Digital Publishing: The Next Big Deal in Publishing Industry

Books and publishing ecosystem has undertaken a change, of course, owing to the advent of e-books as an effective substitute to physical formats, making literature more verbose and portable. E-books have found preference amongst the younger generation, which can be contributed to its versatility and even the corporate arena, alongside the educational system is taking the in new digital format. The exponential growth has transpired due to factors such as digital boom; low production cost, nominal investments, and decreased storage costs while covering a larger base in an efficient manner.

Publications are reinventing their methods since an increasing number of their readers have been opting to go online for consumption of books. This move has motivated traditional publication houses to make their foray into digital for visibility and profits. Similarly, digital books continue to gain the larger part of market share, accountable at 8% to10% of revenue for some major publishing firms.

Growth in measures

Of late, the e-publishing market has been augmented by a series of technological progressions. The use of portable devices and personalised machines, alongside assimilation of interface with high-speed connectivity, has grown exponentially with the advent of time. The variety of lightweight and user-conducive e-book readers on handheld devices - developed in a way to mimic the feel of a regular book- has eased the mass into accepting the benefits of eBooks.

Mr.Apurva Ashar , Executive Director, ePUB-Hub

Piracy and copyright issues

For e-publication to be prevalently accepted, the discrepancies of piracy and copyright need to be regulated. The internet is a hub of highly dubious materials; plagiarism and copyright violation are unbridled threats faced by the authors, on a daily basis. Books uploaded on the internet often have multiple copies, with online hackers coming up with sophisticated ways to create spurious clone content. Also, free sharing is a big issue with authors and publishers losing revenue in the process. Steps such as login based access, IP-based access, and third-party access modes that are well in place that successfully curb illegal e-book download.

Publishers promoting eBooks

There’s a new pattern that is slowly gathering appeal amongst the publishing circle. By using it as a yardstick to test the market before going to press, publishers are more interested to e-publish their books initially. This economical strategy helps the publishers determine first-hand responses to the book and proceed further, saving a lot of expenditure on printing and advertisement. With e-books, publishers are coming up with innovative ways to increase revenue through sponsored links, in-book advertising, add-on applications, and e-book subscriptions.

Endorsement by authors

Authors are hesitant of exploring this faction, due to the involvement of piracy and copyright issues. While the benefits of reaching out to an intrinsic audience are alluring enough, it is more often used as an extension to the print version of a book, not just a separate means of publishing. Recently, multitude of small/medium/big-time authors and experts are coming up with e-books that range from the most light-hearted to highly technical topics. Also, decrease in publication time adds to quick relevance in regards to the success of the book.

The road from here

As predicted by all major publishing houses and their usage trends, organisations are enhancing their hosting and publications solutions to provide better results. Advanced interactivity, incorporation of audio books, word meanings and pronunciations, references, quick translations and easy search are just some of the features that would enhance comprehensive readability and platform alike. The emergence of e-Readers that host content in the variety of Indian dialects, furthering the readership to the rural level, are going to add the necessary boost to consumption. Also, the target audience category is changing, with efforts to reach out to people with linguistic barriers and visual disabilities. Technological advancements paired up with methodologies such as inclusive publishing are being developed for such consumers to include them into the world of literary expression. Such developments would benefit publication, authors and in all, the readers, to opt for digital formats on a more microcellular level.

By Mr.Apurva Ashar , Executive Director, ePUB-Hub