‘Open’ Textbooks Provider Flat World Secures Bertelsmann Investment

paidContent: "Germany’s Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments is leading a $15 million investment in to New York-based Flat World Knowledge, which gives away college textbooks for free online but charges for printed versions ... The company has an 'open textbook' model that echoes the predominant split in news publishing—entire books online for free, but revenue generation through pay-for print books, e-books for iPad and Kindle, audio books, PDF downloads and interactive study aids. The company says over 1,600 professors and over 900 colleges have used its texts, although it doesn’t provide a revenue figure. ... "

Behold, It Lives! Frankentext!

Flat World Knowledge co-founder Eric Frank:

There’s nothing like a dissatisfied market to create opportunity for new players and new models. Imagine, if you will, a cottage with a sign on the door in big letters that reads, “OPEN.” An Old Man in dark glasses, who looks suspiciously like Gene Hackman, motions Frankentext inside and offers him a bowl of hot soup. The Monster sits down and picks up a book. It seems like any other commercial textbook — professionally developed, peer-reviewed, and written by a renowned scholar. But something is different. Most startling, the book costs 80% less than a traditional textbook.

Frankentext looks inside. Instead of a copyright “All rights reserved” notice, he sees a funny symbol, “This work is licensed under a Creative Commons license.”

The Old Man explains:

“This is an open textbook, published by Flat World Knowledge, my son. It’s a new model that lets professors choose the book, and students choose the format and price. Flat World is not a publisher of online books. They are an open textbook publisher which automatically publishes books in multiple, low-cost formats. ... "

Publishers/Colleges Partner in New Digital Textbook Paradigm

The evolving market model described in this piece from The Chronicle of Higher Education makes complete sense, and will spell the death of organizations - such as Barnes & Noble's Wholesale/College Division (founded by my late father-in-law, by the way) - which have dominated the college text business for decades.

[Publishing] companies and college leaders are ... saying that e-textbooks should be required reading and that colleges should be the ones charging for them. It is the best way to control skyrocketing costs and may actually save the textbook industry from digital piracy, they claim. Major players like the McGraw-Hill Companies, Pearson, and John Wiley & Sons are getting involved. ...

Here's the new plan: Colleges require students to pay a course-materials fee, which would be used to buy e-books for all of them (whatever text the professor recommends, just as in the old model).

Why electronic copies? Well, they're far cheaper to produce than printed texts, making a bulk purchase more feasible. By ordering books by the hundreds or thousands, colleges can negotiate a much better rate than students were able to get on their own, even for used books. And publishers could eliminate the used-book market and reduce incentives for students to illegally download copies as well. ...

An Indiana company called Courseload hopes to make the model more widespread, by serving as a broker for colleges willing to impose the requirement on students. And it is not alone. The upstart publisher Flat World Knowledge recently made a bulk deal with Virginia State University's business school, and last month the company hired a new salesperson devoted entirely to "institutional sales" of its e-textbooks. And Daytona State College, in Florida, is negotiating with publishers to test a similar arrangement. ...

Eric Frank, Founder/CEO of Flat World Knowledge, Talks About The Future of the Textbook

Dianna Dilworth, eBookNewser: "Flat World Knowledge, a publisher of openly-licensed college textbooks has doubled its business this year. This semester, the company is selling books on more than 800 college campuses, up from 400 last fall. EbookNewser caught up with Eric Frank, founder/CEO of Flat World Knowledge to discuss how the textbook business is evolving. ..."