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Despite electronic book (e-book) piracy being viewed by many rightsholders as the greatest contemporary challenge to the publishing industry, there is little research evaluating different anti-piracy methods, and explaining how they work. This paper explores the technological methods that United Kingdom and United States publishers, and their representative bodies, are using to tackle the growing challenge of e-book piracy. Through interviews with industry experts (including consultants, publishers and representatives) and publishing case studies, this paper brings together knowledge previously published and considered separately. The systems considered include The Publishers Association Copyright Infringement Portal, and Digital Rights Management in its various forms. Through these systems, we can reveal a lack of nuanced understanding in the motivations and methods of illegal file sharing, which have led to unsuccessful blanket solutions to a complex problem. By teasing out these problems, this paper will act as a point of reference for current anti-piracy measures, and consider the future options for an industry increasingly using the World Wide Web to distribute content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enjoying widespread government support and encouragement for the digital projects of publishers and media industry. The Chinese publishing business continues to show steady development in the past year. At the same time, significant changes are taking place in the structure of the publishing industry. The content production, marketing, operating, and consumption are not linear upstream-downstream related any more. Instead, they have fused together, and thus formed a new industrial ecosphere. In this paper, we investigate the new technology research and practice in the digital publishing industry. There is obvious indication that new technology plays an important role in the structural change of the publishing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Editech 2011 conference identified that publishers need to follow new paths and experiment more rapidly in all the areas of business related to a growing number of new digital publishing activities. Most important they need to rethink all the relationships actually in place with all the other factors in the publishing value chain and then radically reinvent their role in the quickly changing digital and ebook businesses. It is clear that now most of the changes are driven by the big three Google, Amazon, Apple and the publishers are following. However, especially in Europe the publishers have different approaches based on a brief review of selected key papers presented from different countries and sectors of the digital publishing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines contemporary, independent publishing in the Pacific Northwest (USA and Canada). Through a series of interviews with small publishers in Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver, BC, this paper will investigate whether independent publishers, based outside of the major publishing hubs of New York and Toronto, believe they can: compete in the global publishing environment; help to promote and preserve regional cultures and identities; and maintain diversity in cultural output. It will also explore how independent presses see themselves situated in the national and international publishing arena and identify what structures are in place to support them to do so. Although the focus of the empirical research is the Pacific Northwest, this paper has been contextualised within national publishing discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the topic of electronic books (e-books) and the effect that these digital devices and other new technologies has on the publishing industry. Contemporary society often claims that the publishing industry is dying and that the innovation of the e-book will eventually sentence the printed book to death. But this study will show that such is not the case. While it is true that the world is undergoing a digital revolution, publishers today have not been left in the dust, because these firms have embraced electronic publishing (e-publishing). The invention of e-books opens a world of opportunities and since the e-book market is still in its growth stage, there is much work left to be done. As with any new venture, the industry faces certain challenges, such as piracy, but with tools like encryption, digital asset management (DAM), digital rights management (DRM), and digital object identifiers (DOI), publishers are well on the way to a solution. While it is safe to say that the digital revolution has forever changed the face of publishing, e-books could actually revitalize the industry. No one knows what the future of e-publishing will hold, but developments affect publishing houses, authors, and consumers alike. And while the ultimate fate of the printed book is yet unknown, for now, it is here to stay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This interpretive study of change in Australian book publishing, included a survey of book publishers and the conduct of 14 case studies in five categories of publisher: general trade, academic, professional, specialist and university. This paper reports in detail on the experience on one general trade publisher as it sought to face the challenges of globalization and of organizational and technological change. The major finding was that digitization is indeed, impacting on business models for book publishing, with current models comprising something of a hybrid between the traditional and the innovative. Reflecting the presence in Australia of similar trends and issues that are affecting book publishing around the world, the findings are of relevance both to book publishers and to researchers. The work is original in that relatively little recent academic research has been conducted into book publishing in Australia, particularly as regards the implications of digitization for business models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper gives an overview of how publishers can market their digital content to potential customers in the book trade and, especially, in other, corporate and non-trade markets. It conveys why for example corporate customers and brands will be attracted to the multiple options publishers’ digital content can offer them to further build their brand and serve consumers’ interest in return. Publishers should be aware of different models to design content deals and of the issues that need to be addressed while negotiating. The paper provides thorough summaries of all questions that must be solved on both ends, with respect to resource, pricing, contract, legal and technical issues, etc. and is thus a very helpful source to begin with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of the e-book publishing industry in China and its changing business models. As the conventional publishing industry has continued to contract, digitization is