Workflow

The Important Lesson in Netflix's Hyper-Categorization
February 5, 2014

Much has been made in content marketing circles of The Atlantic's recent investigation into how Netflix took on Hollywood and wildly re-categorized all the films available in their library into genres and sub-genres tuned to the specific interests of their viewers. Retailers get the point of this idea better than most. Amazon is getting into the business of mind-reading what their customers will eventually buy, while old-school retailers like Barnes & Noble now feature a Paranormal Teen Romance section - far away from past categorizations for fiction and non-fiction.

Beijing Tightens Censorship of Books by Hong Kong and Taiwan Authors
January 22, 2014

Beijing has tightened controls on book publishers and ordered publications by authors from Hong Kong and Taiwan to go through a stricter approval process.

The directive was sent to all chief editors of major Chinese publishers in early December and came with immediate effect.

The move was to weed out content deemed "vulgar" or "politically harmful" by the authorities, sources familiar with the situation said. The tightening was never publicised.

Digital Publishing: How It Will Evolve in 2014 And Beyond
January 6, 2014

Digital publishing is now a mature, thriving industry, and yet many still insist that publishing is in its death throes. Book publishers know better: While hardcover sales declined slightly between 2008 and 2012 (from $5.2 billion to $5 billion), eBook sales grew at an astonishing clip during that period, rising from $64 million to $3 billion. And while digital publications are typically sold at a lower per-unit cost, profit margins are much higher - from 41 percent to 75 percent as publishers make the transition from print to digital.

Digital Content Initiatives and the Agile Model
December 2, 2013

Product development today requires a much more nimble approach, one where customers not only see but also provide detailed feedback long before the product is considered final. In fact, products often need to change so rapidly, based on customer demand, that there never really is a "final" stage.

Metadata and the National Book Awards
November 22, 2013

Noted in NPR's Thursday, November 21 report on the National Book Award winners was that "a visibly shocked (James) McBride accepted the fiction prize. Considered the clear underdog, he said he wouldn't have minded if any of the other finalists won because they 'are all fine writers.'"

McBride's novel The Good Lord Bird is about a young slave (delightfully named 'Little Onion') who joins the abolitionist John Brown in his anti-slavery mission.

BISG Releases Best Practices for Metadata
November 1, 2013

The Book Industry Study Group has released its Best Practices for Product Metadata which explains what metadata is, how to use it and how it applies to your ebooks.