Introduction
E-publishing or electronic publishing, is the process of creating, producing, and distributing digital content such as books, magazines, journals, or other media in electronic form. E-publishing involves the use of digital technologies and software to create, edit, format, and distribute content in various electronic formats, such as EPUB, PDF, HTML, and audio or video files. The E-publishing has also provided new opportunities for self-publishing and independent authors. Allowing them to bypass traditional publishing houses and distribute their work directly to readers. In this blog let’s explore the topic of E-publishing workflows for different media works out.
As E-publishing has become increasingly popular for different types of content destined for different media like ebooks, web pages, audio files, apps, etc. Workflows specific to each media type have become standardized. This article is a primer for authors and content creators to plan their work. So that they can bring their content to consumers in as streamlined a way as possible. In addition it serves as an easy guide to plan complex cross-media content planning.
Major Media Types
EPublishing is used to produce and deliver content for a number of popular media types including:
- Books: E-publishing has revolutionized the way books are produced and distributed, and subsequently consumed via ereaders, smartphone apps, tablets, and computers.
- Newspapers: Online news disrupted news consumption perhaps even more than eBooks disrupted reading. Digital newspapers featuring long form text, videos, podcasts etc. are now just one way to consume the news.
- Magazines: Digital magazines started out as simple PDFs of the printed versions, but have evolved into interactive productions, featuring videos, animations, and interactive graphics.
- Journals, reports and whitepapers: Not only are academic and scholarly journals now available on digital platforms like Elsevier and ScienceDirect, they are now even produced via dedicated ePublishing workflows, making research more widely available worldwide.
- Audio books: E-publishing has made it possible to produce and distribute audio books in digital format, creating an entirely new spoken word long form content category which has already become the fastest growing category among readers.
- Podcasts: Podcasts may seem similar to legacy radio broadcasts, but they are actually produced in a workflow derived from ePublishing.
- Web content: Web Content such as blogs, articles, interviews, commentaries, reports etc. published online follow their own epublishing workflow.
Media Specific Workflows
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eBooks- The major steps to produce eBooks are:
- Manuscript preparation: This step includes original content creation, as well as editing, proofreading, and formatting in the desired style & layout.
- Conversion: This step refers to converting the formatted content to a popular format like EPUB with specialized software like Adobe InDesign.
- Design and formatting: To ensure an optimal reading experience, the font size, graphic elements, margins etc. are formatted for various devices.
- Metadata: This includes details like author name, book title, keywords etc.
- Testing and Publishing: The now-finished eBook is tested across various devices, and post the final green light. Is published via an online publisher like Kindle Direct Publishing, Apple Books, etc.
Digital Newspapers, Magazines, Journals and Whitepapers follow a very similar workflow, with a few notable differences. They all share the basic creation and editing steps, but then diverge from each other. Digital Newspapers use specialized software like QuarkXpress for Layouting to fit a pre-set pattern. Digital Magazines add an extra layer of rich rich interactive elements like exclusive videos, sound clips, games, etc. to create a distinct value proposition. Scientific & Academic Journals use collaboration software to streamline the Peer Review & Revision step, as well as Indexing & Archiving to facilitate subsequent discovery and citations. For this ePublished Journals follow globally accepted Metadata standards.
Audiobooks- The ePublishing workflow for spoken word content is markedly different from an eBook. Narration and storytelling are the oldest form of human communication; therefore the style, voice timbre, background music & sound effects etc. all play important roles in producing a successful audiobook, or even converting a successful book into an audiobook!
The major steps to produce an audiobook are:
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- Script and narration: The first step in creating an audiobook is to write an appropriate script. Then the narrators record the audio of the book.
- Editing: After narration the audiobook is edited to remove mistakes or enhance the audio quality with software like Adobe Audition.
- Post-production: In this step elements like music, sound effects, intros etc. are added to enhance the overall listening experience.
- Mastering: The audiobook is “mastered” to ensure consistency and quality across the entire recording. This refers to the sound engineering done to produce great sound quality.
- Metadata and tagging: After Mastering, the Audiobook is tagged with metadata to help it appear in search results and audiobook directories.
- Audiobook distribution: The audiobook is distributed on audiobook distribution/retail platforms like Audible, iTunes, etc. Major distributors can also handle the royalties to the author.
Podcasts share the Recording-to-Metadata steps with Audiobooks, but don’t include a “Mastering” step. Podcast content planning is also different from audiobooks, as is the distribution strategy on platforms like Spotify.
Web Content: Web content may have been the OG of digital content. It has continued to evolve over the last 30 years. There is a lot of variety of modern web content. Such as articles, blog posts, news stories, product descriptions, social media posts, videos, podcasts, images, and more. It can also include content that is hosted on websites, such as landing pages, home pages, about pages, contact pages, and FAQ pages. Nevertheless.
The broad steps to produce web content remain the same:
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- Content creation: Different types of web content needs different types of researching, writing, and editing, but the underlying need to create engaging and informative content stays the same.
- Formatting and layout: Formatting & layouting web content does involve adding headings, bullet points, images, etc., but it also includes formatting the content in a way that it looks good across different devices like computers, mobile phones, tablets, etc.
- SEO optimization: Search Engine Optimization is a very important step to improve the visibility of the content in search engines. This involves identifying relevant keywords and incorporating them into the content.
- Editing and proofreading: Once the content is created and formatted, it needs to be edited and proofread to ensure accuracy and readability.
- Publishing: Web content can be published on blogs, vlogs, social media, websites, and apps.
- Promotion and distribution: There are many marketing channels to increase traffic to one’s content, such as influencer marketing, paid campaigns, etc.
- Analytics and optimization: Web Analytics helps identify areas for improvement, such as keyword optimization or adjusting the promotion strategy.
Conclusion
If you are an author or publishing house. The above article has hopefully helped you understand the similarities and differences between ePublishing workflows for different media types. However the truth is, it can get confusing. Especially if you are new, or used to dealing with only one media type. The process of planning and executing a streamlined ePublishing strategy for say…a book. Which may include creating a complementary audiobook as well as a promotion strategy. Which includes a podcast, short-lived website etc. can be challenging.
Manipal Digital is a veteran in ePublishing. We works with both individual authors as well as publishing houses to plan, produce, and execute omni-channel media productions. Contact us today to see how we can help you produce your next bestseller!
