What matters to digital book publishers?

Happy New Year!

First thing you're reading here in 2012 is another 'cheerful' post on the subject of e-books. I'm picking up on where Michelle left off back in 2011...

According to a recent survey drawn from a cross-section of the publishing industry conducted by Data Conversion Laboratory (DCL), 411 respondents indicated that the following factors (ranked by relevance) are most important to publishers.

1. Quality = 70%
2. Cost = 34%
3. Customer Service = 28%
4. Short turnaround time = 19%

Noteworthy is that 63% of publishers out there intend to publish an e-book in 2012. Digital books, being a newish enough medium for consumers, are on the up. The 2011 Horizon Report indicates this as much.

What else is there to say? Publishers have realised that quality of user experience is paramount in ensuring that e-books will be broadly adopted going forward. A behavioural shift can only be fully accomplished if users can rely on consistent quality and straight-forward access.

I have noticed that library users ask for e-books more frequently these days. QR-coded e-book stickers on hard-copies alert students to the fact that e-book equivalents are readily available. Students frequently identify e-books as practical solutions during exam periods when study pressures stretch the availability of traditional loans. E-books offer 24/7 access to students who cannot, for one reason or another, frequent the library on a regular basis.

The survey also established that 43% of publishers acknowledge the importance of format compatibility with all e-readers, including iPad, MOBI (Kindle), Nook and custom formats.