On Monday we had a Skype session with Arthur Attwell, a young publishing Entrepreneur from South Africa, and we discussed his experiences with the ebook market and later his print on demand company Paperight.
It was particularly interesting to note that South Africa's ebook trend is very slow in comparison to other countries - the means in which South Africans access the internet is only recently changing and people are still looking for alternative and ultimately convenient ways of accessing what they need. Therefore, the print on demand service that Paperight provides is more logical than developing ebooks and selling them as such.
With Education in particular being in such high demand in South Africa, providing it in a cheap format is key, as is allowing people to access only the areas they require rather than buy the full expensive textbooks. Paperight's scheme also has some potential for people looking at buying books in serial format, particularly people in low-income professions.
My particular concern with Paperight is advertising - though the scheme has potential for funding from Universities and other educational establishments, it is difficult to introduce it to people outside of education. It may become a particularly narrow market, and thus Arthur may need to continue his research into the growing mobile phone market in South Africa - a potentially more lucrative area as many South Africans are using phones with internet access.
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