eBooks hold a great future: Samir Khandwala, iMusti

Samir Khandwala, Founder & CEO- iMusti.com shares his views on m-reading.

Has m-reading been able to replace people's love for paperbacks yet?

There is no specific shift at this stage and we anticipate that both forms will co-exist for a long time to come.  People still like to read physical books and there are several other factors  which uphold the habit of reading physical books.

Mobile reading will be more popular when Internet speed increases, Wi-Fi is installed in all households, hand-held devices are affordable to everyone and all this will take some time in India and all other parts of the world. We expect that there will be gradual shift for books and both forms will co-exist for a while.

Moreover, lot of books are yet to be converted in digital form. Publishers will have to undertake this task or outsource to trustworthy partners. Right now, publishers are concerned about piracy, they are aware of what happened to audio industry and the same can happen in book industry as well. Technology must provide adequate security so eBooks cannot be copied but that will take some time and lot of capital investment.

The publishing industry is not seeing a drop in sales of printed books, what, then, is driving the reader community to m-reading?

People are accessing all kind of content on digital devices including their phones, tablets and even home entertainment devices (television). Audio, video and books are now available in digital format and people like to access them whenever they want to, at any location. Secondly, mobile reading is convenient and easy, as you are not required to carry books at all places.

Response is growing at a very high rate in all parts of the world, for example in India Internet driven devices are now in all parts of the country so people are getting used to accessing content on them.

In addition, there has been a great response from the book publishers and they are excited to convert their titles in digital format. iMusti is offering digital conversion to accelerate the process. eBooks will reduce cost of publishing in the coming years. Publishers will have only one-time cost of conversion unlike physical book printing which require minimum 1,000 to 2,000 copies that may not sell. This will reduce cost of doing business and increase profit.

We had very good response from various Indian publishers to convert their catalog and this trend will continue in the coming years. Several Indian publishers including Dhawale Prakashan, Popular Prakashan and Rajpal & Sons have signed agreements with iMusti so their books are already selling well on iMusti platform.

The size of the e-book market in India is way behind the $1 bn mark in the US, how is the industry poised to grow in the future?

eBooks hold a great future. Online reading is getting more popular especially with the growth of digital media. There are lot of options available for reading and one can easily read books anywhere on web, mobile phones, tablets, etc.  Everyone in the value chain is now adapting to digital trend and growth in eBook consumption in the Indian market is estimated by the fast technological adoption, especially of smartphones and tablets, among other factors.

The concept of reading digitized versions is quickly gaining popularity especially among youngsters for various reasons. The students and young professionals no longer require carrying physical books and they can store and access as many books as they want in their tablets/laptops/mobile devices, etc. eBooks are cheaper and simple to use and read at ease.

Even the avid readers while travelling can easily read their favourite book without any discomfort. There are lot of digital features in eBooks such as search (gives the option of searching content/titles, etc. from the books), copy and pasting, indexing, etc. that makes reading fun.

We feel that all books will be converted in digital format that can be accessed from hand-held devices or computers. Ubiquity and power of accessing large amount of books will dictate this conversion. However, the overriding factor will be proliferation of hand-held Internet driven devices.

Almost everyone on this planet will own one device in the coming future and that will be used to access information so eBooks will undoubtedly be the preferred method of reading books.

Tell us about the terms and conditions that go behind getting a publisher to release a book online.

Security- Publishers are concerned about security. They do not want their eBooks to be copied illegally because that will destroy the market value of their business.

Pricing- Publishers are also concerned about pricing of eBooks, it should not affect their physical books business.

Quality-And lastly, they are extremely concerned about the quality of eBooks, it must offer features like bookmarks, search, cut and paste, etc.

Share some examples of advantages of e-books over printed content.

Biggest advantage is that these devices can carry hundreds of books so readers can access them from any location. Internet connection is not required after initial purchase therefore they can be accessed in planes, cars and trains.

An emerging feature for eBooks is rental option, publishers and media partners are offering rental option for eBooks whereby customers can checkout books for a few days - similar to a library. This will allow lower cost for customers and publishers.

Another benefit of eBooks is social media interface. Readers can share content via online communication - this is impossible to do with physical books. For example, one reader can share content with another online and communicate with one another.

There also several other benefits including integrated dictionary and reference material. Readers can access a dictionary to get meaning of words in various languages - this is impossible with physical books. Similarly, reference material can also be accessed online. Readers do not have to visit a library to access reference materials - it is available on the spot.

How many established authors do you have on board, how many titles are getting published annually? How do you get publishers on board?

iMusti has fiction best-sellers, autobiographies, anthologies of popular music and poetry, as well as textbooks and educational material.  Some of the legendary authors available at iMusti.com includes Mohandas K. Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, K. M. Munshi, Khuswant Singh, R.K Narayan, Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Khuswant Singh, J. Krishnamurti, Amartya Sen, E.T. Shankaran Kutty, etc. The eBooks are available in their original format and the customers can easily read them on iPad, Android tablets and Amazon Kindle devices and tablets

We are working with many content partners in India, USA and other parts of the world to acquire quality content for our subscribers. Our target market is people of Indian origin so our customers are scattered in all parts of the globe.

We have collaborated with all the leading publishers such as Dhawale Prakashan, Popular Prakashan and Rajpal & Sons, Navjivan Trust, etc.  to provide huge collection of books (physical and eBook) in all key Indian languages.

What's its impact on the brick-and-mortar retailers?

Traditional bookstores and retailers will be impacted with strong emergnce of eBooks. Customers will no longer go to a bookstore to purchase required reading material. Most of them are already affected because of e-Commerce, almost all titles are available on large online retailers like Amazon and Flipkart. Customers have all necessary information about millions of books and they can order online. Books are delivered to their homes within a few days and thereby customers do not have to visit traditional bookstores.

Talk to us about your pricing strategy and app's features.

iMusti.com provides largest number of books in English as well as all regional languages. Our collection includes titles on literature, politics, history, music, spirituality as well as children's books. We focus a lot on underlying data of each content piece so users can get lot of information about content. For example, we provide book description in regional language, which no other company has done so far.

The eBooks are available in their original format and the customers can easily read them on iPad, Android tablets and Amazon Kindle devices and tablets. They can also buy the books through iMusti website or tablets instantaneously. iMusti is able to fulfill orders in all parts of the world through their own digital platform and also through www.amazon.in.

We offer several unique features for our users. All eBooks are available in ePub format so it supports various font sizes, search, indexing and many other advanced features. The users can purchase them from website or directly from tablets and start reading.

This application is the first to offer Indian literature in the form of eBooks for iPad. The books are in English, Hindi and other various regional languages.

iMusti's application features include:

·         One of a kind content in dozens of Indian vernacular languages

·         Automatic page scaling for ideal reading conditions

·         Sophisticated searching tools for quick access to desired content

·         Fast loading and scrolling of eBooks

·         Offline mode allows users to access downloaded literature without Internet connection

·         Bookmarks

·         Search