The Business of Digital Publishing

The Business of Digital Publishing

by Frania Hall
Released June 2013
Publisher(s): Routledge
ISBN: 9781135075880

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Book description

Responding to the growth of digital products and the commercial imperative to build new digital businesses, The Business of Digital Publishing offers a comprehensive introduction to the development of digital products in the book and journal industries.

This textbook provides background to the main technological development that have influenced the growth of digital publishing, introducing students to the key terms and concepts that make digital publishing possible.

Exploring four key publishing sectors: professional reference, academic, education and consumer, this book explains the context for the digital developments in each area and looks at the growth of new business models and the future challenges faced by each sector.

It also addresses the key issues that face the industry as a whole, outlining current debates, such as pricing and copyright, and exploring their impact on the industry through relevant case studies.

The Business of Digital Publishing is an invaluable resource for any publishing student looking for a starting point from which to explore the world of digital publishing.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half Title
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Dedication
  6. Table of Contents
  7. List of illustrations
  8. Acknowledgements
  9. Introduction
  10. Part I: Technology context for digital publishing
    1. Introduction to Part I
      1. A framework for the growth of digitisation in publishing
    2. 1. Developments towards digital production
      1. Introduction
      2. Developments towards digital publishing
      3. Technological developments towards digital printing
      4. Changing production processes and workflow
      5. Data warehouses and data asset management systems
      6. Conclusion: changing publishing structures
    3. 2. Structure for data
      1. Introduction
      2. Tagging, mark-up and the growth of XML
      3. Imposing a format
      4. Metadata: data about data
      5. Case study: The importance of metadata for discoverability
      6. Taxonomies and schemas: organising metadata
      7. RDF: dealing with different types of data
      8. Topic maps
      9. Other key developments and frameworks for structured data
      10. Managing rights and digital rights management
      11. Conclusion: continuing advances
    4. 3. Working with the web
      1. Introduction
      2. The web and HTML
      3. HTML5
      4. Web 2.0 and social networking
      5. The semantic web
      6. Linked data
      7. Conclusion: the more flexible web
    5. 4. Organising and storing content
      1. Introduction
      2. Information architecture
      3. The process
      4. Content management
      5. Some considerations for CMS
      6. Enterprise content management
      7. Knowledge management and storage issues
      8. Conclusion: CMS development driving opportunities
    6. 5. The context for ebook formats and e-readers
      1. Introduction
      2. The development of ebook formats
      3. The development of e-readers
      4. Tablets and the new readership
      5. Conclusion: the changing view of the book
    7. Conclusion to Part I
      1. Further reading and resources
      2. Questions to consider
  11. Part II: Publishing sectors
    1. 6. Developments in digital professional reference publishing
      1. Introduction
      2. The benefits of digital publishing for reference
      3. Early developments in specialist reference
      4. The early electronic products: CD-ROMs
      5. Problems with CD-ROMs
      6. Database products
      7. Infrastructure requirements and organisational change
      8. The data asset
      9. Migration issues as digital products are developed
      10. Changing relationships with customers in the specialist sector
      11. Ongoing product development
      12. Pricing and sales models
      13. Future developments
      14. Case study: The White Book
      15. Conclusion
      16. Further reading and resources
      17. Questions to consider
    2. 7. Developments in digital publishing for the academic market
      1. Introduction
      2. Context: the research environment
      3. Scholarly research customers
      4. Peer review and the role of publishers
      5. Who owns the research?
      6. The publishing dilemma
      7. The development of digital products
      8. The early development of new digital products
      9. What current digital products look like and the challenges they face
      10. The challenges for digital journals
      11. The monograph: the scholarly publisher’s next challenge
      12. Future directions: problems and opportunities
      13. Conclusion
      14. Further reading and resources
      15. Questions to consider
    3. 8. Developments in digital publishing in the education market
      1. Introduction
      2. Context: introduction to the textbook market
      3. Characteristics of the schools market for publishing
      4. Digital products for schools
      5. Higher education and e-learning
      6. The development of the e-textbook for schools and the HE market
      7. Future developments for educational publishers
      8. Case study: The development of tablets and Apple’s iBook textbook
      9. Other future directions
      10. Conclusion
      11. Further reading and resources
      12. Questions to consider
    4. 9. Developments in digital publishing for consumer markets
      1. Introduction
      2. Development of ebook sales
      3. Case study: Early initiatives
      4. The ebook business model
      5. Case study: Providing customer choice
      6. Other digital products
      7. The impact of digital publishing on the wider consumer environment
      8. Futurising the book
      9. Conclusion
      10. Further reading and resources
      11. Questions to consider
  12. Part III: Digital publishing issues
    1. Introduction to Part III
    2. 10. Copyright, piracy and other legal issues
      1. Introduction
      2. Copyright
      3. Copyright infringement
      4. Case study: Google and copyright infringement in mass digitisation programmes
      5. Piracy
      6. Digital legislation
      7. Conclusion
      8. Further reading and resources
      9. Questions to consider
    3. 11. Rights sales and new digital publishing opportunities
      1. Introduction
      2. The drive to global digital rights
      3. The challenges of digital products when selling rights
      4. Planning the deal: what do rights people have to bear in mind?
      5. Conclusion
      6. Further reading and resources
      7. Questions to consider
    4. 12. The pricing dilemma
      1. Introduction
      2. Traditional pricing models
      3. New digital format and customer perceptions
      4. Discounts and intermediaries’ effect on pricing
      5. Internet retailers and the price of digital books
      6. Pressure to price low
      7. Case study: The wholesale vs agency pricing debate
      8. New ways of buying
      9. The effects for authors
      10. Conclusion
      11. Further reading and resources
      12. Questions to consider
    5. 13. Content and the new market players
      1. Introduction
      2. New content players
      3. Self-publishing
      4. Finding content: harnessing the power of the crowd
      5. The agents
      6. Threat from big name authors
      7. Case study: Odyssey editions
      8. Conclusion
      9. Further reading and resources
      10. Questions to consider
    6. 14. Futurising publishing structures
      1. Introduction
      2. The changing value chain
      3. Reorganising publishing structures in the specialist sectors
      4. Predicting change in trade publishing
      5. Conclusion
      6. Further reading and resources
      7. Questions to consider
  13. Final word
  14. Index

Product information

  • Title: The Business of Digital Publishing
  • Author(s): Frania Hall
  • Release date: June 2013
  • Publisher(s): Routledge
  • ISBN: 9781135075880