For a few days there’s been a buzz around the new distribution system for e-books from Norwegian publishers. More or less it has been meet with a full frontal bad critics. I thought that it couldn’t be all bad and decided to try it out for myself.
First of all it’s important to point out that Bokskya (The Bookcloud) is a distribution channel. It is designed to distribute digital books from publishers to digital bookstores.
Standing behind it is the three biggest publishers in Norway; Cappelen Damm with 10% ownership, Gyldenal Norsk Forlag with 15% and Aschehoug with 15% ownership. Together with the publishers there are two distribution centrals, Sentraldistribusjon that owns 10% and Forlagsentralen that owns 10%. On the owner side a few bookstores also participate; Ark, Haugenbok, Libris, Notabene/Senterbok, Norli, Tanum, Fri Bokhandel and Studia – all of the biggest bookstore chains in Norway.
With these contributors from publishers to resellers they have gathered a pretty “powerful” value chain and it is good to see that the Norwegian publishing industry is finally doing “something” besides sitting on the wall waiting like Humpty Dumpty and complain about theft and copyright problems.
I am quite new to reading digital books and it wasn’t until i got my iPad that i started to read e-books. I’ve always been fond of the physical paper book. It’s got good usability.
The way that Bokskya works is that it is a central storage for books called Bokdatabasen (the book database). All books that are available from the three publishers are stored here. These books are then made available for purchase from one of the participating bookstore chains. Why "old school" distribution centrals are involved here im not sure about, but I guess it’s all about politics.
Well, that ‘s the backdrop. On to reading digital books. Since I’ve started my venture into digital books I’ve mostly used Kindle for iPad, and also read a few books through the iBook app. Both of them give me a good reading experience. One of their benefits is the ease of purchase. single click order from the device and delivery to my device seconds later.
Ark bookstore on an iPhone
As a first time customer I am required to register as a user on the bookstore i choose to purchase from. I find the book I’d like and purchase it using regular shop mechanisms. After purchase my book is made available through "my purchase page". Good thing i didn’t choose Notabene for my first purchase because from the look of their navigation and selection of books there is no e-books on sale…
Before i can start to read anything i need to “connect” my bookstore account with a Bokskya (The Bookcloud) account. As a first time user I create my new account and then gets notified that the book s now available through Bokskya.
To start reading my book or either the iPad or iPhone i need to go visit m.boksyka.no. As a first time visitor i am first presented with a message box that asks me to upgrade the local storage?? to 50MB. Do i need that? What happens if i say no?
Of course i said yes. Next, without explanation I am forced to add m.bokskya.no to my home screen. Nothing works if I don’t do that.
Done that, and going back to Safari.. nothing happens.. oh, wait.. I need to open the page again using the home screen icon. This time i get a login prompt and enter the user account details from my Bokskya account creation process and voila "suddenly" my e-book purchase is waiting for me and available for download.
When i open my newly acquired book it’s to a massive disappointment. Here’s a screenshot of the first page of the first chapter.
So, comparing that with my previous reading experience from the Kindle iPad app
What was the idea behind the layout of the Bokskya book? Get as many letters as possible to fit on one page? One reason for this awful look is most certainly the underlying EPUB publishing format. The readability is just beyond crap. Another comparison between the two is page navigation. With the Kindle you swipe left or right to go to the next page, in most books you also get a nice page flip transition. On the Bokskya application you click on the left side, wait and watch the circular javascript-page-transition-effect to load and go to the previous page with a slide effect, and click/point on the right side to slide to the next page. pointing/clicking somewhere in the middle, near the top will bring up the options menu for changing type size, typeface and the grayness in contrast.
So, having my e-book reader in HTML5 and as a browser app i figured that i want to read books offline. It did ask med to upgrade the offline storage database. Turning the iPad into flight mode and then loaded the web app from the home screen icon again. Ooops… “Cannot open bokskya, Bokskya could not be opened because it is not connected to the Internet”. Bummer! Actually there’s a know issue and addressed in the FAQ. I need to quit all applications, try again or possibly reboot the iPad. There’s also a link to Stack Overflow from the FAQ explaining what you as a developer need to do to work around this. VERY useful for the average book reader… Explains a lot..
I think it’s safe to say that in my book… this is crap. If this is the best that the book industry in Norway can muster I fear for the future of reading. I do understand the idea behind the distribution network. But the way it has been implemented, with the ridiculous HTML5 web app reader I am sure this will be a short lived and costly adventure.
Oh. And fix that offline problem. If a were on an airplane i wouldn’t be able to read either your FAQ or the Stack Overflow link. A waste of money and a lot of boredom on an overseas flight. Add some In-App explanations and help, just for the usability of it.
