“E-Books” vs “E-Editions” vs “App Editions” etc . . .

Update: 2012-05-18 @ 06:42:17 AM

Preface: This post is not meant as an “end all” choice for education: regarding what they should or shouldn’t buy when converting to digital texts. It’s simply my opinion, on the various “e-” terms that are tossed around the market: e-books, e-editions, digital copy, app e-book, etc.

I purposely did not mention or factor in the price of the “e-edition”, cost savings of going with “e-editions”, or the cost of hardware – because that’s not what this post is about.

I believe that my “checklist”, as to what I consider to be a true “e-book”, is valid and a good starting point for asking publishers what their “e-editions” have to offer.

Educators or those making the decisions as to what “digital” textbooks they buy – need to do their homework, ask the right questions regarding feature sets, and factor in the pros and cons before diving in.

P.S. I’m also not saying wether or not the school that I work at, made good-or-bad decisions regarding the digital texts that we currently use. The market of “e-editions” is evolving, and items on my checklist may not have been available when x-y-or-z was offered.

What I consider to be a true “e-book” . . .

• Obviously it must be a digital version of a publication; 1

• One that can be downloaded/copied to a device
  (iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Nook, Computer, etc);

• Be available for loading on multiple devices,
  without having to pay for additional copies;

• Does not require me to be online to view it;

• Distributed in a standards format [that my device(s) can support]
  (ePUB, HTML, maybe PDF, etc); 2

• Does not require Flash player, or some propriety plug-in/viewer
  [caveat being Kindle like reader/manager Apps]; 3

• Font style and size can be customized as a user preference;

• If not “e-ink”: customizable “view color”: black on white, sepia tone, white on black, etc.

• Must be searchable, and have “chapter” links in a TOC for quick navigation;

• Be able to highlight/annotate/or copy for citation/research purposes;

• Should not expire, once I have a copy I should be able to continue to utilize it;

• Being able to receive small updates for correcting errors, etc is a huge bonus 4

The difference between labeling content as “e-editions”, “digital copy”, etc . . .

I just purchased a strategy guide (I know) and one of its “selling points”, was that it included a “Free Digital Copy”. There wasn’t any explanation as to what format it was – but I investigated anyway, obviously hoping for the best!

When I finally figured out how to redeem the code, I was disappointed to find out that the “digital copy” was: entirely FLASH-BASED, requires that you be online to access it (those wanting to “download” or “view offline” need not apply), wasn’t optimized for online viewing (was just images of the pages exported from their page-layout program), wasn’t searchable, was extremely slow to load, etc (I could go on).

Review of the score card:

Key: (Y) Yes, (N) No, (K) Kinda/Sorta/Depends, (U) Unlikely

In other words: it was completely worthless to me.

Oh lookie, “e-editions” of our textbook . . .

Currently at work, we have maybe three (different) classes that utilize “e-editions” of their textbooks. I have to stress “e-editions” because they categorically fail my “e-book” checklist.

The three major culprits for failure with these particular “e-editions” are: they are wrapped within Flash, require you be online to view (entirely online – no downloadable version), and they expire (you pay for the “privilege” of having access to it for a specific period of time).

The classes have a classroom set of textbooks for school, but students are required to plop down in front of a COMPUTER to view and read their “e-edition” of the textbook. I state “computer” because even those with Android tablets have told me that the Flash-based “e-editions” are not viewable on them! LMAO

Checklist / score card for School’s “e-editions”:

Key: (Y) Yes, (N) No, (K) Kinda/Sorta/Depends, (?) Who really knows

A whole lot of nothing, money wasted, and loads of headaches / growing pains.

But what about “App editions” or “iPad only” . . .

Okay, so this is tricky. I haven’t actually gotten to use a FULL iPad only text book or FULL “App only” textbook. So it’s sorta up in the air for me to comment fully.

However, I can comment on some issues relating to my “checklist”.

Generally speaking, Most iBooks 2 style Textbooks:

Key: (Y) Yes, (N) No, (K) Kinda/Sorta/Depends, (?) Don’t know for certain

Looks like a winner! More publishers need to support the iPad’s iBooks 2 Textbook functionality – OR – provide similar substitutions that meet my checklist!

~ ~ ~

Generally speaking, Most app-style “e-editions”:

Key: (Y) Yes, (N) No, (K) Kinda/Sorta, (?) Don’t know for certain

Lots of unanswered questions! Better to do your research before buying.

Footnotes:

1. Direct to digital publication counts. More power to them!

2. Okay, so I leave a caveat with this one. Amazon <-> Kindle, Apple <-> iBooks. I’d consider those formats acceptable. Obviously a format that can be cross platform/device is the best solution for everyone! DRM sucks!

3. Same caveat as footnote #2: I really don’t consider Kindle, Nook, iBook, etc distributed “e-books” requiring a “viewer”. This statement is really more about requiring Flash player or other proprietary plug-in/viewers – like what most text book companies turned to instead of say PDFs (back in the day).

4. One shouldn’t “expect” a publisher to offer free life-time updates, free new “editions”, or different digital versions after initial purchase (e.g. start with PDF then give a free conversion to ePUB).

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