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John Ingram to PubWest: It's Either/And
PubWest held its annual conference last week in Portland, OR - according to PW, the theme of the conference extended last year's "Digital World" set of presentations:

Touting the company’s print-on-demand and digital services, John Ingram emphasized that we live in an “Either/And” world, not an “Either/Or” world. Instead of choosing between printed books or e-books, publishers can and should focus on both, especially since, as Ingram pointed out, consumers’ expectations are rising. In this new “Either/And” world, Ingram urged the audience to make the most out of all the resources available, from traditional printed books to digitized files and print demand to downloadable e-books. He earned a round of applause when he promised the audience that in the new “Either/And” world they could be selling more.
It's gratifying to hear about these kinds of conferences. Even the independent publishers, the smaller and more agile guys, are getting concerned about digital sales channels. And there are a host of factors they'll now have to think about.

Can publishers use the same PDFs for ebooks as they do for print books? No, actually - reflowable text (scrolling and refreshing) requires a different format.

Will publishers have to get ISBNs for every single format of ebook? If they want to transact through third parties - sell in multiple sales channels - they will, or the sales channel will have to assign them.

Can publishers have "either/and" without also doubling costs? Yes, actually - an XML workflow implemented further up the chain (beginning in editorial) will save on conversion costs and printing costs, as well as helping to create new products and increasing discoverability of existing products.

These are just some of the questions publishers have to ask themselves...and the truth is, independent publishers are in a MUCH better position to take advantage of digital initiatives than the big guys are.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , November 19, 08, 8:33 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post
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