Vancouver’s BitLit bets on “hybrid” future for books with mobile app

    1 of 4 2 of 4

      Peter Hudson runs an ebook startup, but that doesn’t mean the Vancouver entrepreneur believes the print book is dead. Far from it, actually.

      Seven years after Amazon launched the Kindle, the cofounder and CEO of BitLit Media told the Georgia Straight that only four percent of North American readers are exclusively buying digital books.

      “When you finish reading a book, you don’t throw it away,” Hudson said during an interview in his office overlooking Gastown. “You don’t burn it. You put it on your shelf. We use physical books for things way more than information carriers. We decorate our homes with them. So, the hybrid reader is what we have now.”

      Incorporated in 2012, BitLit Media is the tech startup behind a new mobile app that allows users to obtain the ebook editions of print books they already own for free or at a discount. The BitLit app came out for Android in January and iPhone in March.

      BitLit, which is available in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K., features about 10,000 titles from dozens of participating publishers. These include Vancouver’s Greystone Books and Now or Never Publishing, Victoria’s Orca Book Publishers and TouchWood Editions, Coach House Books in Toronto, and U.S.-based Chicago Review Press and O’Reilly Media.

      “If someone’s hellbent on getting an ebook, they can get it,” Hudson said, referring to BitTorrent. “There’s a spectrum of people that are going to pirate or pay, depending on what’s available and convenient. About 10 percent of people will always pirate. Seventy-five percent of people will pirate or pay....About 15 percent of people will always pay for stuff.”

      Hudson demonstrated how BitLit works. After downloading the free app, users can get a given ebook by proving that they have a print copy and that they own it. Users snap a photo of the book cover, and then write their name on the copyright page and take a picture of that. Then they’ll get an email containing a download link for the ebook.

      In order to prevent illegitimate downloads, BitLit can detect library barcodes, screen images, and even if a photo was shot in a bookstore (using GPS). Users must also sign in with Google+, which has a real names policy.

      According to Hudson, 30 percent of publishers offer their titles for free, with the rest listing them at about 80 percent off the regular ebook price. Ebooks are provided in a DRM-free format compatible with iPad, Kindle, Kobo, and other devices.

      “It’s like iTunes for books,” Hudson said. “But you can’t rip a book. There’s no way to format shift a book.”

      Two years ago, the idea for BitLit arose from an argument between Hudson and a friend in a restaurant. His friend had a book on his shelf that would have proved Hudson wrong, but he didn’t have a digital copy on hand when it was needed.

      Hudson noted that there’s many cases where people might want access to both the print and ebook editions of a title. For instance, one might be inspired by a print cookbook in the kitchen, but the ebook version is more convenient in the grocery store.

      “Think about all the books on your shelf you haven’t read, and then think about why you haven’t read them,” Hudson said. “The book wasn’t there when you wanted to start it. So, if you had it all the time, you might have started it.”

      The BitLit app is available for Android and iPhone.

      With a staff of “six and a half”, BitLit Media is one of four startups in the spring 2014 cohort of Vancouver’s GrowLab accelerator. The other members of the cohort are EthicalDeal, PrintToPeer, and Spark CRM.

      Hudson, who previously cofounded Aquatic Informatics, noted BitLit Media has received funding from the National Research Council’s Industrial Research Assistance Program. In January, the company opened a seed round in order to raise half a million dollars, and has closed over 80 percent of that.

      BitLit’s user base is “small” because the startup is still in “content acquisition mode”, according to Hudson. For every sale made through BitLit, the company gets around 10 percent, Apple or Google takes 30 percent, and the publisher receives the rest. Publishers offering their ebooks for free aren’t charged anything.

      Amazon is a BitLit competitor. The Kindle MatchBook program allows owners of Amazon-bought print books to buy the ebook version for $2.99 or less.

      Hudson maintained the “hybrid reader” will persist until ebooks match or exceed the experience of print books.

      “The reason why MP3s destroyed CDs is because you got everything you wanted and more out of an MP3,” Hudson said. “You don’t get that out of a book. You can’t lend an ebook easily. You can’t get an author to sign it. You don’t own it. You don’t get first sale right. You can’t give it away.”

      Comments

      1 Comments

      rceoguy

      Jun 19, 2014 at 7:49am

      Amazons new fiefly announced today seems to be the same.