E-Readers and Electronic Publishing Rights

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E-Readers and Electronic Publishing Rights

It had never happened to me before and then twice on the same day (Jan 2^nd 2010) I was asked how to access e-books from the library collection. It seems the e-reader was a popular gift this past Christmas.

Did you know that the library has a catalogue of e-book that can be borrowed from the comfort of your computer? Simply go to calgarypubliclibrary.com and click on e-library, then click under the heading Books and Authors and finally click on either Overdrive or Net library. Overdrive has a guided tour I recommend for all new users. From there the whole e-books is a bit of a mystery to me as I haven’t gotten an e-reader yet but two of my co-workers received them for Christmas so we’ll be learning from them.

One lady who brought in her new ‘toy’ was in her 80’s and had received it from her son. She has been having more and more difficulty reading print and the feature of increasing the text size to one that is comfortable was the appeal. However the woman has limited knowledge of computers so was at a loss as to how to set it up. I provided her with the steps to get to the guided tour on Overdrive and she was going to get her grandson to help her from there. Remember if you are giving one as a gift to a computer-phobic person they will need help getting started.

E-readers would also be helpful for another customer who can only sign out new books because of her allergies. Books collect dust and for sensitive patrons, the act of reading can trigger symptoms. There is another customer who has difficulty holding heavy books due to arthritis and a light e-reader may be a good choice. Also anyone who travels may find it convenient to take just the e-reader loaded with several novels rather than the books. Although with the changes in airport security lately I don’t know that you’d be able to get it through customs and on to a plane with you.

Speaking of e-books there was an interesting discussion on the topic of electronic publishing rights on The Current on CBC AM this morning as I drove to work. The advent of e-readers is dramatically reshaping the world of book publishing. New economic models are being developed to get books in the hands of readers as quickly and easily as possible but as with the music industry in the past decade there are going to be winners and losers and authors will need to navigate these issues carefully. This is a description of the discussion on CBC which I think raises a good many questions. You can listen to to it by going to http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2010/201001/20100106.html and click on part 3.

We started this segment with a clip of Stephen Covey, the author of the blockbuster self-help book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. He was talking about habit number one ... Be Proactive.

Earlier this month, Stephen Covey got very proactive. He moved the rights to the e-book versions of two of his best-selling books from his print publisher to a digital publisher. The digital publisher will sell the e-books on Amazon.com, the company which also happens to make the wildly successful e-book reader, Kindle. The rise of e-book readers is turning e-books into a lucrative market. This year, Amazon sold more e-books than traditional printed books on Christmas Day. And the idea that authors might take their e-book publishing rights elsewhere - - spurning traditional print publishers has some in the industry worried.

But Hal Niedzviecki sees an opportunity. He is a writer and the co-founder of Broken Pencil Magazine. His latest book is called The Peep Diaries: How We're Learning to Love Watching Ourselves and Our Neighbours. He was in Toronto.

Noah Richler is a journalist and the author of This Is My Country, What's Yours? A Literary Atlas of Canada. He wrote an article about the book industry's digital future in the November issue of The Walrus Magazine. He was in Digby, Nova Scotia.

For a publisher's perspective, we were joined by David Kent. He is the President and C-E-O of Harper Collins Canada. He has been in the publishing business for 40 years and he was in Toronto.

The library has several books to do with electronic rights and e-publishing. Click on the titles below to place a hold on the title.