A Blueprint for Book Publishing Transformation: Content Management and Metadata Across Publishing Systems: The years of development of content technologies within the enterprise have resulted in capable metadata-driven content management platforms that give publishers the means to be media-neutral and operationally efficient from publication planning through to delivery of content to customers. Two case studies provide real-world examples of how leading publishers are embracing this evolution.
1. A Blueprint for Book Publishing Transformation: Content Management and Metadata Across Publishing Systems Gilbane San Francisco May 19, 2010 Session P3: 2:40 p.m.-3:40 p.m. David R. Guenette Senior Analyst The Gilbane Group, a Division of Outsell, Inc.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28. David R. Guenette The Gilbane Group, a Division of Outsell, Inc. Cambridge, MA [email_address] www. gilbane .com/xml www.twitter.com/ billtrippe 617-497-9443, ext 219
Notas del editor
P3. A Blueprint for Book Publishing Transformation - Content Management and Metadata Across Publishing Systems The years of development of content technologies within the enterprise have resulted in capable metadata-driven content management platforms that give publishers the means to be media-neutral and operationally efficient from publication planning through to delivery of content to customers. Two case studies provide real-world examples of how leading publishers are embracing this evolution. David R. Guenette Senior Analyst The Gilbane Group, a Division of Outsell, Inc.
* 03/01/11 07/16/96 http://gilbane.com* ##
* 03/01/11 07/16/96 http://gilbane.com* ## A Blueprint for Book Publishing Transformation: Seven Essential Processes to Re-Invent Publishing (2010) One of three eBook studies planned for this year
Blueprint Study: A Blueprint for Book Publishing Transformation: Seven Essential Processes to Re-Invent Publishing June 2010 Free from Gilbane Group Website, and from sponsors
There have been lots of surveys and reports and coverage to make moot the question, “Are book publishers pursuing ebooks?” The answer is, “You bet!” We want to know how book publishers are approaching ebooks, and, more broadly, digital publishing. Research is still active—ongoing interviews, survey mechanisms—but we reaching some pretty interesting conclusions.
Quibble if you will. Some say there are eight parts to the publishing process, others, six. Some like to talk about this in terms of value chains, or supply chains. This isn’t sacred writ, but what we feel is the most workable breakout, overall. Note Bene : “Book publishing” is hardly monolithic, and different segments of this industry have different requirements, without a doubt, as anyone trying to make his or her way through a chemistry text book, when wanting to finish the latest title in a science fiction series can tell you. Still, these processes are common across book publishing, although not always exactly the same.
The better illustration may be a person with a cartoon dark cloud of puzzlement over his or her head. When publishers think about things like interoperability among their publishing systems, they know that the sequence is hardly one-way, but rather frequently recursive. Add in much further complexity—and certainly, confusion—when digital publishing products enter the mix.
As they say, it is hard to race ahead when you’re rebuilding the engine, and its hard to hold the tiller when you’re manning the bilge pump.
If I were prone to go multimedia in presentations, I would add for this slide the Shark Approach music from Speilberg’s “Jaws.”
No one is arguing against printed books. The argument is with sticking with the old print-only or print-first processes, since that makes the publisher do things all over again when it comes to digital.
Some book publishers have good business intelligence, but not that many. Bowker and Neilsen are contributing in this way, but each publisher—each title—has its own business intelligence needs, and digital processes can make this extremely fruitful. Digital Transformation: Business intelligence becomes a key editorial planning tool, while developing new content products from more efficient and granular content management expands product range and number. Early meta-data capture supports the development of interoperating and transactional processes for publishers, but will require systems and business analyst-type roles.
Apart from specialist publishers like art letterpress, no one really misses wax and exacto knives. Flexible digital formats can bring you safely and efficiently into any output situation.
Digital Transformation: XML-First (theory) and XML-Early (the realistic probability) requires more taxonomy and DTD-type/schema content structure analysis efforts within editorial roles. Meanwhile, copy-editing functions will grow more important as meta-data and structural tagging implementers and QA front-liners. One early finding is that a surprising (to us, anyway) number of book publishers are already working in XML-early processes, or have initiatives underway, or are intending to do so.
Especially with older titles, it is always one o’clock in the morning. Do you know where your author contract is?
