John Smith & Son, an academic and professional bookselling chain in the UK, has released results of a study proving market demand for e-textbooks and confirming their value as a new revenue stream for publishers. The programme is powered by VitalSource, an interactive e-textbook platform offered by Ingram Digital, an Ingram content company focused on solutions for digital content management, distribution and promotion.
E-textbooks were sold using various sales models, with bundled print and e-textbooks proving more successful than e-textbooks sold as a discounted point-of-sale add-on or as a single full-price product. Not only were e-textbook sales strong in the first semester, but these encouraging sales have continued into the second semester, it has been observed.
The study also revealed that titles available digitally realised a decrease in used textbook sales. Used textbook sales force publishers to compete with their own material, leading to more frequent new editions and, subsequent higher costs for printed textbooks. Titles available digitally realised as much as a 68 percent decrease in sales of their used, printed counterparts in a year-to-year comparison.
John Smith's chose VitalSource for its ability to support multiple formats, flexible digital rights management and interactive features such as the ability to search within text, highlight in the book, copy and paste sections as needed and the ability to share notes with classmates and professors. After a successful pilot in 2007, the programme was expanded for the 2008 autumn semester, with almost 100 of John Smith's bestselling textbook titles available in digital and print.
