Building a New World Publishing Business:
Lessons from Stanza
O’Reilly TOC Conference O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference Neelan Choksi COO, Lexcycle neelan@lexcycle.com
February 11, 2009
Who Am I?
• COO, Lexcycle • Former COO, SpringSource – open source • President and Co-Founder of SolarMetric (acquired by BEA Systems in 2005)
• Previous Employers – Exxon, Andersen
Consulting, TechTrader, MIT Blackjack Team
• Board Seats – SpringSource, Tasktop, Lexcycle • BS from MIT, MS from Stevens Institute of
Technology, MBA from Univ. of Chicago Booth
e-books – Inflection Point
• $44 million Wholesale e-book sales in last 4 quarters * Source: IDPF US Trade Wholesale Electronic Book Sales
Mainstreaming of e-books • Oprah Effect
Big Name Vendors
Improved Displays: E Ink
Improved Mobile Displays • Larger touch screens w/ crisp color • OTA, wireless • App Store
New Hardware • Netbooks • Lots of new eReaders
iPhone Distinctions As an eReader:
• International reach • Color display • Multi-function device • Built-in wireless • No external light required • App Store
Enter IDPF’s EPUB
• Standard format – users don’t want to care about formats (or DRM for that matter)
• Proliferation of proprietary formats (and DRM) is bad for users, creates lock-in for vendors
• Standard format eases a historical burden of conversion
e-book Alphabet Soup Formats
-
.LIT Mobi AZW PDB FB2 PDF RTF BBeB EPUB
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DRM HTML RB CHM OEB
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Microsoft Reader Adobe Adept eReader Mobi Apple FairPlay DNL many others
Stanza Overview
Stanza iPhone & iPod Touch
Primary Usage
• In bed – 31% • Commuting on bus / train – 29% • In waiting areas – 13% • At home – 12% • At work – 5% • At a bar or café or lunch or dinner – 5% • On an airplane – 5% • 2 write-ins mentioned “In the bathroom”
Readers enjoy having access to their library at all times in their pocket or
Stanza Fictionwise Store • 44,000 titles • 3x sales growth since December 3 launch • 5,000+ purchasers • Average title price point ~$10.25 • Buying patterns representative of print sales
Publisher Promotions • Pan Macmillan Excerpts – first to notice Stanza • Random House Free Titles - Back list of certain authors - Included excerpts for forthcoming books • Harlequin Free Titles - 4 free “Minis” in December - 15 free titles from each imprint in January
O’Reilly Book Application • •
O’Reilly’s iPhone: The Missing Manual application Currently at TOC discounted price of $4.99
Lessons Learned
Lessons Learned - Readers • Quality matters – Virtuous or Vicious Cycle • Every reader is unique – Give readers lots of
options to customize their reading experience
• Every device is unique – Things that work for one device may not work on another device
• Listen to the user – they are happy to tell you what you are doing wrong
• Give your readers a voice
Lessons Learned – Readers (continued)
• Holistic view of the entire experience for a reader:
Search / browse content
Find book
Pur-chase book Down-load book Start Reading
Available now via partners.
Lessons Learned – Readers (continued)
• Moving users from established behaviors takes time and patience
• Friction = bad • All about the reader and the reading experience • Immersive reading
Publisher Lessons • Calls to action need to be clear and contextual • KISS – make it simple for the user • Hold your technology providers, conversion houses, and distributors to a higher standard
• Keep experimenting • Support EPUB