Scribe: The Source For E-book Development

By David Alan Rech of Scribe Inc.

Published

The advent of Amazon Kindle, Amazon's wireless reading device, has rekindled publisher interest in e-book development. While sales for e-books have been marginal thus far, developing e-books can dramatically impact your company on multiple fronts.

Most importantly, e-books present an opportunity to update your publishing process, which affects your entire operation.

Workflow—Many publishers overlook the fact that the same processes that enable publishers to create traditional print books in an efficient manner also allow publishers to create e-books (the Well-Formed Document Workflow). In fact, when done correctly, multipurpose publishing can be achieved at a cost equal to or lower than traditional publishing.

Design—E-books often include tables, images, and other elements that have different design requirements than do print versions. Successful multipurpose publishers address the diverse design requirements of all types of publications before embarking on the production of the original material. Often, the solutions are so elegant and efficient that they not only work within all publications, but also they achieve a more contemporary aesthetic.

Market penetration—When you publish in multiple formats, you position your company to reach a larger audience. Surprisingly, offering customers electronic editions of publications often leads to increased sales of the print versions. You realize the best of both worlds: you generate new revenue through the sale of the electronic products, and the presence of these very products acts as free advertizing for the print products.

Things you should know:

It's just as important to create brand recognition (or imprint identification) within e-books as it is for traditional print products. While it's harder to control the appearance of texts, well-designed and efficiently constructed e-book versions connect readers to your company.

This is the right time to take advantage of e-book technology. Each type of e-book platform has unique features and formats to consider. Creating a generic e-book may seem to save money, but poorly constructed e-books do not enhance the user experience. When implemented correctly, adding certain features to e-books can be the critical difference between a customer just looking at your book and that customer actually purchasing your content. Incorporating those features contributes minimally to the cost per unit. To learn more about e-book versions, please visit our Web site.

E-books must be internally attractive and consistent. An irregular, hard-to-read e-book does not create customer loyalty, nor does it give you the ability to brand your imprint.

Keep your content consistent across publications. You never know how you might use your titles, or how you may repurpose them. If you have your list structured in a consistent fashion, you can use it in unlimited ways. If it's converted in an inconsistent, ad hoc, manner, you will be limited in your choices, plus the cost of conversion will increase unbearably.

If you need assistance in developing an e-book strategy, or converting individual titles, Scribe is the company with the knowledge and experience to collaborate with you. Whatever your needs, you can count on Scribe.

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