Group items tagged

"Textbooks are a thing of the past, says the common wisdom. Well, the common wisdom of the Technorati maybe. The problem with that thinking is that the number one publisher in the world is Pearson, a textbook publisher, who brought in $7.75 billion in 2009. Pearson, as Tim Carmody noted in a January Wired article, owns 50 percent of the Financial Times, as well as the number two trade house: Penguin. The second largest textbook publisher, McGraw-Hill, owns Standard and Poor's. To say textbooks are big business is like saying bullets are ouchie."

"Since 1969, Simba's newsletters and business intelligence reports have delivered metrics and analysis deemed critical by top executives in the textbook publishing market. Our content offers the comprehensive, in-depth analysis you need to understand the demand for print instruction and electronic media in PreK-12 schools and is the most-trusted source for the highly competitive $3.5 billion college publishing industry. S"

"Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishers Inc has reached a deal with more than 70 percent of its creditors to cut $3.1 billion in debt as it faces a lagging textbook market due to drops in educational funding. The publisher said it plans to restructure through a pre-packaged, court-supervised Chapter 11 bankruptcy."

"OpenStax College, the nonprofit, open-access publisher out of Rice University, announced the launch of its first iBook text Monday, becoming the latest publisher to try to make the free-with-paid-options model sustainable. The interactive, iPad-based version of OpenStax's free-to-read online College Physics text is available through iTunes for $4.99."

"A group of graduate students at the Milledgeville, Ga.-based campus have used Apple's iBookstore to publish a video-and-image-laden eTextbook filled with information and advice for educators hoping to better incorporate technology in their everyday classroom lessons. The eBook, "Using Technology in Education," is a student-created textbook available for the iPad and available for free in the iBookstore, "

On IU's etextbook deal w/ 5 publishers

"This isn't the same approach, however, that Apple took to disrupting the music industry. This isn't the equivalent of $.99 download for songs. This is about hiring "great textbook writers," something I don't think Apple ever did for songwriters, other than a few "iTunes Exclusive Releases" perhaps. And it seems as though -- again, just based on this passage from the biography -- that Jobs' frustration with the industry isn't with the industry so much as the bureaucracy that goes into textbook certification and adoption. How would partnering with Pearson, the largest education publisher in the world, disrupt textbook publishing? Color me skeptical."

"Highlighter is a web application that creates a dynamic relationship between publishers and readers. With Highlighter, readers can share, save, and comment on words, sentences, paragraphs and even images. All of this data is passed back to the publisher in the form of powerful analytics."

"We have representatives from 20 academic libraries on board for the trial and half a dozen publishers willing to explore eTextbooks in libraries. Those publishers participating in the trial have asked to review core textbooks that are adopted at the participating institutions. The Steering Committee has suggested focusing on business & economic titles, nursing, health sciences and law but will consider other subjects." (Australia-based)

"The potential for digital growth is leading publishers to experiment with products that stretch the boundaries of traditional textbooks, slowly turning away from static text and images toward a multimedia, intuitive approach, publishers say. "

5 publishers involved in Indiana's etextbook initiative: "Here's how it works: Students in a select group of courses are required to pay a materials fee, which gets them access to the assigned electronic textbooks or other readings for the course. The university essentially becomes the broker of the textbook sales, and because it is buying in bulk and guaranteeing a high volume, officials say they can score better prices than can the campus bookstore or other retailers."

"Abstract: A self-selected agile team of liaisons conducted a high level scan of e-textbook publishing and recent implementations of e-textbooks at selected institutions to address questions and concerns we anticipate will be raised soon at Brandeis, namely: Are there examples of successful, sustainable implementations of e-textbooks? What is the status of the technology? How well do e-textbooks meet the needs of faculty and students for teaching and learning? What is the nature of the available content and its functionality? Are publishers and vendors offering suitable sales or subscription models?"

Good work, and great to see from a liberal education institution. Maybe they'll rerun the study for 2012?

"The Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore College Libraries have significantly expanded their collection of academic ebooks through the addition of more than 40,000 titles issued since 2006 by Cambridge University Press, the University of Chicago Press, Princeton University Press, Palgrave, and many other scholarly publishers. The books are available in Tripod, and new books will be added each week as publishers issue them."

That's a big move.

"E-books are beginning to emerge from their incunabula stage. While some may think of an e-book as just an electronic image of a paper product, others have used the electronic format to broaden the spectrum of publishing in the digital age. This paper examines three innovative examples that demonstrate the potential and challenges of electronic publications. The first is an online resource providing information on the U.S. health care system, descriptions of policy proposals, and an interactive microsimulation model that estimates the effects of commonly proposed policy changes. The second example is a digital novel utilizing text, sound, images, and gaming in storytelling. The third is a survey of efforts to create digital textbooks with online study resources. E"

"For the first nine months of 2011, e-book sales were up 137.9% at reporting publishers, to $727.7 million. Sales at all print trade segments were down in the nine months, though sales of religion products rose 6.6%."

"SUMMARY: What would you say if I told you that there's a new introductory biology textbook being published that is affordable, lightweight and never goes out of date?"

interesting model for getting print books published as ebooks