The YouTube model—free uploads of all types of user-generated content to attract public traffic and consumption—has worked for some media sites like Scribd.com, and now innovative publishers at Myebook.com are banking that it will work for them too. Myebook.com is an online publishing venture that allows users to upload content—either complete works or the materials to build one—to a free account and create a rich-media online book that can be offered to readers at the site or be embedded at other sites.
Myebook is based in the U.K. and debuted with a soft launch in September 2008. In a Skype videophone interview from the U.K., Myebook cofounder and communications director Sy Whitehall said the firm has worked to develop a “content delivery system with powerful viral elements that allows the users to connect and even embed their e-books to Facebook, MySpace and e-mail clients.” The site offers everything from picture albums and novels to comics, magazines and brochures. Whitehall said the site has about 2,500 e-books available for public viewing now and more than 12,000 private titles, blocked from the public by their creators and publishers.
Myebook users can upload a PDF of a complete book layout or load separate content materials that can be assembled into a complete work from scratch using tools on the site. For a fee, Myebook will provide users with design and production assistance through its business partnership program and Myebook Studio feature. Once content is uploaded, Whitehall said the site converts the materials into Flash—a popular multimedia program that supports animation and interactivity as well as streaming audio and video—which gives users the ability to “drag and drop the content to build a book and publish it. There's no programming needed and it's easy to use,” said Whitehall.
The completed book is viewed through a flash e-book viewer that can display video, audio and animation as well as screen grabs and hyperlinks, all kinds of images and even downloads of the completed book. Myebook users can control their content with levels of access that range from total privacy to full-view. Each user gets a URL and domain name, and the site has its own community forums and comment boards and is set up to easily connect the user's content to a wide range of social media sites.
Myebook offers two kinds of accounts: a general user account that allows individuals to create and publish online e-books and offer them for sale or for free and a business partnership account that provides additional features and functionality. The business partnership allows clients with many titles to batch uploads, brand their e-books with company logos and set prices, and it includes the use of Myebook Studio. Myebooks takes a 10% fee on the cost of any transactions. The site will also offer full stock, customer and distribution management when its full e-commerce functionality is launched. Whitehall said the site will eventually seek advertising, likely offering partners a 50% split of ad revenues. Whitehall said the site will also begin offering print-on-demand services “in a few months.”
The company has about 12 full-time staffers and is privately financed. “We're just starting to talk with investors,” said Whitehall, who also said the company was mindful of copyright issues. “The system is self-policing and demands permissions and legality. We'll take down any copyrighted material; no pornography is allowed and we are required by law to monitor even the private documents,” said Whitehall. He added that the site is in preliminary discussions with a number of large publishers to put their books on the site. Among the commercial agreements already in place are ones with Universal Films and Music and U.K. comics publisher Markosia. And while Whitehall said that the site plans to be a hub for e-commerce, he also emphasized that right now, “we're just trying to make the site accessible, attract people and see how they are using it.”
