R.R. Donnelley & Sons, the largest printer of books in the U.S., and software giant Microsoft Corp. have announced they will cooperate in the most dramatic expansion of the e-book business to date.
Mark Bayer, senior v-p and general manager of R.R. Donnelley, declared, "Together, Donnelley and Microsoft will offer publishers a turnkey, hassle-free, end-to-end solution using Microsoft software for digital rights and transaction management, to create a massive repository in our servers to store tens of thousands of titles, convert them to e-book formats, distribute them through retailers, and collect revenues from readers while protecting the titles' copyrights. We will be working with retailers to deliver e-books in whatever format readers ask for."
Dick Brass, Microsoft's v-p, technology development, indicated that Donnelley is a perfect partner for e-book distribution, as the printer's relationships with publishers should help make many more titles available for conversion to e-book format. Microsoft's Reader software makes e-books readable on any PC with the Windows operating system, and Microsoft's ClearType display technology greatly improves the font resolution and appearance of a page of electronic text.
Steve Ballmer, president of Microsoft, said, "We are excited about working with R.R. Donnelley to accelerate the growth of the e-book industry. This agreement ensures that consumers will have access to a virtual bookstore of compelling and contemporary e-book titles."
Bayer suggested that the current move is an extension of Donnelley's current business, rather than something new. "We have been in the e-book translation business for more than a year," he said, "converting print titles to NuvoMedia's Rocket eBook format, Softbook format, and Peanut Press format for Palm Pilot."
Mike Allen, president of Donnelley's Book Group, concurred. "We see our program with Microsoft as a perfect answer to the 'chicken-and-egg' problem of electronic publishing," he told PW. "Publishers have been reluctant to go to the expense of preparing titles for e-books if there are not enough devices in consumers' hands to be profitable. Consumers, meanwhile, say, 'Why should I buy an e-book if there aren't any titles I want to read available?'
"R.R. Donnelley is already the trusted partner of the publishers in going into print: they give us Quark files, PDFs or other formats, which then go through a translation process to prepare them for a variety of output forms--offset press, direct-to-plate, on-demand, what have you. This translation from publisher's file to e-book format will be just one more format, but with Microsoft Reader, it will make the publisher's titles available to a much broader market."
Bayer declined to name publishers or specific titles that will be included in the program, preferring that the publishers themselves make these announcements, but referred to deals made at Frankfurt with European publishers--Penguin, Havas and Mondadori--as examples of what to expect.
