Buyer’s Guide 2015: Digital Conversion & Workflow Services
This is a section from the Book Business Tech Buyer's Guide which is a publisher's reference on emerging technology in the book industry. You can find other Buyer's Guide sections here:
Marketing Automation & Email Marketing
Few publishers are developing digital content alone. Partnerships are key for publishers to transition from print-centric production cycles to truly multi-channel production. Partnership may be as minimal as shipping print PDFs to a conversion service to create EPUB files or as involved as hiring an expert to implement a new production workflow.
The former is the traditional and less expensive route many publishers have taken over the years. It has proven ideal for simple ebooks that have a single column of text, like a mystery or crime novel. But as ebooks become more complex and as more devices enter the market, conversion can be cumbersome, requiring publishers to tweak EPUB files in order to fit each particular platform.
Publishers are beginning to seek in-house solutions so they can produce content that from the start is flexible enough to yield a multitude of formats. This often requires radical changes in production processes and workflow and content management systems, sometimes calling for outside help with the proper expertise to get it.
Many publishers working to bring EPUB production in-house are betting on long-term returns to make the significant investment worthwhile. Digital-first workflows save time and money in the production cycle and open up new revenue opportunities in content reuse.
Many of the vendors in the list below provide both conversion and workflow services.