It is no secret to not only those in the publishing and printing industry, but also to the general UK public, that over the last five years sales of consumer print books have fallen, specifically by 28% (Gee, 2014
Whereas large scale publishing companies such as Ebury, who are part of The Random House Group Ltd (Ebury, 2014), have the funds and time available to convert their top selling titles into several different formats, smaller companies do not have this luxury. Caitlin Moran’s most recent title ‘How to Build a Girl’ is available on Amazon Kindle, which as of 2011 uses Kindle Format 8 (KF8) (Amazon, 2011), however whilst this is the most popular device, this format is exclusive to the Kindle so may not be the most cost effective route for publishers to take. The most standard format used by many other companies, including: Barnes and Noble, manufactures of the Nook, Waterstones, iBooks, The Book People and Random House themselves, all of who stock digital copies of How to Build a Girl, is ePub (IDPF, 2014).
Licensing digital content, including e-books is a “fundamental change affecting workflows” (Clark & Phillips, 2014) and in the case of small and independent publishers, the hiring of new people or outsourcing to get certain tasks completed can seem a daunting prospect.
). However, due to the sharp increase in e-book sales, this loss has been nearly counterbalanced; but with many authors and publishers beginning to combat the centralisation of the e-reader and digital book mark et, along with Amazon’s pricing decisions (Yuhas, 2014), will this increase plateau, leaving the book market in trouble, should Amazon change their outlook on publishing in a digital age or does it come down to the more traditional publishers to join the 21st century? Whereas large scale publishing companies such as Ebury, who are part of The Random House Group Ltd (Ebury, 2014), have the funds and time available to convert their top selling titles into several different formats, smaller companies do not have this luxury. Caitlin Moran’s most recent title ‘How to Build a Girl’ is available on Amazon Kindle, which as of 2011 uses Kindle Format 8 (KF8) (Amazon, 2011), however whilst this is the most popular device, this format is exclusive to the Kindle so may not be the most cost effective route for publishers to take. The most standard format used by many other companies, including: Barnes and Noble, manufactures of the Nook, Waterstones, iBooks, The Book People and Random House themselves, all of who stock digital copies of How to Build a Girl, is ePub (IDPF, 2014).
Licensing digital content, including e-books is a “fundamental change affecting workflows” (Clark & Phillips, 2014) and in the case of small and independent publishers, the hiring of new people or outsourcing to get certain tasks completed can seem a daunting prospect.
387 words.
Bibliography
Amazon, 2011. [Online]
Available at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000729511
[Accessed 4 October 2014].
Clark, G. & Phillips, A., 2014. Inside Book Publishing. 5th ed. Abingdon: Routledge.
Ebury, 2014. About Ebury Publishers. [Online]
Available at: http://www.eburypublishing.co.uk/about-us/about/ebury-publishers
[Accessed 4 October 2014].
Gee, S., 2014. Books and e-books - UK - September 2014. [Online]
Available at: http://academic.mintel.com.oxfordbrookes.idm.oclc.org/display/679475/
[Accessed 4 October 2014].
Hall, F., 2013. The Business of Digital Publishing. 1st ed. Abingdon: Routledge.
IDPF, 2014. EPUB. [Online]
Available at: http://idpf.org/epub
[Accessed 4 October 2014].
Yuhas, A., 2014. Amazon vs Hachette: readers and authors take sides in publishing dispute. [Online]
Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/12/amazon-hachette-readers-authors-publishing-dispute
[Accessed 4 October 2014].
Amazon, 2011. [Online]
Available at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000729511
[Accessed 4 October 2014].
Clark, G. & Phillips, A., 2014. Inside Book Publishing. 5th ed. Abingdon: Routledge.
Ebury, 2014. About Ebury Publishers. [Online]
Available at: http://www.eburypublishing.co.uk/about-us/about/ebury-publishers
[Accessed 4 October 2014].
Gee, S., 2014. Books and e-books - UK - September 2014. [Online]
Available at: http://academic.mintel.com.oxfordbrookes.idm.oclc.org/display/679475/
[Accessed 4 October 2014].
Hall, F., 2013. The Business of Digital Publishing. 1st ed. Abingdon: Routledge.
IDPF, 2014. EPUB. [Online]
Available at: http://idpf.org/epub
[Accessed 4 October 2014].
Yuhas, A., 2014. Amazon vs Hachette: readers and authors take sides in publishing dispute. [Online]
Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/12/amazon-hachette-readers-authors-publishing-dispute
[Accessed 4 October 2014].