HOW THE ASEAN PUBLISHING INDUSTRY WILL BE
AFFECTED BY THE POPULARITY OF “DIGITAL” CONTENTS
Presented by:
Atty. DOMINADOR D. BUHAIN
(President Emeritus, Philippine Educational Publishers Associations (PEPA) and (President, ASEAN Book Publishers Association (ABPA)
March 26, 2009, Thursday at Bangkok, Thailand
(on the occasion of the 37th National Book Fair and Bangkok International Fair 2009)
GREETINGS:
Ms. Risuan Aramcharoen, President of PUBAT, to the officers of PUBAT, fellow speakers and officers of ABPA, Ladies and Gentlemen, good morning, SA WA DIKAP.
When I learned of the discussion on the above topic, the first step I did was to communicate with the International Publishers Association (IPA) through Secretary General Jens Bammel in order to know the global trends firstly.
Mr. Bammel does not have the statistics on the share of digital works with the totality of world publishing. He states, however that Amazon says that 12% of its sale of books are now on e-books. He, however, mentioned some pertinent data based on the speeches of former IPA President Ana Maria Cabanellas to be next discussed.
Ms. Cabanellas firstly said: “Publishing globally is worth ninety one billion dollars ($91,000,000,000) while films account for forty six billion dollars ($46,000,000,000), music twenty three billion (23,000,000,000) and computer games twenty three billion (23,000,000,000).
It is unfortunate that Africa, Middle East and Latin America only account for five percent (5%) of world publishing. The ninety five percent (95%) are presumptively from Europe, USA and minimally Asia.
We have to determine what is the publishing industry. There is no such thing as the publishing industry as it is a very diverse industry. There are three areas namely educational publishing, scholarly publishing and trade publishing.
Some countries have other important sectors namely religious publishing, database publishing, calendars, gift books, self-help, (some will even consider Harry Potter publishing a separate industry sector).
What are the new technologies? Digital is at the heart of many of them. They are
audio books, digital white boards, digital paper, digital mobile devices. Publishers are active everywhere when content is needed.
Let it be said that the costs incidental to non-traditional book publishing are different from the traditional book publishing. Paper books do not crash; paper books do not require servers, backup systems and a service helpline.
Paper books don’t require constant updating.
While there are new products, the costs of content identification and creation remain the same. The cost of marketing is also similar.
There are basic models to follow such as open access to attain economy of scale. Warning, however, should be made on government publishing. Only if there are many publishers competing with one another using different pedagogical approaches, adapting to the changing needs and habits of students would quality textbooks be assured.
Government publishing kills creativity, freedom of speech and freedom of information. It creates a monotonous and unattractive teaching contents.
Some naive people think that search engines can replace marketing. That is why books don’t find their readers, every content must be dangled before its audience at arms length so it can be grabbed. In the G8 countries, some publishers make skillful use of the bloggosphere, viral marketing campaigns can help, even youtube.”
During the Brunei Forum, I asked the speaker who comes from Singapore, who is an owner of printing school whether digital will replace traditional print book publishing. He said he doesn’t think so. He analogizes that with the co-existence of radio, television, IPOD and varied paraphernalia until this point in time, the prediction of a paperless society has not yet materialized.
Still according to Ms. Cabanellas, “Books are sophisticated piece of technology. There are many innovations. Compare a schoolbook with a website. They are still much better in terms of easy access, manoeuvrability, durability, easy to read etc.
There are many signs of hope for the book. Last year the Frankfurt Bookfair had more exhibitors than ever before. Publishing is not a dying industry. It is a changing industry.”
The DRUPA printing exhibits (which is held every four (4) years) have increased its exhibitors as exemplified by the recent exhibit during the year 2008.
“Publishing matters, as long as politicians recognises it. There is hope that our children will read books not as a historic hobby, but because it remains an important valuable and modern medium.”
The ABPA has not been remiss on the discussion of the subject matter. On February 28, 2008 at Brunei Darussalam, speeches were delivered on the topic “ Enhancing Business Profitability in the Book Publishing Through E-marketing.”
Through the courtesy of various international book fairs in Asia (Taipei, Seoul, Hong Kong) and common courtesies in Southeast Asia, ABPA has held joint exhibits since we agreed in Kuala Lumpur to organize our consortium in Manila in August 2005 in recognition of our mutual interests and common aspirations for our trade and our respective peoples.
Through ABPA structures and projects, we have become not only acquaintances but regular e-mail correspondents, co-publishers, and prospective partners in various joint endeavors.
