The Role of Technology in Digital Publishing
Over the past two decades, the publishing industry has seen disruptive changes. This change has been primarily driven by the evolution of digital books or eBooks as they are commonly called. From rocket eBook reader in 1998 to the ever-popular Amazon Kindle readers first launched in 2007, the dedicated reading devices have evolved tremendously. And so has the eBook standards from the OEB (Open eBook standard) to the current day ePUB3 and KF8.
While the eBook industry is steadily moving from ePUB2 standards to ePUB3 and from Mobi to KF8, for many publishers, digital publishing remains an alien planet. Many just wait for the technology to mature before investing, others remain confused about how they can take advantage of the rich opportunities that are available in digital publishing.
To simplify, technology in an eBook or digital publishing business can be broken down into three components – content, devices, and platforms. In order to create a successful eBook business, a publisher needs to understand and leverage all the three components simultaneously.
1. Content Is The King:
At FutureBook 2014, keynote speaker George Berkowski said publishers need to focus on entertainment and media companies as real competitors. To quote him: “You are not in the same industry, but the people who are reading Fifty Shades of Grey and The Hunger Games are the same people who sat on the tube reading BuzzFeed every day. You have got to figure out who your competitors are.
They are not the big five. They are not independent publishers. They are the people trying to get people’s attention and doing it in a flashy way, with whizzbang and candy floating over your screen.” And this is not something a publisher can put on the back-burner.
The education publishing market is changing rapidly, with a lot of emphasis on dynamic content. Kids now have more access to digital devices and resources and they demand content that is more interactive. In fact, 74% of teachers say, education technology is a student motivator. Teachers are ready to embrace learning technologies to boost student learning outcomes. They already supplement educational books with digital content including podcasts, YouTube videos and much more.