becoming increasingly popular. Although China is an influential developing country undergoing rapid change, a dearth of research on its digital publishing industry exists at the present time. This article therefore explores two main research questions: (1) What are the recent trends and business models of digital publishing in China? (2) How might we evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of such business models? To this end, multiple case studies are employed, as is the paradigm of structure-conduct-performance (SCP). It is proposed that Content plus App and Content plus Device are the basic business models for Chinese digital content producers and distributors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The twenty-first century has been decidedly unkind to most sectors of the book publishing industry, yet romantic fiction is somehow more popular and profitable than ever before. What could account for this critically marginalised category's consummate commercial success in the digital era? This paper makes the argument that contrary to the stereotype of romantic fiction as conventional and change resistant, contemporary romance publishers have proven themselves to be consistently forward thinking and progressive, utilising industry innovations in content, technology, branding and business practice to cement their genre's status as an exemplary model for twenty-first century book publishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based upon a recent review of the relevant literature in both English and Chinese, this paper assess the current state of and future prospects for digital publishing in China. It addresses developments both in the context of ongoing technological and organizational change and with regard to the wider social and cultural dimensions. Embodying a simulated SWOT exercise it considers the current and likely future state of digital publishing in China through the eyes of western publishers seeking to do business in that country. Digital publishing in China is still in its infancy, while perhaps remaining more opaque to western observers than was expected. Issues around ownership, industry structure, operating platforms, stakeholders, piracy and intellectual property remain critical. Perhaps more than anything, and certainly much more than in the West, the issue of culture, not only in terms of national values and perspectives but also in terms of how things are done, remains a potent influence on business relationships with foreigners. In the West this continues to feed perceptions of legal and commercial uncertainties, risks to intellectual capital and obstacles to the production and distribution of knowledge and ideas. Whatever the perceived downside to such phenomena however, China is still regarded as a major growth market for western publishers. It concludes that whereas there are many opportunities for both parties, and that both can learn from each other, the learning curve is likely to be much steeper on the western side, owing to the significance of the social and cultural dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Japan, comic plays a leading role in electronic publishing, whereas e-book sales generated from novels are small. This study investigates format choice, such as pocket-sized paperbacks and e-books for popular novels on bestseller lists in 2010. The results show that almost half of novels are not released as e-books and Japanese authors who already have strong sales performances are not positive about releasing e-books, whereas all foreign novels are released as e-books. One reason that electronic publishing other than comics has not developed in Japan may be that many novels written by popular authors are not provided as e-books. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gathering information about publishing industry in the Arab world is one of the main important challenges for either Arab publishers to develop there business or for foreign (scouts, agent, publishers and printers) to make business there. In this paper I tried to present a practical point of view of an Arab publisher who went deep in this business through the past year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The annual report captures the rapid growth over the past 5 years with a focus on the past 2 year of the digital publishing industry in China. The growth is evaluated in relation to new revenues generated, the size of the market segments represented by e-journals, eBooks, digital newspapers, blogs, online music and games. The leading companies in each of these sectors are identified as there is still a reluctance of traditional publishes to move more aggressively into the new media publishing. Finally, a review of the challenges that the lack of copyright present to the industry as legal systems have not caught up with the rapid developments of the media or online information industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To pursue emerging revenue opportunities in the most cost-efficient way (or sometimes to be able to pursue them at all), book publishers are going to have to adopt a StartwithXML workflow. That means their content needs to live in an XML-structured document from the earliest possible moment, which could be “inception”, and carry within it metadata about the document structure, the content itself, and the rights to all components. The tools exist to do this, but the organizational challenges of changing workflows and inventing new procedures are daunting. This project explores the business case and the implementation challenges, including case studies of companies who have already begun to work this way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ubiquity or ubiquitous claims to mean existing everywhere or inescapable, and when applied to computing and technology suggests that the horizon for access and creativity is completely open. Some writers have noted it is descriptive of a paradigm shift where technology becomes virtually invisible. There are many different categories of indicators that reinforce the concept of connectivity and networking and can be summarized by access, learning, society, economy and policy. What this means for grey literature is that computing, communications and connectivity must blend together. If innovation does indeed feed on shared knowledge, then web-based publishing is what has and will take grey literature forward. Grey literature is the essence of portability. The proliferation and ubiquity of its visibility in all domains of electronic publishing today from all countries of the globe, suggest some common attributes that reside in the functionality of computing. The increasing dependence on more powerful and robust laptops and hand-held devices rather than only on the desktop demonstrate the intense use in instructional and educational technologies. Greater advocacy for educational software and learning applications reaffirm the role of grey content in classrooms from early childhood to the most specialized and sophisticated applications.