It is now the time to move forward to establish our regional identity and trade by opening communication lines not only amongst ourselves but with our expanding public not only in the ASEAN region but also in the global community. Let us together develop our e-marketing program at regional level and help our members develop and promote theirs at National and company levels.
Our regional website can serve us as a distribution channel, as marketing and publicity sites, and to link visitors to our member country sites and our individual companies. Linkages are readily forged through ICT.
ABPA has formed the ABPA Website Development Sub-Committee under the chairmanship of Philip Tatham of Singapore Book Publishers Association.”
Thus, through the cooperation and solid support of SBPA, our own website was launched on May 30, 2008 at Singapore. ABPA Website can now be accessed at www.abpa.asia. I am happy to note that SBPA is maintaining our website as moderator.
Based on my latest access to our website on March 20, 2009, five national publishing associations of ABPA such as Indonesia (IKAPI), Malaysia (MABOPA), Philippines (PEPA), Singapore (SBPA), and Thailand (PUBAT) are member-countries with website hooked at the ABPA website.
Moreover, opening ABPA website has links to Awards and Prizes; Bibliographic and other Book Services; Book Fairs; Book Festivals; Copyright; International Publishers Association; and Written Resources.
Thus, our website can be an effective tool in enhancing ASEAN publishing industry and its marketability.
MULTI-CHANNEL MARKETING
(promote your books in multiple channels through one program)
In order to enhance business profitability among ASEAN, on September 11, 2008, at Baguio City, Philippines, Mr. Erik Hartmann, Southeast Asia Regional Manger of Google, presented before ASEAN delegates a special paper on how to promote books in multiple channels.
From Mr. Hartmann’s presentation it can be deduced that in order to promote your books in multiple channels the following can be devised:
a)Allow on-line bookstores
b)Partnership with website
c)Use hyperlink
d)Use on-line book club
e)Add Google on ABPA website
Among others, Mr. Hartmann stressed the following:
A.Knol
Encourage your authors who are experts in a particular subject write an authoritative article-a knol- on it.
B.Google Book Search website partnerships
Expand the marketing power of full text search to sites where your readers are looking for your books
Security will be the same as it is on Google Book Search pages and content hosted on Google servers.
C.Partner feedback: Monetization
Pete. Shemilt, Sales Marketing Director of Cambridge University Press said that:
“We’re absolutely certain that Google Book Search is making a difference to sales of the backlist. It’s the publishing equivalent of being able to walk around a car, look under the bonnet and kick the tyres before making the decision to purchase”
While Brian Murray, Group President of HarperCollins stated that: “[Google Book Search] drives highly-qualified traffic to our site. The results suggest it leads to book purchase and intuitively we believe this.”
Thus, I am urging our moderator of ABPA website Mr. Philip Tatham, and leadership of SBPA to look into the possibility of adding Google on ABPA website, in order to enhance marketability.
We can say that ABPA working as one has already laid down the needed legal infrastructures and schemes for our joint ventures, co-publishing, co-publication and translation whether in digital form or electronic publishing. What is required of us now is to have active agreements and interests to close contracts.
Finally, the combo digital printing technology, electronic publishing and the e-market brought about focal changes in the book publishing industry; the ascendance of (1) small publishers- the self-published author or group of authors or the creator/source of books/knowledge and (2) the reader- the end-user that creation. These two are the beginning and at the end of the one publishing chain – in this case, a very short, two-point publishing chain. E-marketing is the ultimate profit maker for publishers in this day.
However, the world wide web, which is now the operation center of e-marketing, is already a global red ocean for publishers. Their consumers have to navigate this vast sea of information guided by powerful search engines that have increasingly become fueled by advertising. The overload of reliable and unreliable, relevant and irrelevant information online has driven customers to rapidly emerging, technology with the market on the internet and at large.
The pacesetter in electronic bookselling, Amazon.com, has provided the escape route from the internet through the platform of the portable bookstore.
Publishers in the ASEAN region and beyond the region need to work together to face the challenges of digital information; violations of copyright as private property, search engine optimization, volatility of consumer behavior, and rapid ICT evolution fueled by the technological rat race.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, while technological breakthroughs continue to proliferate, ASEAN publishers should not be alarmed that traditional print book publishing would be extinguished. The quality and relevance of the content and marketing are still the most competent considerations. Based on recent developments and pronouncement from experts, there are strong reasons to believe that digital printing would not eat up print publishing but would enhance and complement the same.