E-books have been revolutionising all publishing sectors, and the scholarly publishing is no exception. The article attempts to evaluate how the electronic publishing and e-books have been progressing among the scholarly publishers in Malaysia, particularly in the tertiary education market.
For almost a decade or so, scholarly publishers in Malaysia have been trying to figure out ways to capitalise the rise of e-books.
But the struggle has been real, with several factors hindering their progress. Some of these include challenges in identifying optimised formats, executing the right pricing strategy, exerting control on the e-book size, encrypting the digitalised contents, and getting the e-books out to worldwide users.
The situation is about to take an optimistic turn in 2012. On 4-5 December 2012, the inaugural ASEAN Ebook Conference was held in Kuala Lumpur, garnering participants from Malaysia and neighbouring countries including Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
The two-day event was co-organised by the National Book Council of Malaysia (MBKM) and the Malaysian Book Publishers Association (MABOPA), taking place at Vistana Hotel Kuala Lumpur.