Digital Musings

Cyberlibris tenth anniversary: An e-book journey and some milestones

Cyberlibris celebrates its tenth anniversary: ​​Ten years during which Cyberlibris relentlessly promoted and successfully developed an "all you can eat" subscription access to e-books.

Ten years, a time to celebrate that we surely won't miss!

Ten years, a time to consider a few milestones:

IN 2011, Cyberlibris represents:

- 400 institutions subscribing,

- A presence in over 30 countries,

- Books "brought" to locations where they were virtually inaccessible,

- Over 300,000 students have, as part of their studies, permanent online access to their digital library,

- Thousands of teachers guiding students through their bookshelves,

- Over 100 000 books sitting in individual shelves,

- Tens of thousands of users from public libraries,

- Access to e-books either via computer or via iPad,

- Last but not least, 300 publishing houses under contract: French, Belgian, Canadian, Spanish, English, American, Swedish, Italian ...

Since its first digital library went live in September 2003, Cyberlibris represents:

- Several generations of students who have discovered how e-books could leverage their studies,

- Tens of millions of pages of books read and / or printed and yielding royalties to publishers and their authors,

- The monetary equivalent of about two million print books sold that were otherwise either photocopied or unknown to students.

In 2011, Cyberlibris means ...more surprises to come:

- Chief among them of course Smartlibris,

- More to come .... Stay tuned...

Ten years of a patiently crafted adventure in the company of many partners whose confidence never wavered.

We wholeheartedly thank them!

Cyberlibris: dix ans de livre numérique et quelques métriques d'usage

 Cyberlibris fête son dixième anniversaire: dix années durant lesquelles Cyberlibris a promu et développé avec succès le modèle d'accès au livre numérique en streaming et sur abonnement forfaitaire.

Dix ans, cela se fête bien entendu et nous n'y manquerons pas!

Dix ans, c'est aussi un moment judicieux pour baliser en quelques métriques simples le chemin parcouru.

EN 2011, Cyberlibris, c'est:

- 400 institutions abonnées,

- Une présence dans plus de 30 pays,

- Le livre "apporté" aux endroits où il était quasiment inaccessible,

- Plus de 300 000 étudiants qui disposent dans le cadre de leurs études d'un accès permanent à leur bibliothèque numérique,

- Des milliers de professeurs qui accompagnent ces étudiants via la confection d'étagères professorales,

- Plus de 100 000 livres présents dans des étagères individuelles,

- Plusieurs dizaines de milliers d'usagers de bibliothèques municipales et départementales,

- Un accès aux bibliothèques et livres numériques indifféremment via ordinateur et iPad,

- Last but not least, 300 maisons d'éditions sous contrat: françaises, belges, canadiennes, espagnoles, anglaises, américaines, suédoises, italiennes...

Depuis la première mise en ligne à la rentrée universitaire 2003, Cyberlibris c'est:

- Plusieurs générations d'étudiants qui ont découvert ce que le livre numérique pouvait leur apporter,

- Plusieurs dizaines de millions de pages de livres lues et/ou imprimées et donc rémunérées aux maisons d'édition et à leurs auteurs,

- L'équivalent monétaire d'environ deux millions de livres "papier" vendus, livres qui étaient au mieux photocopiés ou (pire?) inconnus des étudiants.

En 2011, Cyberlibris c'est... de belles surprises à venir:

- La première d'entre elles, c'est bien entendu Smartlibris,

- Les autres suivent....

Dix ans d'une aventure patiemment construite en compagnie de nombreux partenaires dont la confiance n'a jamais failli. Qu'ils en soient remerciés!

An old post that may help the e-book pricing debate...

I have read several recent posts (this one is a good example) where the burning question is how to price e-books. This is "fun" because it reminds me of the hot debates we used to have in class when I was teaching microeconomics and the difference between average cost and marginal cost. This also reminded me of an old post of mine entitled 2+2 = 8 where I tried to explain in layman's words what the implications of a low marginal cost are.

Microeconomics 101 teaches that the (competitive equilibrium) price has to be such as it is equal to the marginal cost. This is the production point where "normal" profits are made by firms. But what about a situation where you have significant initial fixed costs to come up with the first unit of your product but minor costs afterwards (that is whether you sell 1 unit or 100 000 units does not make a difference costwise)? Well, it is obvious that if you charge the marginal cost, you won't be able to recover your initial cost outlay. Situation is worse when your clients have indeed the perception that your (marginal) cost is almost nil.

Well (re)-read as I did 2+2=8 (apologies for the self-reference) to get the broader business picture and a view on increasing returns to scale. It suggests a bunch of questions:

- what is the true inescapable fixed cost to produce the first e-book unit?: How will it evolve when e-books will be different from what we know now?

- what is the split between fixed costs and variable costs? : This has an obvious implication on what royalty percentage publishers should pay to authors?

- what do publishers try to monetize? : Time, attention, service, content ...

- paying huge advance to authors? : Does it sill make sense when the first thing you want to achieve is precisely minimize the cost of the first unit?

- How do you convince readers to pay more than the marginal cost? : huuuu... certainly not by starting punishing them with DRM...

Large publishing houses should know all the answers... After all don't they hire bright all guns blazing MBAs who are supposed to know everything about the cost shabam?

Again, asking the right questions usually leads to the right answer ;-)