-book that is purchased to be opened on the purchaser's computer. That person can open the book as often as desired, but cannot forward it to another computer.

ASM is following developments in software aimed at protecting electronic information from piracy. For now, Henry says, "we are spending a lot of time drawing up license agreements for use of our content."

In addition to software solutions and licensing agreements, copyright notices and registration are highly advised for electronic material, just as for material in print. By taking a few simple steps, you can go a long way toward warding off would-be pirates. (See sidebar. "Copyright Your E-Works.")

Ready for what's next?

As you think about the digital rights issues, the financial implications, the emotional attachment that many people have with "real" books, the love affair that many people have with their computers, and all the other current issues surrounding e-publishing and its place in your association, don't forget to consider e-publishing's impact on the future.

With the inside scoop on software programming, Potash offers for your consideration these words about e-publishing's tomorrows: "We're going to be experiencing across the next two or three years an explosion of mobile information that was once offered only in the form of ink and paper. You're going to be on your Web site, looking at a title that interests you, and click, click, click it's on your desktop or notebook. Eventually you'll see wireless connections: You'll be sitting on a train, previewing a new novel through a satellite. Your credit card will be approved and, through the airwaves, the book will go to your handheld device.

"That all is coming sooner than you would imagine," Potash predicts. "It's coming very quickly."

Gerry Romano, CAE, is senior editor and features manager of ASSOCIATION MANAGEMENT.

If you're not exactly clear on what e-books are, despite the fact that you keep hearing about them, you're not alone. E-book publishing is somewhat new, but that newness is helping to draw a lot of attention. Here's a brief, basic explanation.

What's an E-Book?

E-books are the electronic equivalent of print publications. Publishers of e-books (also called electronic books and digital books) create electronic (digital) files of content. With the help of vendors who develop and sell software for this process, the' electronic (digital) files are combined into a book that is accessed through a computer. The book is either produced most commonly as a CD-ROM or as a Web-based product. Rather than reading print pages, the owner of the e-book downloads it and views its contents from a computer screen.

Reading devices. While most e-books are currently being read on desktop and laptop computers, they can also be read with a specialized handheld computer, also called a portable reading device.

Special electronic functions. The functionality of the e-book refers to its electronic features. Depending on the software used to develop and deliver the e-book's content, the owner of the e-book may be able to highlight segments online, for instance. Generally, all e-books enable readers to perform fast searches for particular information and enable readers to revise content (for example, enlarge text or graphics).

Major attractions of e-books., Readers are generally attracted to e-books for their functionalities, especially for the ability to search large reference books easily. Another appealing feature of e-books is their portability. They are only as large and heavy as their reading device.

People less enthusiastic about the idea of e-books often cite their belief that reading from a computer screen is not as easy and enjoyable as reading from a printed page. However, programmer Steve Potash reports that readability of e-books is already quite good and will only get better (and soon) with expected software and hardware developments.

Resources

* www.openebook.org. The Open eBook Initiative Web site houses information regarding technological standards for e-books and activities of an organization that is devoted to the advancement of e-publishing. Included on the site is an explanation of the "Open eBook" standards that were developed by a wide-ranging group of professionals involved in electronic publishing. Under the direction of Victor McCrary, representing the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a nonregulatory government agency based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, key players in the e-publishing industry developed specifications that will help further the creation and use of e-books. The players, first brought together in 1998 at the world's first electronic book workshop, included publishers, software and hardware developers, end-users of electronic publications, and others. The resulting specifications debuted at the second workshop, held in 1999. Last December this group met to formalize their work by founding the Open Electronic Boo k Forum, currently chaired by McCrary. For details about this forum, its meetings, and its work, in addition to checking the Open eBook Initiative Web site, e-mail McCrary at [e-mail].

* www.globalintegrity.com. Critical to any e-publishing operation is an assessment of the security practices of vendors used to create e-books. Publishers need assurance that software will prevent e-books from being pirated. At the request of the Association of American Publishers, Global Integrity (a company of the Science Applications International Corporation, SAIC) developed a security assessment that is available at no fee on Global Integrity's Web site. Click on "Download the E-Book Security Assessment performed for AAP," and you'll find a general report on the evaluation of various vendor products. According to AAP's Carol Risher, the report includes "all the things that anybody considering e-books should ask the potential vendor in terms of security. It asks, Where do you keep the files? What type of encryption do you use? How often do you change it? Do you use the same encryption for all the publications in your e-book library or a different one for each? If you've discovered that there's been a brea ch of security, how long does it take you to correct that?" For additional insights about e-book security assessments, e-mail Risher at [e-mail].

* www.ebooknet.com. This site tells what's new in the e-book industry, offering information and advice for both publishers and readers and hosting online discussions. According to eBookNet's founder, Glenn Sanders, the site aims to "build an open community for the e-book world," providing a place for e-book enthusiasts to meet, learn, and collaborate.

* www.press.umich.edu/jep. The University of Michigan's Journal of Electronic Publishing Web site, accessible for free, is an excellent resource on all aspects of e-publishing.

Copyright Your E-Works

MARK S. HOLMES

If you enter the e-books business, you will need to keep copyright law in mind, just as you do with print publishing. Copyright gives an author the right to exclude others from using the author's work, whether it be print or electronic. Copyright arises automatically when the work is "fixed" in a tangible medium. "Fixed" means the work is a recognizable expression, as opposed to an idea in someone's mind. A work is fixed in a tangible medium when it appears in print, for example, or it is formed as coding on an Internet Web page, then reproduced as a Web page appearing on an Internet user's computer monitor.

Copyright notices

* A copyright notice is not required to preserve an author's copyright. A copyright notice is advisable because it rebuts an infringer's assertion of having innocently copied the work, which may result in a reduction of damages awarded for the infringement. A proper notice is: "(c) 2000 Mark Holmes" or "Copyright 2000 Mark Holmes."

* For a CD-ROM, the notice should appear on the CD-ROM itself and on the first screen that appears when the program is accessed. It's also smart to place the notice throughout the CD-ROM, such as in chapter breaks or on the table of contents.

* On a Web site, the copyright notice should appear on the home page and may also be interspersed throughout other pages, particularly if users can bypass the home page. Some Web sites post a notice at the bottom of every page. In an article appearing within a Web site, the notice can appear near the article's heading, next to the author's name.

Watermarks offer protection

One way to protect a work published on a Web site is by using watermarks. A watermark is a small unnoticeable pattern added to a Web site image that contains copyright ownership information. A watermark survives normal editing and even printing and scanning, thus providing a persistent identity that travels with the image wherever it goes.

Watermarks are apparent to the computer, but not to the viewer of an image. They do not detract from the image or work. They prevent people from using watermarked images by indicating that someone is claiming copyright to the work. Watermarks also provide a means for Web site users to contact the copyright owner.

Key guidelines 

* Just because a work is available on the Internet does not me an anyone may copy it and do whatever they wish with it. Copying this article or a photo of a movie star off the Internet or a CD-ROM does not give you the right to make more copies or distribute it. There is a doctrine known as "fair use" that permits certain limited use of another's work. That doctrine applies to the Internet and CD-ROMs.

* Before suit may be filed for infringement, your work must be registered. Registrations are recorded with the U.S. Customs Service for protection against the importation of infringing copies. Registration is easy and costs $30. The forms and instructions can be found at www.loc.gov/copyright/reg.html.

Mark S. Holmes is a registered patent attorney with the firm of Farkas & Manelli, Washington, D.C.