The publishing industry is not generally known for being
agile or quick to change, yet it is facing one of its biggest times of change probably
since the invention of the printing press. At the heart of this is the migration
to digital.
Prior to this migration, a time-tested process and structure
existed for getting books printed: from acquisition, to copyedit, to
typesetting, to author review and proofreading, to print. Although hiccups
occurred and no two companies had the exact same workflow, the foundations were
the same and ensured quality products got released in expected timeframes.
With digital—whether it’s online or e-book, digital only or
both print and digital—publishers are now faced with more questions than
answers as to how to incorporate the new with the old. Below I provide a
framework for those questions, using the traditional 6 Ws: why, who, what,
when, which, and where.
Why?
Of the six questions, this is the easiest to answer. No
publisher can afford to ignore the digital any longer: the tipping point has come and gone; more and
more e-books and e-readers are being sold weekly; and authors will begin
demanding this, if they haven’t already. And traditional publishers need to
offer all things digital to compete with the emerging “digital publishers.”
Who?
Even prior to the migration to digital, publishers would do
one of two things to keep costs down: outsource as much as possible, keeping
headcount down, or the reverse, which is hire talent to keep all services and
costs internal. With digital, publishers have to make this decision anew.
Should they invest in new talent from other industries (e.g., technology) or
educating existing talent, those who are eager to learn and have a background
in publishing and in their culture? Or should they turn to one of the many
conversion and content solutions providers that exist in the market?
What?
What exactly is a digital product, or more specifically an
e-book? Is it a replica of the print product or something that only starts from
there and then adds interactive media? How much new content should be added to
the digital product for consumers to choose that over the print product? Are
they competing against each other and is there a way to bundle them? And what is
actually a value-ad as opposed to bells-and-whistles that are more of a
distracter and deterrent? Also, should publishers focus on frontlist alone or
backlist too? How much of either or both?
And what should the price be for this digital product? If
it’s a replica of the print, should it be cheaper given that there are no PPB
(paper, printing, and binding) costs? Is this a reason to add new and/or
interactive content to justify increased price points?
When?
Whatever the ultimate digital product, when should it be
prepared and released? Should the publisher work in an xml-first environment
and then from there publish across platforms, either simultaneously or at
whatever schedule decided on? Is there a reason to do print first and then
digital next? How long can a publisher hold off on releasing an e-book so as
not to affect print sales?
Part of this question, and also continuation of the “who” and
“what” question, is quality control. In the current process, we have production
editors, copyeditors, and proofreaders, all with defined skills and quality
checks they are responsible for. In this new digital workflow, publishers need
to decide who is responsible for digital QC (internal vs external staff), what
are they responsible for (proofreading the entire text to ensure conversion
didn’t introduce errors or just flipping through pages on e-readers to ensure
no major formatting problems were introduced), and when is this to be done
(hopefully prior to release and not after complaints come in).
Which?
Which formats will e-books be made available in and which
e-readers will they be targeting? Currently you can probably focus on a few
(Kindle, Nook, and Sony) but many more are emerging. Which will you continue to focus on or will
you try to be accessible to all?
Where?
First off, where should digital and other content be stored?
Hopefully a CMS (content management system) of some sort exists and can act as
both an archive and an enabler of updates and reprints. If one does not exist,
an archive of some sort—whether on a network drive, in the cloud, or via a
third-party provider—is vital.
And where are these digital products sold through? Does the
publisher have an e-commerce branch of their website with the technical support
needed to sell their own e-books? Do they not want to bother and instead use
distributors? Someone will need to ensure that the proper formats, metadata,
and uploads are prepared for each of these distributors and updated as
necessary.
As the above demonstrates, there is a lot for the publisher
to consider before it can migrate to digital but to be done right, these
questions and others need to be thought through before investments are made.
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