Developments in Digital Publishing in ASEAN

By Peter Duke

The rapid growth in popularity of electronic books (e-books) has led many traditional publishers in the West to venture into this market. In Asia, the market is still comparatively wide open with many large publishers, such as Gramedia in Indonesia, still focusing on the on-line sale of print books and magazines. Amazon's Kindle e-books and e-readers are good value for money but are unfortunately not available legally in some domains in Asia. Although I-pads and I-phones are freely available they are expensive.

Possibly the biggest digital publisher in the region is I Love Books (ilovebooks.com) which is owned by MediaCorp, Singapore’s most diverse multimedia company with interests in TV, newspapers, radio, magazines and new media. A visit to the site reveals a vast array of e-books from a wide range of categories. Their banner headline states that I love Books allows book lovers to buy their favourite e-books and read them anywhere at anytime on their devices.

A new, but currently much smaller e-book store is owned by MPH Digital (mphdigital.my). MPH is a local Malaysian publisher with its own network of retail outlets in both Malaysia and Singapore. From the way the web site is constructed it is only a matter of time before MPH Digital will rival I Love Books for the size and rang of content. In addition, and in line with the practice of their established retail network, MPH Digital will help new authors publish their books.

A number of interesting local providers have entered the market and although these are relatively small publishers when compared to international on-line publishers such as Amazon, they each offer special features.

Flipside (www.flipsidecontent.com) - their stated goal is to enrich the global electronic reading experience by publishing select Asian e-books while helping other international publishers convert their content to the local language. Their products include: academic and scholarly works; fiction and non-fiction children, teens and adults content and a wide range of local and international comics and e-books from around Asia and the Philippines. They also offer international publications discounted to match the purchasing power of the local market.

Papataka (www.papataka.com,) founded by three young entrepreneurs was Indonesia's first web based digital content retailer with a mission to provide a better way to enjoy knowledge by bringing to market e-books and audio books in various languages. They also provide a platform for independent authors to publish their writing through papataka.com. Their collection of books and their network are both growing rapidly and they have a Showroom and Gallery at one of the leading Plazas in Jakarta. They also specialise in producing digital publications with Indonesian content.

E Books in Thailand (www.eBooks in Thailand) occupies a special niche in the Thai market by offering a low-cost outlet for e-books with interesting perspectives on aspects of living, working and retiring in Thailand. In addition, the company offers a vehicle for authors to publish their works while they retain full rights.

E-Central (www.e-sentral.com) of Malaysia is obviously building its range of content as many of the book categories have only very few books at present. Most of the content is in Malay but there is a small range of books in English. As with the other smaller publishers, above, E-Sentral offers to assist self publishers design, price and upload their e-books.

Two other non-publishers have recently entered the market – skoob in Singapore owned by Singtel and ebuuk in Malaysia owned by Maxis, the largest mobile and internet provider in Malaysia. The companies have similar business models offering a range of web-based products that their post paid customers can purchase and pay for at the end of the month through their telephone bill.

Both companies are well known for their technical excellence and innovative range of services and sales of high end tablets and smart phones. Because of their dominance in the market they have an excellent chance of maximizing the value of their network in introducing this new range of products and services. However one has to question whether the internal culture and processes of these two companies can be adapted to market and distribute consumer products.

The marketing skills in creating a following in the market for e-books are very different from those required to package and sell mobile and internet based services. The other dedicated digital publishers we investigated demonstrate many of the following marketing approaches:

• there is a match between their products and the company mission,
• their internal culture is aligned with their business model,
• they are quick to market with new ideas,
• they create hooks – price, discounts and competitions,
• they extensively use social networks,
• they use print and TV advertising, and
• they create deals and partnerships

It is too early to say how successful Maxis and Singtel will be but anecdotal evidence suggests that Maxis has not yet fully realised the potential of its business model as ebuuk is not advertised on Maxis monthly bills and Maxis has not yet aggressively advertised ebuuk on TV or in newspapers.