Digital Transformation: Contracts must change to conform to a wide range of alternative editions, and must include chunk-based remuneration conventions for custom publishing. The move to integrate rights and royalty metadata with content as will support automated and “on-the-fly” business models, but will require system integration specialists to work with R&R processes and other publishing processes. This digital transformation will be retarded by resistance from the existing publishing culture (a.k.a., lawyers) more than technology implementation challenges (which, in themselves, will be significant). The integration of R&R with Sales and Licensing will be significant, and will benefit from the advancement of “Product Manager” roles within the Planning process.
Heck, even with a solidly implemented digital manufacturing process, it can be costly and complex to produce different formats and outputs, but certainly it won’t seem so, in comparison to badly implemented or proprietary manufacturing…
Digital Transformation: Significant progress is already underway in the use of digital printing by book publishers, and the standard title format (print-ready PDF) will increasingly be driven through automated distribution to print vendors and out into the supply chain through digital asset distribution platforms and/or services. Improved automation will depend on the success of ERP and EDI systems integration within title information management platforms, but it remains unclear whether existing TIM platform vendors will take the lead.
Who has the TIP? Which ISBN goes with which ebook format? What do you mean I was supposed to have an author website up already?
Digital Transformation: Taking the cue from enterprise content management processes involving marketing and sales content, digital asset management platforms will become more common within book promotion and marketing processes, with pertinent metadata created and relevant title content information captured earlier in the publishing processes. Customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), and syndication-based distribution of marketing information will reduce marketing staff but require greater technology skill sets. Social media and communities will continue to prove out promotion and marketing value, requiring book publishers to retrain marketers as, and/or hire, social community managers. Social community managers will need to interact with Planning process-level “product managers.”
The fundamental nature of subsidiary rights, translation and foreign rights, and licensing could change as digital publishing processes become richer in metadata and interoperable. … and the whole direct sale question gets really interesting, as we look to radically different publishing models.
Digital Transformation: Will digital book publishing leads to significant disintermediation of traditional book supply chains, with improvements in title “discoverabilty” and automation of CRM systems with ecommerce platforms and direct sales? One requirement will be to more tightly integrate Promotions and Marketing processes with Sales efforts, and automation in one-source, many media output will also be required. Significant changes in sales models, however, must wait upon the integration of the various publishing processes, largely through the application of XML-early repositories and adequate business metadata, and the pressures on brick and mortar book stores—and print itself—will greatly increase. But right now, what do book publishers have to do? Keep breathing; don’t hold your breath for this anytime soon.
… , getting titles into the hands of the readers themselves, or the supply chain services, like book distributors and wholesaler. Channels are shifting, and being less agile isn’t nearly as good as being more agile.
Digital Transformation: Distribution and fulfillment are already changed, but book publishers will have to build up expertise for ERP and EDI process integration, as the content and titles themselves carry the intelligent meta-data to take automation to its next level. Warehouse and fulfillment costs will be better constrained, and digital printing will prove to be a key element of these savings, through the use of DADs, just-in-inventory, returns reductions, and lower transportation and shipping costs, to name a few cost reduction areas.
Digital Transformation and the Points of No Return: Book publishers across almost all segments understand that they need to change. The move toward XML-First (theory) or XML-Early (the reality), together with the increased interoperability throughout all of publishing processes, will prove more and more necessary to gain sufficient returns on investments, and not doing so will be the real “No Return.” But will book publishers—already a rather leveraged group of companies, for the most part—have the means to invest in the costly efforts to rationalize the content production to an XML repository-based one-source/multiple output system, while using the increased intelligence of appropriate metadata associated the content through the publishing processes to enable effective interoperation across them? Place your money and make your bets.
XML Early is well into early implementation and initiatives among many book publishers, although, not surprisingly, Education, STM, and other professional publishers are very much in the lead. Generally speaking, the gospel of digital workflow has found many eager converts. Royalties and rights are on every book publishers complaint list, but not high up on their “to resolve” list. Are royalties a pain that can be easily managed, or are book publishers simply resigned to waiting many years before expecting effective solutions? Generally speaking, the gospel of “interoperability” among book publishers systems supporting their different processes remains, like John the Baptist, crying in the wilderness. The biggest surprise of the study may turn out to be that getting digital workflows ready for ebooksand other forms of digital publishing has helped print books the most, and, specifically, through making digital printing a very attractive alternative for print titles, with all kinds of benefits and cost-savings for book publishers. All you need is a good PDF file, or XML fifle, and the knowledge of where those files are and how to get them to digital printing.