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chillibreeze writer — Usha Ganesh

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Advantages of e-publishing

Electronic publishing has spun the information delivery model on its head to allow for information, in formats like books, journals, newsletters, magazines and research papers, to be distributed faster, better and most importantly, in a dynamic and interactive way. Perhaps the biggest advantages of e publishing are the cost saving in printing and paper as well as better data storage and maintenance.

The industry is in the toddler stage and by its very nature, allows for several different kinds of players to be part of it. After all, if one were to break it down to the basic building blocks, anyone with a decently updated computer, quality network connection and some publishing software can publish information, replete with graphics and sound at a fraction of the cost the print publisher would incur.

If this sounds dangerously simple, it is so.

Economics of E publishing

The e-publisher might save costs associated with paper, printing and distribution, but if he wants to put out quality content, he continues to incur fairly high costs in terms of the editorial and technical staff. To capture the true value that e publishing can deliver, he has to choose the business model that enables him to cast a wider net and garner more customers to cover total cost such that each customer need pay for a smaller fraction of the total.

Total costs include support function costs like HR, accounting and legal, operational costs including editorial and technical staff for activities like design and typesetting, and lastly the chunk constituting advertising, promotions and distribution. Of these, costs incurred on editorial and technical staff engaged in bring out quality products will remain significantly high, but the costs incurred on paper, printing and actually mailing individual copies could drop considerably.

The revenue spectrum would range from subscription rates, to licences to special groups (universities / corporate entities, industry bodies, libraries) and pay-per-look options. Advertising and selling rights for reprinting are additional sources of revenue. Advertising, however, tends to be limited in the online versions, and take the form of either related advertising or affiliated links. And if an online vendor distributes the e-book, the revenue is lower on account of greater revenue splitting.

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Some strategies that could be adopted by e- publishers to counter the fall in revenues are:

Increase member services (retain specialized content for members)
Increase pay-per-look charges
Increase charges for group users like libraries, corporate entities etc
Bundling of information to charge more

Applications of E publishing

What started out as a trend to provide printed material in a digital format, has today become an alternative in itself.

While e publishing has existed for over 7 years, debate over its use and acceptance has reached a fever pitch in the last few years.

Where can it find use?

Simply put, almost everywhere. It is most ideally suited for publications like journals, research reports or resource bases and newsletters. It is also suited for all information that is dynamic or constantly changing, it could be ongoing research or even news.

It finds great use and acceptance in academics, in the online publishing of educational books or tutorials. With an increase in distance learning programs, the need for quality educational material is on the rise. These e-books and study material need to recreate an active learning atmosphere as can be found in a class full of students and a teacher. The content and the product therefore, have to be interactive. This can be done through open assignments, online debates, chats and discussion forums. These products also have to provide for a feedback mechanism. Naturally, in order to be effective these products have to be more colourful and interactive, and at the same time also be concise and also crisp to match the attention span of the student reading online. Electronic-Publishing is also used extensively in large academic institutions and libraries for their periodicals and journals.

E Publishing could also help in bringing out industry journals / periodicals, ezines and newsletters. Authors and publishers gain when they publish e-books. Costs are lower and royalties could be higher. Working papers on ongoing research helps unleash the power of collaborative work through networking. E publishing is very effective here as different sets of people can work with data so varied and complex, with charts, tables and images of amazing complexity made accessible in digital formats replete with animation and sound almost instantaneously.

Types of E Publishing Models

There are several models in e publishing ranging from commercial e publishing, print-on-demand and subsidy e publishers, no fee distributors and self publishers. In addition to these, there are agent vendors who package on-line journals, books and sell the database to industry bodies, universities etc, with a mark-up over their cost, incurred for procuring rights. These costs would vary depending on whether the vendor has procured exclusive rights or has to share them with a competitor. As a variation of the above, there are online bookstores.

Commercial e publishers are almost like their traditional counterparts, they choose to publish books that are most likely to be sold – a good mix of quality and subject matter is what they look for and rejection rates are pretty high. While their websites serve as effective storefronts, they also sell through other online bookstores like Amazon.com etc. By and large, e-publishers do not pay an advance, but royalty payments are higher than what traditional publishers offer, often as high as 40%. The editorial and technical work that the e publishing team puts in is no different that what is done in print publishing.

Subsidy e publishers differ from commercial publishers in several ways. For one, they accept most manuscripts and publish them on an “as is” basis. These are not edited or proofread or even formatted. They have a virtual rate card for add-on charges for these services, should the author opt for it. Everything, from adding images or graphics to copyright registration, is offered at add-on rates. They publish books for a flat fee and pay the authors a royalty that is comparable to what they would receive from the commercial e-publishers. However, they are more likely to sell through online stores than through their own websites. Likewise, they pass on the added cost of selling through online stores to the author who receives higher royalties for books sold through the publisher’s website and lower royalties if they were sold through, say, Amazon.com.

Another interesting model is the “print-on-demand” (POD) model, which is a mix of electronic and print publishing. The book is held by the publisher in electronic form and is printed out in the hard copy form only on order. This is also done for a flat fee. While many commercial publishers also offer the POD format, this is a model more often followed by the subsidy e-publishers.

The No-fee "Distributors" accepts manuscripts and publishes them on an “as is” basis, in a sense, simply providing these authors with a bookstore. They do not charge a fee, but take a slice of the royalties. Price setting is usually the author’s prerogative. The no-fee distributors do not offer services like editing or formatting. This works well for the authors who prefer the self publishing model, but want to offload the task of setting up their own “store front” or website. This also does away with the need to register as a retail business as they get paid royalties by the distributors as opposed to revenues on sales.

As an alternative, several authors prefer to self publish their books. This is not only inexpensive, but also offers them total control over the various processes. The author usually does all promotional and marketing work on the Web. Unless the author wants to offer the e-book in multiple formats like downloads, CD-ROMs or floppy disks, distribution costs are also very low. Again, offering only a download-able format makes it possible for the author to register only as a publisher and not a retail business, which entails the procurement of a licence.

The spectrum of cost recovery models covers pay-on-download PDF files (research reports), subscription (newsletters), membership (where members get value-added content over the free subscription content), payment in small instalments and annual payments for an agreed upon amount of information downloads. Accordingly, the information can be restricted to those that pay through logins and passwords.

Selecting the Business Model

As mentioned earlier the choice of business model would depend on the kind of information that the e-publisher wants to publish. Several academic institutions, industry bodies and individual authors prefer to be self publishers. The models that do not offer editing or marketing services work best for information that has a small, informed and ready market. On the other hand, e-books that require promotion and marketing, where the market has to be segmented and targeted, where the authors need help with editing or proofreading, are best handled by the commercial e-publishers.

Whatever the information or delivery model, there is a corresponding e publishing model. And for those that require unique business models, the good news is that the industry is still evolving. With a littler bit of tweaking and a liberal dose of innovation, a new business model could be rustled up.

—About our writer:

Usha Ganesh, MBA, CFA, is our management consultant and guides the business writing activities in Chillibreeze. She brings with her over 13 years of experience in Business Analysis, Research and Writing. She has worked with international organizations as consultant and editor.