Quote:
Originally Posted by DaleDe
DMcCunny - you clearly have no reason to have said that it is no work to do with your experience. I agree with your expanded statement but the original statement was to simplistic and wrong.
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Simplistic? Yes. Wrong? No. It depends upon whose perspective you are using.
I simplified and glossed over the implementation details because they weren't germane to the discussion. Sure, if you're the IT guys making it happen, there's work involved. But once you've implemented it and validated that it works correctly, you turn it over to the users and off they go. There will be the occasional glitch or need for maintenance, but there always is, and this shouldn't require any more effort than other major parts of the publisher's workflow.
The concept is that the publisher's production people take an author's manuscript and mark it up for publication, using an application like Adobe InDesign. InDesign outputs an ePub file. Another process takes the ePub file and converts it to Mobi, Sony LRF, or other electronic formats. Another process can take the converted files and place them in the appropriate place on the server where they can be stored for download to the customer buying the titles.
It should be possible to automate everything after the markup. In that scenario, maintaining six different digital editions of a title really isn't any more work than maintaining one. It all happens automatically as part of the process that creates the electronic edition.
How feasible this is depends upon who the publisher is. A small press or a one man shop like Steve might not have the resources to do it. A major trade publisher should.
And the purpose of doing it is simple: to provide the customer with books they want to read in formats they can use. The user should be able to buy the book, download it, put it on whatever device they use to read it, and read. They shouldn't have to worry about the technical details.
The publisher needs to make it as easy as possible for the customer to buy ebooks from them, and beyond specifying when they create their account what they will use to read the books, they should not have to be concerned with what the format is.
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Dennis