Vibe: where publishing a book is as easy as planting a tree

Short of leading a revolution, discovering a cure for cancer, or inventing a device that will change the world, man can achieve immortality in three ways: by planting a tree, by raising good children, and by writing a book.

For the big majority of us, the last seems to be the least doable.

In the academic circles, a germ of a book or other is incubating in every other teacher’s mind. So it must be in the blogging world. More so among the literati – the poets, the short story writers, the novelists -- many of whom have a ready manuscript or two waiting for a publisher to release them to the reading public.

Frustration seems to be the lot of many an unknown book author-wannabe. They don’t have names that remotely sound like F. Sionil Jose, Jessica Zafra, Gilda Cordero Fernando, Bob Ong. Without established names such as these, they would be hard pressed to convince Anvil, Power Books, New Day or National or even lesser-known publishers to invest in their work. Many writers have consequently opted to self-publish, doing for themselves the often tedious chore of promoting and selling their books by word of mouth or online through blogs and social media networks.

That was then.

But times, they are a-changing.

Writing a book can now be as easy as planting a tree, perhaps easier than begetting a child.

That thought, somewhat inane though it may be, was what kept running in my mind during last Thursday’s soft launch of Vibe , the first electronic book store in the country.

The Vibal vision

Vibe is a project of Vibal Foundation, the social outreach arm of Vibal Publishing House, a leading publisher of textbooks in the country.

Three years ago, Vibal Foundation ventured into e-magazine publishing, a pioneering effort which gifted us with Philippine Online Chronicles, courtesy of which you are now reading this article. In its quest to raise the level of education and cultural awareness among Filipinos, Vibal went on to blaze other digital trails such as e-turo (an online repository of teaching and learning tools), Filipiniana.net (a digital library providing access to rare, unpublished and out-of-print books, documents, and other materials on the Philippines), and Wiki Pilipinas, the local version of Wikipedia.

It would be just a matter of time before Vibal’s visionary spirit would take it to e-publishing and e-book selling as it put up Vee Press (for e-publishing) and Vibe (for e-book marketing).

Richer reading experience

Vibe’s slogan is: "READ. NO LIMITS." With any e-reading device – PCs, laptops, Android devices, iPhones and iPads – Filipinos can download a mind-boggling number and array of reading materials from the Vibe bookshelves. Textbooks and children’s books for the young readers. Romance stories, science fiction, college textbooks and reference books for the older readers. Books on history, culture, arts, poetry, philosophy, humor. No limits! At a fraction of what ink-and-paper books sell for.

The Vibe reading experience is touted to have no limits too. “Interactive” does not fully describe it. Touch a photo on a page and it virtually comes to life, with motion and sounds. Press on a link and it will take you to other web resources on the topic. Textbooks are embedded with objects that enhance the learning experience and make it fun: animated springboards, compelling images and videos, contextual audio clips, study tips and self-scoring quizzes.

Publishing at a new level

Vibe’s other slogan is: "PUBLISH. NO LIMITS." And this is the one that will make your eyes twinkle, if you are an author or publisher.

An publisher or author can publish, through Vibe and Vee Press, books in solely electronic form, completely foregoing the cost of production and distribution.

That means, according to Kristine Mandigma of Vibal Foundation who conducted the briefing during the Vibe soft launch at Filipinas Heritage Library, that manuscripts can be uploaded free of charge to the Vibes "book shelves" and are then sold. The authors/publishers dictate the selling price and get 70 per cent of the sales revenues. The Vibe system enables them to monitor sales of copies online.

Local publishers can also easily upload their books in ePUB or PDF format to Vibe and release them to the public through the e-bookstore. Text book publishers will also be able to sell tablets with interactive textbooks directly to schools with their content already pre-loaded in a secure and traceable manner.

If an author-publisher’s idea of a book is stubbornly ink-on-paper, Vibe can simultaneously launch print and e- book versions. Vibe can also print on demand, the same way Central Books does. (Terms for hard printing of books were not discussed during the launch, though.)

The e-edge

Remember, however, that the e-version is the one that can be made immediately available virtually to the whole world – wherever there is an internet connection and a mobile phone signal. (This is why Filipinos abroad are considered another major market.) It is also the version that can be substantially reduced in price, reckoning savings on paper, printing, distribution and marketing.

And think about this too: E-books never run out of stock, are accessed instantly (your readers need not run to the bookstores to get them), and have been made with no trees being felled. And when you make the inevitable mistake as author -- whether in spelling, grammar or fact -- the error won’t haunt you like a 50-year mortgage, since you can upload a corrected version any time. No sweat. No limits.

E-books will take us, Pinoys to the future of paperless (which can mean less paper) classrooms, offices, and homes. It is the future that Vibe -- and other organizations and companies that follow its cue -- will soon fast-track us into.

(To get to know more about Vibe, visit www.vibebookstore.com or email at info@vibebookstore.com .)

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