From Cover to Cover

Martin Taylor: Great New Zealand eBooks

By Rachel O'Neill in the NZ Book Council journal

There has been much discussion about e-reading and the impact it will have on our future reading lives, but what initiatives are taking off in New Zealand? For the inside word I interview Martin Taylor, a publisher who ‘has been involved with the internet almost as long as Al Gore,’ and ask him to ruminate on some of these e-reading initiatives.

Asked what he thinks is unique about a digital reading experience, Taylor says ‘the fundamental change is instant 24/7 access to your own library and the entire world's books. The deceptively simple benefit that “every book is always with you” has the potential to greatly increase reading. From an ergonomic point of view, the e-reading experience will get better and better, of course, until it is better than books (for some of us, it's already reached that point). But the power of instant, universal access is the gamechanger.’

How will e-reading develop in New Zealand? ‘It will develop quickly, once the pieces are in place, with eBook reading devices, eBooks, eBookstores easily accessible by Kiwis.’ However, he adds, ‘this is not happening as quickly as we'd like. We're probably two years behind more advanced countries and will lag for some time. This is why it's important that we make it as easy as possible for key technologies to get into the New Zealand market, for Kiwi consumers and publishers to learn how to use it, and for New Zealand publishers to access a global audience early.

‘I'd expect that a quarter of our population (and a higher percentage of heavy readers) will be predominantly reading digitally within five years. And at least half will do most of their reading digitally within a decade.’

Taylor is director of the Digital Publishing Forum, and is a key force behind the forum’s The Great New Zealand eBooks initiative to turn 1000 of New Zealand’s best books into digital form. Taylor elaborates, ‘The Great New Zealand eBooks project is an industry initiative, and the project's aim is to provide practical support to New Zealand's publishers and authors to ensure they are early and successful entrants in the digital market.

‘Backed by Copyright Licensing Limited (CLL), the project has two components. The first is to provide New Zealand publishers with access to the same world-class digital publishing technology and distribution services as large international publishers. Specifically, the services ensure that New Zealand eBooks are available where readers can access them, such as online eBookstores and digital libraries. The Great New Zealand eBooks project is currently building this capability which should be live before Christmas and will be available to publishers large and small.

‘The second component of the project is market-focused. It involves getting our collection of great New Zealand eBooks in front of readers, reviewers and opinion shapers, agents and publishers, in New Zealand and internationally. New Zealand works might easily be lost in the noise as the eBook world becomes increasingly global, and New Zealand publishers and authors will benefit when they work together to tackle international promotion opportunities.’

Taylor launched his own internet marketing initiative, BookTV.nz (http://www.booktv.co.nz/) earlier this year. ‘It features a collection of short video clips based around single book or single author clips which make them easy to attach to online promotions or for readers to share. It’s a way to get the book industry involved with video as a marketing tool. There's already a significant part of the internet community that will search first for video rather than written information. Driven by YouTube and other video sharing sites, it's a key social media driver and books and authors need to be part of that conversation.’

While there are opportunities for innovation in the world of e-books and e-reading, Martin Taylor adds, ‘it's early days in the eBook revolution and, frankly, just getting to a point where readers can easily acquire and read a wide range of books in digital form is challenging enough. However, over time as both the reading devices and the publishing economics improve we can expect that the digital experience will start to diverge and a digital book might be quite a different product from a print edition. Chances are, when this happens, the digital edition will be the primary one and the printed book, if it appears at all, will be the stripped-down "add on". This will be a reversal of today's situation and it will impact some types of books sooner than others.

‘My guess is the headlong ‘post-iPad’ scramble by the magazine and newspaper industries into digital publishing will spur this process along faster. I personally think there will still be a role for simpler digital books, including the long form narrative style of novels and non-fiction. I hope they won't all turn into movies or hyperlinked odysseys.’