Quote:
Originally Posted by bowerbird
fuzzy said:
> My question (and partial rant) is this:
> why do the "publishers" need to
> scan a pbook to generate an e-book?
> Hasn't the industry switched to digital?
well, of course they've switched to digital.
however, their workflow is still targeted at
creating paper-books, not electronic-books.
|
Funny!!! I love how you re-define the mere use of Quark, InDesign or Filemaker as 'going' digital!
Nothing could be further from the truth. The big publishing firms are so wedded to their 'traditional' methods that many of them still have word-processors who's whole job is to convert the submitted (*IF* they bother to accept electronic submissions) electronic manuscripts into paper and thence typed back into Quark. And does everyone understand that once the MMPB, TPB or HC layout has been finalized, the galleys have been approved by the author and the print runs set up, those Quark files are trashed!?! Yep. That's right. That means many a popular HC title must be *RE*-entered into Quark to be reformatted to MMPB or TPB format for the *next* release!
There is no reason for this, but it's 'just the way things are done' for most major publishers - and even some of the newer ones. Back in the late 90s I worked for Prima Publishing - known for being cutting-edge and with a lot more 'automation' of the publishing process. You guessed it, they ran it just like the 'big boys' and got rid of their Quark-format files after they'd finished setting up the print runs. If they wanted another format or wanted to come back to a title after a few years, they had to start the whole process over again!
Derek