For two years the electronic version of the book Day and Eternity of James Mace from Den’s Library has been sold at the world’s most popular Internet service Amazon.com. Moreover, it is highly assessed by the purchasers. Today’s rating of James Mace’s book is 4.5 points out of 5 possible. “This brilliant research of the period in the history of Ukraine known as Holodomor was carried out by the outstanding contemporary historian James Mace. An American by origin, but a Ukrainian by spirit, he lived and worked for the last years of his life in Ukraine,” writes one of the users of Amazon.com Mykhailo Ladkovych in his review of the book.
The readers should know that Amazon.com is one of the greatest online merchants in the world. The company has offices in the US, Japan, Germany, Australia, Brazil, India, Great Britain, China, and Holland.
Amazon.com was one of the first companies that offered to buy goods via the Internet. By this, created in July 1994 by American businessman Jeffrey Bezos, the service practically “ruined the borders” of everyday life.
There is an interesting detail. Amazon.com started with selling of a book. Today you can buy over 30 categories of goods on the website: household appliances, electronics, goods for sport and recreation, goods for children, household goods, and even food products.
Ukrainian goods are as well available on Amazon.com. Those are mostly souvenirs: candies, painted eggs (pysankas), smoking pipes, adornments, embroidered shirts, T-shirts and sweatshirts with authentic prints. There are Ukrainian books, not many though. For the most part, those are fiction books or specialized literature. Unfortunately, the books that could be ascribed to the category “quality Ukrainian opinion journalism” are practically missing. The only exception is Den’s book, Day and Eternity of James Mace. High-quality opinion journalism, available in various formats and various languages, is by far the best instrument of Ukrainian intellectual expansion in the world that we so much need today. For, like the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Larysa Ivshyna noted in the foreword to the new Den’s book, Ukraine Incognita. TOP 25, “Ukraine has become the biggest geographic discovery of the 21st century.”
“We have long ago set an aim before ourselves to penetrate the niches where Den is not present yet. One of them is electronic books. Therefore we decided to digitalize the books from Den’s Library so that it was convenient to read them anywhere at any time,” says the head of Den’s department of program-technical services, Mykhailo SKURATIVSKY. So, the newspaper has digitalized the book and sent it to Amazon in PDF. And the employees of the Internet service made the publication available in all formats of e-books. The Ukrainian version was sent as well. “But the company at that time was unable to digitize it. Therefore we are working on it independently. Today the technical progress makes it possible to do this,” Skurativsky explains. Apart from that, the book can be downloaded in audio format in English.
The editor-in-chief of Den/The Day Larysa Ivshyna, after she found out how successful Day and Eternity of James Mace is on Amazon, gave directions to digitalize the English, Russian, and Ukrainian versions of this year’s Ukraine Incognita. TOP 25. So, in the nearest months they will be available on the website in digital form. “Besides, the book will be available on the website of the newspaper, and probably we will place it on the websites of bookshops,” Skurativsky added.
Spreading of quality Ukrainian things in all possible formats is one of the main mottos of Den. And the format of electronic books is one of the best versions today for intellectual expansion not only in the world, but also in Ukraine. For, regrettably, Ukrainians read very little these days (according to the survey held by Research & Branding Group, only half of Ukrainian population reads up to five books year) namely because books are expensive and the purchasing capabilities of the population are low.
Since e-books are much cheaper, their popularity is growing in Ukraine.
“Lately the number of Ukrainians who have started to read books in digital form in Ukraine is considerably growing. There would have been much more of them if it were easier to agree with publishers on digitalizing of the content,” says the co-founder of the project “Cassiopeia – a constellation of Ukrainian books,” deputy dean of the informatics department of the National University “Kyiv Mohyla Academy” Andrii Afonin. He says that this is the very reason why there is practically no market of electronic books in Ukraine. “It is only in the making, and it should be formed, developed, and even somewhat imposed on people. There is no culture of electronic products and their purchase. But anyway it is the thing of the future. And the projects that are developing in the world at the moment and continue to develop in Ukraine show quite a good tendency for development of electronic book,” Andrii Afonin explains.
Of course, electronic books are much cheaper; it is simpler to read them on the go or in transport. Besides, you can always keep the e-book reader with you: it is lighter and smaller than many printed books. “Moreover, judging by the latest trends on the book market, electronic books are practically the only way to increase the number of readers, from the point of view of reducing the cost of reading for average consumers,” adds the co-founder of the project “Cassiopeia – a constellation of Ukrainian books.” He is also sure that digitalizing of books gives one an opportunity to provide libraries with a needed number of books. “An electronic book does not depend on pressrun, and a library can have access to practically an unlimited number of books in digital format and satisfy the demand of everyone willing,” says Andrii Afonin.
He explains that the publishers fear the most that they will suffer great losses connected with releases of electronic books. “They are afraid that the sales of printed versions will drop down, and electronic version will be stolen and spread in free access, and that printed books will not be sold because of this, etc.,” he says. However, to avoid such problems, one should implement technologies of data protection on the Internet. For Andrii Afonin emphasizes, the US and Europe have a very strong legislative base and severe punishment for so-called “pirates.” Ukraine should take care of this as well.
Oleksandr AFONIN, president of Ukrainian Association of Publishers and Book Distributors: “In my opinion the new project of Den is very promising. It is only a question of time when we manage to reduce the market of illegal electronic books. But the market is developing, maybe not as fast as we would like it to develop. But I’m sure that Den’s electronic books are a step in the right direction.”
