E-Book Program Overview

e-Book Program Defined

  • Print-ready PDFs will be converted into .epub and other formats as required in order to distribute the electronic file format to the leading e-content vendors.
  • Any title in hardcover or paper where the Client has the contractual rights to the electronic format can be submitted.
  • Current partners: Amazon Kindle, Ebrary, OverDrive, Sony Connect.
Back to top

How Does It Work?

Title Set-Up
  1. Client enrolls in the e-Book program via an addendum to its distribution contract and selects its e-Book vendor partners.
  2. To submit a title, Client logs into Constellation using its password protected Client log-on.
  3. Client reviews the auto-populated metadata associated with each title, including the e-Book ISBN, and indicates to which of its approved e-Book partners it would like to send the title.
  4. Client loads print-ready PDF into Constellation via drag & drop web interface or portable file transfer (CD, flash drive).***
  5. Constellation converts the files as necessary and distributes the content to the designated e-Book partners.
  6. Titles become available for purchase in 2-4 weeks depending on the speed with which the e-Book partners make new titles available.

***Constellation can assist in the digitization of backlist titles where files are not available.

Publisher Compensation

e-Book sales will follow the same sales payment cycle as all other sales under your Distribution Agreement, subject to the reporting schedule of the e-book vendor partner. At present, Ebrary, Sony, and OverDrive all report quarterly; Amazon Kindle reports monthly.

Back to top

FAQ

  1. The market for e-Books is still so small. What is the benefit of starting now? First, consumer interest is growing. While it is true that the current market for e-Books is a fraction of the print market, we have seen dramatic sales growth and increasing interest in this sales channel. Amazon recently announced that Kindle sales currently represent 12% of sales for titles available for the Kindle. The AAP reports $10MM in e-Book sales in the first quarter of 2008, an increase of 33% over the first quarter of 2007 and 150% over the first quarter of 2006.

    Second, selling e-Books enables a publisher to maximize sales of its content. With little additional expense or effort, it is now possible to produce digital editions and receive incremental income through a new sales channel.

    Finally, e-Books provide a means to increase library sales. The library market has led the technological push toward e-Books for the past decade. Because of collection development and archiving constraints, academic and public libraries worldwide are heavily skewing their budgets toward digital editions to the point that some will go to solely digital collections beginning in 2009. Whatever your title concentration—consumer, trade, or academic—sales growth in the library market will be predominantly digital.
  2. I’ve never sold digital copies of my books before. What do I need to know to begin? First and foremost, you must ensure that you have the rights necessary to sell your content in digital form. Where you do not, you will need to amend your contracts to incorporate these rights. And if you have not done so already, you will want to revise your boilerplate as soon as possible to include the right to sell your content in digital form.

    Logistically, you will need to be able to supply digital files of your titles, order ISBNs for the digital edition(s), establish a Digital List Price for the digital edition, and have a means of disseminating the PDF to the digital marketplace (in this case, Constellation). Each digital partner with which we work has differing metadata requirements (i.e., requisite fields that must be supplied). These include everything from Title, Author, Publisher, etc., to territorial rights. (If you’re already selling to online retailers like Amazon, you’re familiar with this.)
  3. What is the risk of piracy with the partners with whom Constellation is collaborating? No more than in the print realm. It has always been possible to photocopy print editions of a work or simply scan and replicate an edition. With digital editions, DRM is in place to minimize the risk of piracy. However, it does not eliminate it, and the risk exists.
  4. To which e-Book partners will Constellation be distributing files? Constellation currently has finalized agreements with the following e-book vendors:
    1. Leading consumer-facing e-Book retailers:
      1. Amazon Kindle [www.amazon.com]
      2. Sony Connect [www.ebookstore.sony.com]
    2. e-Book wholesalers primarily serving the library market:
      1. Ebrary [www.ebrary.com]
      2. OverDrive [www.overdrive.com]
    A number of other partnerships are under discussion, and new vendors will be added as they become viable outlets for e-Book content.
  5. Will you be accepting and distributing downloadable audio files as well? Yes. Given the composition of our customer base, this is a second tier of effort, but we expect to be in a position to accept and distribute downloadable audio by the second quarter of calendar 2009.
  6. What happens if I already have a contract with one or more of these vendors? Subject to certain nuances individual to each digital service provider, you will have the option to transition to Constellation’s agreement and service arrangements with that digital service provider or to continue with that partner under the terms of your own agreement.
  7. What if I have a relationship with an e-content vendor with which Constellation does not have an agreement? Will Constellation be able to send my files to that partner too? Constellation will be adding e-Book vendors as these emerge and become viable sales channels for our Clients’ products. Interest by Clients in these prospective partners will be a factor in determining the companies with which Constellation forges a new relationship; however, we will not be able to supply files to vendors with which we do not have an existing relationship. We will be able to supply you with copies of files that we have digitized or converted, if you did not request a copy of these at the time we did the digitization or conversion.
  8. Can I choose a single vendor? Yes. However, we do think it makes sense to place your titles with all current and future e-Book partners. Each offers a specific customer base, speed to market for that customer base, and additional value-added solutions for online search and marketing.
  9. How do I track sales? Depending on the e-Book partner, Constellation currently receives sales reporting on either a monthly or a quarterly basis. This reporting will be loaded into Constellation’s sales reporting systems upon receipt of the report and will be visible to you via your Client interface by the middle of the month following the month in which the sales were made or reported to us.
  10. Do Kindle sales show up in Amazon POS? At this time Amazon does not incorporate sales of Kindle e-Books into its POS reporting.
  11. How many e-Book ISBNs do I need? I’ve heard that I may need to assign one for each format on the market. The formal position of the International ISBN Agency is that each electronic format requires a separate ISBN, but this question is currently a matter of debate, and different publishers have adopted different stances on the issue and different practices. BISG is studying the question and is expected to issue strong guidance on the subject by the end of the year. It is not, strictly speaking, necessary to assign a separate ISBN to each format being sold, and, for now, Perseus, along with a number of the largest publishing houses, does not do so. Note, however, that intermediaries may be assigning their own internal tracking numbers or even ISBNs from their own blocks in order to distinguish among the formats in the supply chain.
  12. I’ve heard that some of the major e-Book partners will do conversions for me. Why might I want to take on these conversions myself? There are a number of reasons why a publisher would undertake its own conversion to .epub. The three most important are (1) the control that providing your own .epub file provides you over the look of the file (which is especially important when it comes to graphical elements like call-outs and sidebars and linking), (2) in many cases quicker availability of your title at the e-Book vendors, and (3) ownership of the resulting file. To that last point, doing the .epub conversion for yourself results in a copy of that file that you can then send to future eContent partners; allowing an e-Book partner to do the conversion for you does not provide you with a copy. In addition, some e-Book vendors may convert your file only to a dominant e-Book format and not all the formats they sell.
  13. Can I send hardcopies to be scanned for older titles? Yes, for a fee; the files can also be returned to you for the price of the scanning.
  14. Can Constellation make PDFs from application files? Yes, for a fee, and provided all fonts and images are supplied.
Back to top