Focuses on the technological landscape underlying the development of electronic publishing in Europe. Relationship between the overall situation of the information technology sector and the attitude of European publishers towards digital revolution; Outline of the distribution of technologies in different European countries; Struggle of the publishers in finding a role in the market for digital content production.

Provides information on the use of digital object identifiers on electronic books. Standards proposed by the Association of American Publishers; Function of digital object identifiers; Discussion on electronic publishing and encryption technology; Forecast on the sale of electronic books.

Provides information on the launching of MIT CogNet, an electronic publishing service provider from MIT Press. Discussion on on-line research sources; Information on its digital libraries; Advantages of commercial electronic transactions.

Describes the need for statistical information gathering and standard definitions for electronic publications. Availability of data on nonprint products; Expansion of data gathering; Difficulties in consistencies.

This article analyzes the concept of the Digital Publishing System (DPubS) developed by the Cornell University Library. The Internet timeline is short and frenetic. The net has spawned occult acronyms, stupendous commercial failures, and now--for those who commerce in scholarly journals and monographs at the shallow end of the 21st century--many costly choices but few affordable options for the delivery of content. Technical innovations and economic pressures still cast a long shadow over the scholarly publishing community. Readers' and users' appetites have become more sophisticated while the cost structures for managing and delivering book and especially journal content electronically have become far more complex. In 2000, the Cornell University Library submitted a proposal to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for the support of the design and deployment of a mechanism and environment for the on-line distribution of serial literature in mathematics and statistics. Project Euclid was funded in 2000 and launched as a multi-model publishing service in early 2003. As of 2005, Euclid delivers nearly 40 journals to libraries and individuals under subscription, hosting, or open access delivery plans. Project Euclid's technology infrastructure is based on a modular digital library architecture and protocol developed at Cornell in the early 1990s. The model developed by the Library from this early digital library instantiation is now known as DPubS. DPubS was designed specifically to organize, navigate, access, and deliver both open access and subscription controlled scholarly publications.

This research was aimed at examining the challenges of the publishing industry in order to identify scientific solutions to these problems with a qualitative study. The analysis of interviews resulted in four main themes, 12 classes, and 36 subclasses. The main themes were the economy in the publishing industry, technology in the publishing industry, politics in the publishing industry, social issues in the publishing industry. Totally, it resulted in 11 major challenges. In general, Iran's publishing industry needs to consider its challenges in order to plan for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the state of open access institutional repositories in Nigeria. Expository review of literature was used to x-ray the state of the art, while descriptive informetrics was used to extract informetric data from two major repository directories (Registry of Open Access Repositories and Directory of Open Access Repositories). Findings revealed that Nigeria has twenty repositories from 14 out of about 153 universities in the country; majority of the repositories (70%) use DSpace as archiving software. The growth of repositories in the country has been slow, and the dominant contents of the repositories are journal articles, theses, and dissertations. While the study exposes the weaknesses of Nigeria universities in exploring the potentials of institutional repositories in wider dissemination their scientific productivity, it challenges government and other stakeholders to develop sustainable framework for development of repositories in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advancements in digital technology are making waves in the publishing industry and e-publishing is starting to make its mark in the market. Although publishers view e-publishing as an opportunity to exploit products and new distribution channels, some of them are seeing this development as a risk rather than an opportunity, and thus are not willing to participate in these changes. This study was conducted to determine the readiness of e-publishing among Malaysian book publishers based on the E-Publishing Readiness Assessment Model. The results found that publishers in Malaysia are prepared in terms of infrastructure and human resources. However, only a small percentage of them are willing to practice e-publishing by publishing at least one e-book, while the majority is taking a wait and see approach before they start issuing e-books. Interviews with two companies displaying high levels of e-readiness and low e-readiness, showed a willingness depend on the decision of the company’s top management. In addition, external factors such as market demand, technological pressure, competition, consumer habits and police and government policies also affect the results of the top management to run e-publishing in their respective companies. Through these findings, the government and agencies involved in the publishing industry may be able to help find a solution when designing a strategy for improving e-publishing practices in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Japanese book publishing market has tended to shrink recently. The present study investigates the timing of structural change using time-trend analysis to test whether online networking has caused the shrinkage of the print book market. The results show that a structural break occurred in 1983 before the rise