The publishing world has continued an axis shift with the advent of mobile media devices that can support readability competitive with a mainstay of literature, the book.
In Norwalk, former head of the children”™s division at Simon & Schuster, Rick Richter, has formed digital publisher of children”™s books called Ruckus Media Group.
“You never work as hard as you do than when you”™re working in a start-up,” said Richter, president and CEO of Ruckus.
The father of two other startups that have since been absorbed into Simon & Schuster has in the last few months taken his first steps into the application, e-reader and mobile media platform.
The Ruckus application allows for an interactive platform for traditional children”™s books currently on their iPad or iPhone. In addition to e-reading the media allows for scrolling text, parents to record their own voice reading stories, or let the child listen to a voiced over version of the story. Other stories have additional interactive elements.
With bedtime stories in mind, Ruckus enables classic children tales like “Tom Thumb,” “Pecos Bill” and “The Velveteen Rabbit” to be watched and read to a child. Voiceovers have been done for the application by celebrities Meryl Streep, Robin Williams, Denzel Washington, Garrison Keillor and John Cleese, among others. Ruckus has exclusive licensing rights with the digital media of Rabbit Ears Entertainment in South Norwalk, which produces content for the Ruckus platform.
Ruckus has a staff of 14 professionals, whose careers live in either the publishing, editing or developing worlds.
“I stepped out of traditional print publishing,” Richter said. “It was very clear to me that traditional print publishers were going to be slow to turn toward the digital literature world even though the digital world has been arriving even more quickly than anticipated.”
Book business will soon be 10 percent digital
According to yearly projection information from the American Publishers Association, 10 percent of the traditional book business will be digital by the end of this year and between 25 and 50 percent by 2015. For this holiday season electronic e-readers even made it into the top child holiday gifts. The VTech Electronics V.Reader, an animated e-book priced at $60 is among the “Hot 20” toys chosen by the Toy Insider, a consumer-shopping guide.
“The great thing about digital publishing is it is much more profitable,” Richter said. “If you”™re a large publisher trying to convert, it”™s a bit more challenging; you”™ve got a lot of people who have grown in a pretty stayed industry.”
Richter said issues of what to cut and keep, divesting, and consolidating are all major questions for large publishers.
“My first job in publishing was unpacking returns,” he said. “Mobile media has no returns, no fuel cost, no paper cost, it is much more efficient.”
Richter said the initial cost to investing in digital publishing is also not all that great in comparison to paper publishing.
Kids gaining access to iPhones
Despite many people”™s apprehension at giving a child an expensive electronic device, according to a recent study by mobile advertising network Greystripe, mothers with iPhones frequently let their children use their phones, and download games specifically for their children; 59 percent of 1,300 mothers surveyed said they freely give their iPhones to their child.
“People of all ages want to enjoy media wherever they are and they need it to be on their schedule,” Richter said. “Most kids can handle a touch screen device easily, it”™s very intuitive.”
Richter said taking the idea from concept to company was an encouraging process. The Ruckus application is currently only available on Apple devices, and books are priced at $3.99 each. Ruckus plans to make the application available to other tablet devices later this year. According to technology market research firm iSuppli, Apple will command 74 percent of the tablet market share through the end of 2010. Richter said new tablets arrive on the market on weekly.
“Apple doesn”™t keep you out, there”™s low barrier to entry,” Richter said. “The real challenge is market, discoverability; there are 250,000 Apple apps with 20,000 kids apps and 90,000 Droid apps. People say, ”˜Are you crazy?”™ but there are 300,000 new books published every year, so if you know how to make a hit in the book business you can or you can learn how to make a hit in the app business.”
In Richter”™s last year at Simon and Schuster he had 49 New York Times bestsellers.
Ruckus seeks to add features
“They want to turn out the best quality product,” said William Bryant, publicity manager for Ruckus Media. “They don”™t have an open platform; they”™re looking for you to hit a certain number of benchmarks and product that can last essentially as long as you have your device. Authors and illustrators can open up and do some things they couldn”™t do on page form.”
Richter said offering a disruptive and generous compensation model to authors and illustrators is also an enticing proposition in the notoriously cutthroat children”™s publishing industry.
“It”™s basically the most profitable deal being offered to anybody in the world right now, I can say that with certainty,” he said. “It”™s a red share deal that even Steven King would like.”
Richter said the e-reader space is very approachable for authors also because they don”™t have to sign away their book rights.
“They can go sell the book rights to a traditional publisher, because that”™s not our business,” said Richter. “I don”™t see it as a book competition, but they probably do.”
