Alternative Business Models in EM

Models with Books in Public Domain

Authorama
Authorama is a project by German blogger and programmer Philipp Lenssen to create a non-comprehensive repository of public domain books in "easily readable HTML format" (Lenssen). Using textual sources such as Project Gutenberg, Lenssen formats a more or less random assortment of public domain fiction and non-fiction works into XHTML 1 Strict and chapterizes them for easier reading through the Authorama website. The status of the project is unknown. Lenssen, who appears to be the sole maintainer of the website, has a full list of his projects and websites at http://www.outer-court.com/ and can be contacted at info[at]authorama[dot]com.
Literature.org - The Online Literature Library
Similar to Authorama, Literature.org is a project run by enthusiasts to provide "full and unabridged texts of classic works of English literature", already in the public domain ('An Online Library of Literature'). The project uses previously transcribed content at such sites as Wiretap and Project Gutenberg ('Literature.org FAQ'), re-formatted in HTML and cataloged according to author's name. The status of the project is unknown. The Literature.org domain name is registered under Peter Galbavy and supposedly supported by Knowledge Matters Ltd. (also run by Peter Galbavy), whose contact is listed as peter[at]literature[dot]org.

Models with Copyrighted Books

BookBoon
BookBoon.com is an online publisher of free ebooks, downloadable in PDF format, and containing "relevant advertisements on every third page on average" ('About BookBoon'). "The books are targeted at engineering students, IT students, and students of economy and finance" (ibid.). All titles are written for and only available from BookBoon. BookBoon.com is owned and run by the Danish company Ventus Publishing ApS; the website claims that it is the fastest growing publishing house in Europe, that 2 million of their books are downloaded a year, and that a maximum of four advertisers will be in any single ebook ('Information for advertisers'). They also offer free travel guides.

Flat World Knowledge.
Flat World Knowledge is a publisher founded by Eric Frank and Jeff Shelstad, which commissions, edits, and peer reviews textbooks to be given away free on the web. Students can order relatively inexpensive paper copies in color or black-and-white (black-and-white softcovers for under $30) ('Our Story'); and the site also sells a number of other formats like audio and Kindle, and supplementary study guides, flashcards, and services. Additionally, faculty using Flat World's textbooks for their courses can "edit, delete, and remix textbooks so that the books precisely match the teacher's approach to a course" (Anderson 2008, 1). This is facilitated by Flat World's use of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported licenses on all of their textbooks. Students can also take advantage of the "Open Textbook" model to creative custom books from various chapters, editing books down to the sentence level in coming iterations of Flat World's website ('Our Story'). As of the publication of Anderson's 2008 article, Flat World Knowledge was actively courting known textbook authors to build credibility and "already [had] 17 books under contract and [hoped] to have that number up to 22 or 25 by the end of the year" (Anderson, 1). Flat World pays textbook authors a 20% royalty, compared to traditional industry standard of 15% on net sales (ibid., 1). Furthermore, authors retain royalty rights on any remixed versions of their content that are sold (ibid., 2). Flat World is also planning a series of college textbooks done as graphic novels (ibid., 2).

Freeload Press and TextBookMedia
- TextBookMedia hold the patent ELECTRONIC PUBLICATION ADVERTISING SYSTEM
- User statistics of TextBookMedia
- Freeload, seems to have some pretty well developed DRM protections,since they also offer paid-copies in different formats.

Pharmpedia

Established Publishers

Selling eTextbooks via College Bookstore Kiosks
- see NACS Press Release: http://www.nacs.org/news/091908-ms.asp?id=cm

SafariU
- "SafariU is a new custom publishing service offered by O'Reilly Media, Inc. and The Pearson Technology Group. An alternative to expensive print textbooks or print-on-demand services, this innovative Web-based education portal allows academic instructors and corporate trainers to create custom print books, build online syllabi, and share learning objects for Computer Science and Information Technology courses. Educators can easily compile and publish just the information they choose to teachâin print and onlineâand save students a good bit of money over the cost of primary and supplementary texts." (https://safari-u.dev.java.net/)

HarperStudio
- Not EM, just alternative publishing ideas
- 50/50 royalties scheme with authors
- Bundling: physical book + free audiobook and ebook versions
- Selling iTunes-like gift cards for ebooks at physical bookstores
- See relevant blog post + comments!!: Why E-Books Cost Money to Publish