Publishers cutting out the middle man in ebook distribution

‘eBook platform allows publishers to self manage their global eBook distribution’

Independent Australian health care publisher Ausmed is exhibiting at the Frankfurt Book Fair this year with a brand new digital offering for its international distributors.

Ausmed, which produces health care education textbooks and related training services for nurses and allied health staff, aims to empower their partnering distributors with an end to end online eBook distribution platform to compete in the ever-growing world of digital distribution and pipelining to market.

This unique opportunity has come about for Ausmed thanks to the innovative eBook distribution technology from DNAML called DNL DRM.

Ausmed will be able to empower their current distribution partners with eBook distribution. They can also expand their market through the DNL DRM by simply, easily and without set-up costs, sign up new distribution partners and be able to negotiate distribution commissions through the DNL DRM system.

This allows Ausmed to cut out wholesalers such by negating the need to hire expensive third-party distributors and pass on that saving to their customers.

The DNL DRM platform also provides all parties participating in the transaction with real time reporting of sales and many other options that can assist the publisher with the distribution of their eBooks in the global market.

DNAML CEO, Adam Schmidt says: “The DNL DRM platform is groundbreaking news for all publishers, in particular small and independent publishers, as it allows them to move into a larger realm of retail sales, whilst maintaining independent control over their own profits.”

“This is just the reality of the changing face of the publishing industry as eBooks begin to capture the public interest and innovative eBook technology like the DNL DRM format offers publishers independent and the capability to expand outside the established channels. We all love to make more sales and this is what we provide to the publisher,” says Schmidt.

DNL DRM uses the interactive DNL eBook format as its core which also benefits publishers like Ausmed, who require an audio and visual component to enhance their ebook publications. Ausmed says that this audio element is one of the features that sets their e-textbooks apart from others in the health care publishing market.

“The ebooks being created by Ausmed are unique as many of them allow the reader to listen to a short summary of each chapter right from inside the ebook,” says William Egan, Ausmed Sales and Innovation Officer.

“This enhances the reader’s end experience and aids with comprehension of the subject.”

Ausmed will be presenting their DNL DRM-formatted ebooks at the Frankfurt Book Fair which commences on October 14th 2009.

…… It is not impossible to roll out DRM so that it is easy for the reader…. It is just a matter of acting sooner rather than later so that we avoid the ‘Napsterisation’ of the Publishing industry

We talk about DRM as though it were one strategy, but it’s actually many different strategies. Apple’s DRM allows you to copy the music to any medium, but play it on only 5 computers. Amazon’s DRM is a new format. Right now, their ebooks will run on only a few platforms.

So, if publishers insist on DRM, will they standardize on a single type? Unless they all adopt Amazon’s format (a mistake), there will certainly be a number of formats.

Another legitimate use of a file, music, ebook, whatever, is making a backup. Digital files can get corrupted, the CDs last only 5 years, among others. Will publishers with DRM allow this?

What happens to a user base when a provider discontinues the use of a DRM? We’ve already seen Microsoft’s strategy when it abandoned the FairPlay music format. Users were basically out of luck, though some conversion was possible. Here, I’d look really closely at Sony, which has a habit of abandoning tech items.

@Brian — I am looking forward to this webinar. I like to hear all sides of a conversation. It’s not about one way is right and one way is wrong. It’s about finding a system that works for all of us.

@David — I’d love to say your example was atypical or unusual, but we both know it’s typical and the source of frustration for so many people who just want to be entertained. I don’t need to be protected, and I’d say that was true for most people I know.

I sincerely hope this conversation moves beyond “It’s bad”, and focuses on the reality of file sharing. I worry that polarization — especially between content producers and content producers — will lead to bad places.

@Toke — Thank you. Next time, come up and say hello. The big rooms are intimidating because it’s hard to see the people in the audience, and it’s always lovely to speak with people on a more personal level.

I thought I’d share my experiences with DRM.

First up, I work in Publishing and the organisation where I work has had to deal with folks pirating our stuff. Not nice.

Biggest problem with DRM is you cannot use the word “Purchase” with it. Rental – not an issue.
“Purchase” simply does not apply to DRM’d material whatever it is. There are too many cases of the servers being turned off, or the Operating systems being upgraded and causing trouble and so on and so forth. This upsets folks like Cory. From his writings, I believe he has also sat in on too many lobbying sessions with hollywood types to have anything other than an utterly cynical view on what some people would do if they could.

I thought he was a bit over top on occasion, until the day I sat down to watch a DVD of a movie featuring a well known fictional british spy. The movie company had put something on the DVD that meant it would not play in my DVD drive on my PC. Worse than that, they flashed up a message to indicate that the reason it wouldn’t play was that I was trying to use it on a PC and therefore was going to be a nasty lawbreaking criminal who ate babies whilst funding other criminal acts and not being nice to my mother (I exaggerate – but only slightly).
I bought the DVD with my money. I bought the PC with my money, I bought all the other DVD players in the house with my money and here was a company trying to restrict the wholly legitimate use of a device and a piece of content. In My House.
That was when I decided that DRM was a bad thing.

And that’s the problem. The solution as you say Kassia is to take away as many of the legitimising elements that enable casual piracy. Go hard after the commercial pirates, and understand that the kids, don’t have enough money, but do have enough time to share the music/films/books and will do it, until they are earning the money to be able to have a late night Amazon buying frenzy and not worry about the consequences too much.

The other thing about DRM is it is too closely associated with things like the UK governments desire to ban households from using the internet after “3 strikes of filesharing” without going through that tricky business of having to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

It would be great to take out “the ugly”, but my experience is the that “the ugly” is usually keeping a real close eye on things, just out of sight.