Kindle: “As an industry, I think that revolutionized the market editorial, which is scary and wonderful at the same time “
São Paulo – “People of the Amazon do not really care what you want as a consumer matter.” The phrase sounds amazing out of the mouth of Jason Merkoski first evangelist (responsible for disseminating new trends) of Amazon and one of those responsible for developing the digital book reader Kindle , released in 2007
Bookgenie451 startup founder, creator of software that identifies reading interests of students to recommend textbooks, Merkoski mix optimism with caution when it comes to digital books.
On Thursday, 21 he comes to Brazil to participate in the 5th International Congress of the CBL Digital Book, in Sao Paulo, which will talk about his book Burning the page: The eBook Revolution and the Future of Reading (yet untitled Portuguese), in which decrees the end of the printed book. The newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, he gave more details on the changes and problems that provides for the publishing market.
You decrees the end of the printed book, but sales of tablets and e-readers begin to stabilize without this having happened. what is needed to popularize the digital book?
What most influences the popularity is the selection of titles. What we saw happen in the United States and Japan is that once people can find 80% of titles in digital seeking, the chance that they migrate to e-books is 100%.
How long does this change happen?
About three years after that digital books are available in a country.
streaming services books can help popularize this?
The problem of streaming services like Amazon is that they have several books in the catalog that people want to read. One of the challenges is to define a pricing model for e-books, which does not exist today. Until this is done will be difficult to make streaming a satisfactory experience and its sustainable cost.
You expect these impacts when he helped create the Kindle?
As an industry, I think that we have revolutionized the publishing industry, which is scary and wonderful at the same time. As a business owner of digital books, say it is very difficult to work with publishers today because their world is collapsing. It’s as if they were on the Titanic after hitting the iceberg without life jackets with the boat on fire and alien ships gunning the boat. Publishers are confused and afraid.
We have problems with the collection and use of data on our reading habit?
Certainly. It will not take to start seeing advertisements within e-books. But I’m not really concerned with what Amazon and Google will know about me because I think I’ve accepted that, inevitably, they will know things somehow.
These data also generate recommendations for reading. This facility can have a downside, as the reader away in favor of classic bestseller?
Some content may be neglected for sure. The problem of classic books is that they are not sexy and are not promoted on the entry page of Amazon because the company will not make money with them. The least favorite book of the turn to digital is the culture of the moment. We recommend only current things. Tools of recommendation need to improve.
You’ve said in interviews that it’s hard to love Amazon …
I think the role of the largest companies is not to be in my face while I’m reading. They may be more subtle and I believe that this is a role that Amazon is bad. Today retailers can learn who you are. It would be interesting if such information was passed on to publishers create content. But retailers retain all data. That’s why the system is broken.
What will happen to the written word?
I really think the future of the written word is being spoken, because writing is slow. The books of the future will be spoken because everything revolves around talking today. Devices such as the iPhone, with Siri, allow you to talk on the phone what you want to do.
believes that libraries and bookstores will even end?
I do not think the future will be good. My studies show that in the last three years the students spent 70% less time in the libraries of universities. Where are they getting information? In Wikipedia or sites.
The book stores can not survive and will disappear. Sobrarão just a few, specialized in printed books, such as those that sell vinyl records. Will remain in Google and Amazon, unfortunately market. I know the people of the Amazon. And they do not care what you want as a consumer. They care about how to get more profit.
One way to do this is pushing popular books, neglecting others. And unfortunately people will accept. The curator of titles is in the hands of retailers.
SERVICE “Burning the page: The eBook Revolution and the Future of Reading”
James Merkoski, Sourcebooks; 233 pages; 2013
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