Use Facebook to Comment on this Post
Bokskya (the bookcloud) – the Norwegian way of e-books
Commentary | April 5, 2011 by Alexander Viken
For a few days there’s been a buzz around the new distribution system for e-books from Norwegian publishers. More or less it has been meet with a full frontal bad critics. I thought that it couldn’t be all bad and decided to try it out for myself.
First of all it’s important to point out that Bokskya (The Bookcloud) is a distribution channel. It is designed to distribute digital books from publishers to digital bookstores.
Standing behind it is the three biggest publishers in Norway; Cappelen Damm with 10% ownership, Gyldenal Norsk Forlag with 15% and Aschehoug with 15% ownership. Together with the publishers there are two distribution centrals, Sentraldistribusjon that owns 10% and Forlagsentralen that owns 10%. On the owner side a few bookstores also participate; Ark, Haugenbok, Libris, Notabene/Senterbok, Norli, Tanum, Fri Bokhandel and Studia – all of the biggest bookstore chains in Norway.
With these contributors from publishers to resellers they have gathered a pretty “powerful” value chain and it is good to see that the Norwegian publishing industry is finally doing “something” besides sitting on the wall waiting like Humpty Dumpty and complain about theft and copyright problems.
The way that Bokskya works is that it is a central storage for books called Bokdatabasen (the book database). All books that are available from the three publishers are stored here. These books are then made available for purchase from one of the participating bookstore chains. Why "old school" distribution centrals are involved here im not sure about, but I guess it’s all about politics.
Well, that ‘s the backdrop. On to reading digital books. Since I’ve started my venture into digital books I’ve mostly used Kindle for iPad, and also read a few books through the iBook app. Both of them give me a good reading experience. One of their benefits is the ease of purchase. single click order from the device and delivery to my device seconds later.
Ark bookstore on an iPhone
As a first time customer I am required to register as a user on the bookstore i choose to purchase from. I find the book I’d like and purchase it using regular shop mechanisms. After purchase my book is made available through "my purchase page". Good thing i didn’t choose Notabene for my first purchase because from the look of their navigation and selection of books there is no e-books on sale…
Before i can start to read anything i need to “connect” my bookstore account with a Bokskya (The Bookcloud) account. As a first time user I create my new account and then gets notified that the book s now available through Bokskya.
To start reading my book or either the iPad or iPhone i need to go visit m.boksyka.no. As a first time visitor i am first presented with a message box that asks me to upgrade the local storage?? to 50MB. Do i need that? What happens if i say no?
Of course i said yes. Next, without explanation I am forced to add m.bokskya.no to my home screen. Nothing works if I don’t do that.
Done that, and going back to Safari.. nothing happens.. oh, wait.. I need to open the page again using the home screen icon. This time i get a login prompt and enter the user account details from my Bokskya account creation process and voila "suddenly" my e-book purchase is waiting for me and available for download.
When i open my newly acquired book it’s to a massive disappointment. Here’s a screenshot of the first page of the first chapter.
So, comparing that with my previous reading experience from the Kindle iPad app
What was the idea behind the layout of the Bokskya book? Get as many letters as possible to fit on one page? One reason for this awful look is most certainly the underlying EPUB publishing format. The readability is just beyond crap. Another comparison between the two is page navigation. With the Kindle you swipe left or right to go to the next page, in most books you also get a nice page flip transition. On the Bokskya application you click on the left side, wait and watch the circular javascript-page-transition-effect to load and go to the previous page with a slide effect, and click/point on the right side to slide to the next page. pointing/clicking somewhere in the middle, near the top will bring up the options menu for changing type size, typeface and the grayness in contrast.
So, having my e-book reader in HTML5 and as a browser app i figured that i want to read books offline. It did ask med to upgrade the offline storage database. Turning the iPad into flight mode and then loaded the web app from the home screen icon again. Ooops… “Cannot open bokskya, Bokskya could not be opened because it is not connected to the Internet”. Bummer! Actually there’s a know issue and addressed in the FAQ. I need to quit all applications, try again or possibly reboot the iPad. There’s also a link to Stack Overflow from the FAQ explaining what you as a developer need to do to work around this. VERY useful for the average book reader… Explains a lot..
I think it’s safe to say that in my book… this is crap. If this is the best that the book industry in Norway can muster I fear for the future of reading. I do understand the idea behind the distribution network. But the way it has been implemented, with the ridiculous HTML5 web app reader I am sure this will be a short lived and costly adventure.
Oh. And fix that offline problem. If a were on an airplane i wouldn’t be able to read either your FAQ or the Stack Overflow link. A waste of money and a lot of boredom on an overseas flight. Add some In-App explanations and help, just for the usability of it.
Use Facebook to Comment on this Post
Related Posts
Tags: Bad design, Books, Digital Publishing, E-books, EPUB, iBooks, Kindle, usability