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Author Archive
It was the first quarter of 2009. We were interviewing 
service providers to create our report on “Offshoring in the Publishing Vertical, 2009“. One such interview has left a lasting impression on us. Not because the company was unique in its offerings. Not because the person we were talking to was exceptionally eloquent. But because of one statement that was a commentary on the things to come -
In the recent months, we have been studying the effect of the digital market on the publishing industry. Across segments and geographies, publishers are experiencing challenges centered on costs, resources and technology that have made it necessary for them to re-invent their business models.
Of the 200+ publishing professionals we 
interviewed, we found that close to 4 in 5 publishers are either outsourcing or considering outsourcing publishing services. So, if the whole industry is pretty much outsourcing technology, back office processes and industry specific publishing services, why is it still taboo? Perhaps some context would help.
Continue reading ‘Why is the outsourcing of publishing services still taboo?’ »
Commented a respondent of our survey on ‘The Current State of Digital Content’. So, how are things shaping up for digital formats, does everyone in the publishing industry feel the same way? Read on.
Changing the ‘format’ of content
The publishing industry has progressively been going digital. While selling digital content
is recent, publishers have used digital production techniques/processes that are reliable, stable and efficient. Such processes, however, ended mostly in the creation of PDFs – that doubled as print ready files and/or a product that was to be sold digitally.
Continue reading ‘Device specific formats are horrible to support, and I hope they die!’ »
In August 2010, the attorney-general’s office in Connecticut, US began investigating pricing of digital content by Amazon and Apple – expressing concern over pricing agreements with publishers and its possible implications on consumers. The attorney-general’s office went on to find identical prices for titles distributed by Amazon, Apple, Borders and Barnes & Noble. So, what’s the deal with e-book pricing?
How do publishers price their digital content?
On Monday, the 19th of November 2007, Amazon released its first generation Kindle – an event that shaped the digital market. Since then, large corporations such as Sony, Barnes and Noble, Google, and more recently Apple, have been giving the digital content market significant attention – adding credibility and more so, validating the digital market as a strong revenue source. It is this potential that is transforming the publishing industry today.
In the last few years, the publishing industry witnessed tremendous change – a change that centred around revenue and cost challenges. For publishers, the digital market presented a holistic solution – one that opened a channel of revenue with non-linear growth, while ensuring minimal costs of production & sales. Publishers worldwide are either producing digital content or are considering it as a service area.
Continue reading ‘Survey: The Current State of Digital Content’ »
A few days ago, Seth Godin, marketing guru and best selling author, decided to part ways with his publisher, Portfolio, to self-publish. So, why did Seth decide to self-publish? And more importantly, how much money does he stand to make?
So, why did Seth decide to self-publish?
Continue reading ‘How much will Seth Godin earn by self-publishing?’ »
A question that has been playing on my mind for sometime. Authors and writers have depended on publishers for production, printing, distribution, marketing and promotion of their content. However, the rise of the digital market is challenging the traditional author-publisher relationship.
The traditional relationship between authors and publishers centered on the capital outlay required to create, print and sell books. Publishers would provide authors with advances, bear the expenses of producing, printing, distributing, marketing and promoting the books. Proceeds from the sales of the book were largely the publisher’s and a portion of it goes to the author as royalty. The value of the publisher, thus, centered on printing and selling the books.
Google has the answer to a lot of questions we ask. And looks like it has the answer to this one too.
The company has been trying to digitize books through its Google Books initiative for a few years now, so it is surprising that they didn’t answer this question at the outset.
How did they do it?
Continue reading ‘Google this: Number of books in the world’ »
Digital is a place everyone seems to be going. Since Gutenberg’s modern press, printing presses across the world have churned out copious amounts of content (estimates suggest printing revenues to be in excess of $ 1 trillion). To digitize all of it is a Herculean effort.
A few days ago, I came across an interesting write-up on the top 50 publishers across the world. The list, compiled by Rudiger Wischenbart, provides great insight on how the world’s biggest publishers performed in FY09.
All charts are based on aforementioned list.
Continue reading ‘The top 50 publishers: How they fared in 2009’ »