As the availability of cheap tablets grows in Asia and the price of e-books falls, we can expect almost explosive growth in the availability and sale of e-books in Asia in the near future.

Finally in this short article we have probably missed other interesting digital publishers in the region and we invite our readers to tell us about them. [source: Asian Publishing Network)

Read More......

Lessons on Self-Publishing Success from Amanda Hocking

Many self-published authors don't fully realize that after their book is completed and published, they have a whole new set of objectives to meet. They aren't trying to write 2,000 words or so a day any more. Instead, they must start work on selling their book!

For many self-publishing authors, marketing their books can be a major stumbling block; others, however, seem to have a knack for it. In fact, there is a small but growing number of authors who are enjoying huge success - greater indeed than most conventionally published authors - from self-publishing.



Take the example of 26-year-old web fiction author Amanda Hocking, who has self-published nine books to date and sells approximately 100,000 copies per month according to Novelr.com. Most of her income comes from e-books sold through the Amazon Kindle store. Under Amazon's terms for Kindle authors, she keeps up to 70% of gross sales, compared with the typical 10% of net earned by most traditionally published authors.

Even more exciting for her is that Terri Tatchell, of District 9 fame, has recently optioned her trilogy for a screenplay.

So how has Hocking accomplished these amazing feats by self-publishing books such as Switched?

Well, if you read Hocking's own blog post The Epic Tale Of How It All Happened, you'll get a good idea of how she became one of the most popular web fiction authors alive. Here are some of the most important lessons from that post and others on her blog.

Select a Publishing Format

One of the keys to Hocking's success was her decision to make her books easily accessible to a lot of people through the Amazon Kindle store. By formatting her novels as e-books, she was able to price them lower than a standard hardback: $2.99, for example, versus $14.95. That, and the ubiquity of the Kindle e-readers, gave interested audiences a quick and easy way to access her writing.

Build Connections with Book Bloggers

The next thing Hocking did that helped sales take off was contact book bloggers. She says that after she contacted bloggers to start reviewing her books, "something surreal started happening. My books were selling. Like, really selling." Her sales jumped dramatically, going from 624 books for $362 in May to 4,285 books for $3,180 in June. She attributes this success to the buzz created by the bloggers.

Find a Trusted Editor

Once she could afford it, Hocking began to pay an editor to help her revise and edit her books. In fact, this is her most important tip for aspiring authors. She writes, "My biggest word of advice to any new/future writers thinking about diving into Kindle: Edit." Hocking admits it wasn't easy to find a good editor, and most of her books have been edited by a number of different people (and, she says, she still finds some mistakes when she looks at them now). Still, she believes it's crucial to ensure your books are as error-free as possible: "Some people won't care that there's errors, its true, but enough of them will. And they paid for it, so they have a right to. So edit more. And then again. Really."

Commit to the Writing Life

This is perhaps the most courageous act an aspiring author can commit. Hocking quit her day job after she had decent sales on the Kindle so that she could write full time. Doing so allowed her to produce even more work and increase those sales. In one month, she claims, she made as much as she made at her job for a year. Of course, this was after the buildup to her success, but still: quitting her job gave her the opportunity to commit fully to the writing life.

If you believe in yourself, then you should try to write as much as possible. It doesn't mean you have to quit your day job immediately, but it does mean that you may have to sacrifice other things (such as your social life!) to achieve the success you dream of in the end.

Write for an Audience

Finally, one crucial thing about Hocking is that she researches what her audience want and then tries to give it to them. If you simply write for yourself, you risk failing to find readers who share your enthusiasm. Sure, it's OK to start out that way, but you should look towards your audience for inspiration as well. It's no coincidence that Hocking started off by publishing on her blog - this gave her invaluable feedback, and helped her focus on providing the sort of reading experience her audience craved.

By-line: Mariana Ashley is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. She loves receiving reader feedback, so please do leave any comments or questions for her below.


---------
this article is written by Mariana Ashley. [source]

Read More......