Articles by publishing professionals
Disruption, upheaval, explosive, in transition—all of these words apply to the publishing business today as never before. But why? What’s changed? Why has self-publishing become such a big deal in such a short time? It seems to me, after thirty-five years as an author and editor in the book and magazine business, that three things have happened:
While outsourcing can be a valuable method to manage costs, the need for staff, and the flow of titles, it can also have some negative effects. We risk losing our expertise in producing books. We can become sloppy, because our mistakes do not “cost” us anything. Outsourcing may allow us to maintain poor habits (and possibly lose our competitive edge). This may lead to a loss of functionality in our books. However, working with vendors can be profitable.
Work with your vendor to develop book designs
Indexes are important components of publications. Indexers create indexes to help people access the material being indexed. An index is ancillary to the primary content of the authored work, whatever form that primary content takes (e.g., book, journal or newspaper article, website, blog, newsletter). As such, we must remember that the index is metadata. Indexes are exceptionally helpful in giving people access to the content of books, journals, and so forth; while publishers consider them valuable
The publishing industry seems to be confused about metadata. Metadata is commonly perceived as ancillary information necessary for marketing and distributing books. Consider ONIX (Online Information Exchange) for Books, for example, which, according to the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), is “the international standard for representing and communicating book industry product information in electronic form.” Publishers provide ONIX data about their titles because it facilitates book sales. From this
Since the inception of our digital publishing efforts at the University of Minnesota Press, the work of making and selling ebooks has added to our traditional editorial, production, and marketing processes.
We have sought to alter our workflow and find digital tools to make the publishing process more efficient. Our thinking has shifted from a print-centric mindset, to book-in-many-formats mindset. In January 2013 we began looking for a vendor partner with the tools that would unify the manuscript
Often, I hear people belittling e-books. These people, of course, prefer “real” books.
Please understand, I too love books. I read to expand my understanding of things, improve Scribe or my relationships with others, gain new insights, be inspired, or enter worlds that are beyond my physical reach. Quite literally, I owe my life to books. And getting lost in a book is one of my favorite activities.
As much as I love to be surrounded by bound volumes in my personal library, I realize that the form
My colleagues and I at the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) Press are charged with publishing forty book titles and one quarterly journal per year. Our mission to foster biblical scholarship, in addition, means responding to the needs of our eight thousand members worldwide. So, answering the call for more e-books, open-access content, e-content for course packs, and online reference works was an exigency.
But how does a publishing staff of a mere five
The Association of American University Presses (AAUP) convened their annual conference in Boston, June 20–22, 2013. As always, the program offered stimulating plenary and panel sessions, lots of informal conversations, and plenty to think about as we said au revoir.
It is always helpful to pay attention to events and conversations taking place throughout the publishing industry. While listening to these conversations, it is important to check both the accuracy of the information and how it squares