Tools of Change Bologna 2011

By Karen Boersma, Kids Can Press
Children’s books are not typically the focus for most digital conferences, so the question on my mind as I arrived at Tools of Change Bologna was whether a conference at the Bologna Book Fair would do a better job than most conferences of providing children’s publishers with information that was specific to our part of the industry.

I’m happy to say that TOC Bologna, attended by 270 people representing twenty-seven countries, did a great job of providing an overview of the current state of the international market for digital content for kids, as well as highlighting some of the challenges and opportunities that await publishers who venture down that road.

So, what do publishers need to do? For many of the conference speakers, the key point was to be sure of what your objective is in entering the digital marketplace. Are you looking to increase revenue streams? Increase brand recognition? Provide additional marketing support for your print books? Regardless of the reason, all the panellists agreed that the most important thing is to establish your business proposition and stick with it. And because it is challenging, and expensive, to stay on top of new devices and systems, being the “second mover” in this area is perhaps not the worst choice to make.

eBooks or Apps?

One of the major issues discussed was whether publishers should be looking at eBooks or apps. For many of the panellists, the answer really depends on your books and your objectives. If you are looking to distribute your eBooks like your print books, then straightforward eBooks are likely the better choice given the wider choice of distribution channels (Amazon, OverDrive, Follett’s, Kobo, iBookstore, to name a few). Certainly for fiction, eBooks seem the logical choice.

But if you are working with illustrated books, the choice is less clear. Apps allow for greater enhancement and interactivity, but typically sell for less than $5 and can come with a hefty development price tag. Added to that is the question of portability – if you develop an app for iOS (Apple’s mobile operating system), it won’t necessarily transfer to Android or other operating systems. And apps require continual updates to stay current with operating systems, and so require constant reinvestment. As one panellist put it: “If a book is a product, an app is a service …”

Publishers may well want to look at partnerships with other companies who have greater experience and facility with app development, and will also want to keep an eye on the opportunities offered by HTML5 (the latest revision of the HTML standard), which will allow publishers to port apps to a variety of browser-based devices.

One of the big challenges facing publishers who choose the app model is discoverability. In the print world, shopping in a physical book store is the primary means of discovery, but how do you translate that experience to the digital world? There are over 30,000 apps for children in Apple’s App Store alone; making yours stand out is no easy task. Part of the answer seems to lie in social networking, which requires a different way of thinking for most publishers.

European Examples

One of the most interesting aspects of the day was the opportunity to hear from publishers from outside of North America. Piccolo Picture Books, a Dutch company that is part of Unieboek/Het Spectrum in Holland, develops picture books that are sold through the App Store in Europe. Published in five languages – English, German, French, Spanish, and Dutch –, all of the books include interactive elements and audio. Piccolo started with a big advantage – Unieboek is a large publisher with a variety of products, including travel and children’s books, they were able to leverage with developers in order to get an advantageous development deal. Piccolo didn’t have great success pre-iPad/iPhone, but now that those devices are gaining traction in the European market, they are seeing stronger sales. A second European venture to note is Gyldendal, Denmark’s biggest book publishing conglomerate. Their digital program, which has been in the market for one year, came out of their audio division. They started with dictionaries, then moved into development of traditional picture books that include audio and read-along features.

One thread that ran through a number of discussions centred on the importance of treating authors and illustrators as partners in the development of digital products. For many of the panellists, best practices in this area include involving the creator of the original work from the beginning of the process, starting from the contract discussions and continuing on throughout the development of the eBook or app.

All in all, the focus on children’s eBooks and apps, the examples of a number of successful publishing models, and the discussion of the need for new marketing strategies combined to make Tools of Change Bologna a worthwhile experience for the publishers, developers and creators who attended. Over the course of the next twelve months, I expect we will see changes on the digital landscape that will make the next TOC Bologna conference every bit as interesting.

Nicolas Levesque | 05/12/2011 | Digital, Events

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