Five Steps to Digital Publishing

While simple to describe, these steps are not as simple to administer and implement. But when your implementation is built around a system like QuickStart, the structure it gives you will simplify the process immensely.

And your investments in staff time and training are secure, since they become embedded in and reflected by your system.

1. Organize your assets

At the most basic level, publisher “assets” are physical books stored in warehouses. Traditional assets also include author contracts, international rights agreements for content, and sales agreements. In the digital world, the definition of “asset” becomes broader, extending to the content of the work, and encompassing both digital formats of printed works as well as the components of those works, such as images and illustrations, which may be covered by rights agreements separate from those pertaining to the books themselves. All assets, including author manuscripts in Word, ancilliary materials in PDF as well as the e-files (XML, epub, PDF) relating to the books themselves, may be securely stored on your QuickStart site.

2. Make an inventory

Inventory = Metadata. The significance of “metadata” in the process of digital publishing cannot be overstated.  Descriptive metadata has always been a part of the book distribution business. Publishers use ONIX to send data to the book retail channels, and libraries use MARC to describe their holdings and communicate externally. The difference in the digital world is that metadata must contain new fields for description of digital formats and rights. It must also be linked with digital assets in a way that book metadata is not (cannot be) linked with printed works. These differences argue for new approaches in the treatment of metadata.

More on metadata…

3. Render books in several digital file formats

Most publishers have PDF and InDesign files for their books. And PDF is a good start for entering digital channels, since many distributors will accept PDF as an input medium. But the ePUB format is becoming a standard for handheld devices, and so ePUB needs to be created by publishers seeking to serve those channels. Other formats, such as XML and POD, will be needed for other purposes.

More on file conversion…

4. Maintain a repository for those files/assets

Having created multiple file formats for titles, a system is needed to manage these. While this may be a simple PC-based file management system, there are additional features needed for managing both the files on the system and the transactions that will be made with them. QuickStart is the repository.

5. Add marketing channels

There are dozens of ebook distribution channels. In addition to the major booksellers, all of whom now have ebook distribution arms, there are distributors serving specialized markets like libraries, schools, cellphone users, and others. To enter these channels, publishers need to establish relationships with each distributor which will allow for the transfer of rights and funds, as well as for the delivery of digital assets to the distributors. 

Once you have entered an agreement with a distributor, you will be provided with account-specific passwords and logins to your site. You will enter these in the QuickStart administration module once, and then be instantly ready to deliver your selected e-formats to that distributor.