of the Internet and that electronic publishing has not influenced print book sales significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Publishing Industry, as many other ones, is facing all the risks and opportunities linked to a digital transformation. This text provides new dimensions for analyzing seven technological trends and their potential impacts on the book publishing industry. The key consideration is that book publishing is totally dependent on Open Web Platform future. In such an agile environment, the publishing industry should focus on three key objectives in order to keep or even extend its influence on the internet world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The age of information has made university presses more important than ever before. The Internet has placed knowledge at our fingertips, but limited budgets and reluctance to embrace digital technologies have left many university publishers struggling to prove their worth rather than gathering and disseminating that knowledge. To demonstrate how a university publishing house can make it in this changing climate, this report will analyze the industry by using a specific publisher as an example, however this analysis can be applied to any small press. Pace University Press, an extremely small press, but one with the potential to survive and grow, can do so by implementing new practices in marketing, distribution, and digital content that will not only bring it into the twenty-first century, but ensure its continued role in the communication of scholars for years to come. These strategies can be beneficial to any university press. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this study was to understand the critically essential competences for digital publishing editors in digital era. The study firstly established a draft of the framework based on the literature review and document analysis in competences required for digital publishing editors, the draft in turn was used as the basis and merged with experts' opinions to establish the final Competence Framework. The study further designed the Delphi Technique Questionnaires according to the Competence Framework to obtain various competences deemed essential for digital publishing editors. The results of Delphi Technique Questionnaire Survey were 30 critically essential competences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developments in vanity presses, electronic publishing and social media have led to outstanding growth in the publishing industry. Eighty percent of people believe they have a book in them and the opportunities provided by new technologies are responding to their needs. This raises important questions: What effect will these developments have on the industry? In this environment, is quality control feasible? How will potential readers find their treasure? Will book publishing remain a cost-effective activity? We will examine the publishing industry looking for the answers to these questions and may just find that things are not as bleak as we initially thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The government of Armenia and the Next Page Foundation supported the Sixth International Forum of Translators and Publishers held in Yerevan from 5th to 8th November 2012. Antje Sorensen and Richard Balkwill from the International Publishers Association led a two-day workshop entitled 'The Role of Copyright System in the Promotion of Publishing as a Cultural Industry'. Presentations on international perspectives on copyright and the mechanics of trading in translation and other rights were blended with discussion and debate. The international issues of digital open access and free information were of less concern to local publishers than the effective application of and compliance to recent copyright laws in the country. Piracy was still sapping publishers' business and continuing to deter potential foreign collaboration and co-publishing deals. The forum was enriched with an extensive program of cultural events and social gatherings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On December 7, 2011, the Book Industry Study Group released BISG Policy Statement POL-1101, Best Practices for Identifying Digital Products, capping an 18-month project by a working group of the BISG Identification Committee. This article chronicles how a diverse group of industry professionals, from every sector of the supply chain, came together to deal with an issue that had polarized the industry since 2005. Based on a presentation made by the author at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Book Industry Study Group, this article delves further into the history and the methodology behind the drafting of the Policy Statement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software used by book publishers to manage contracts, royalties, production workflow, sales, and marketing have begun to migrate from relatively closed systems that are internally maintained, to cloud-based platforms on the Web. Business drivers behind this migration include a highly dynamic market for ebooks and other digital products, pressures to cut costs, and a shrinking ROI horizon for technology investments. While questions remain as to how quickly the transition will take, the possibility of cloud-based book publishing promises to change the nature of publishing infrastructure and with it the role of the IT professionals in publishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In developing countries, where traditional publishing faces enormous challenges, digital may work as an accelerator that could help local actors to skip a stage and position themselves at a much more advanced level. However, for domestic players to really benefit from the electronic era, it will be essential for them not to adopt systems implanted from outside on an as is basis, but rather to invest in new models better suited for the local people's expectations and requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shift to e-books and digital publishing is challenging the basic models of copyright and contracts that underlie the functioning of book publishing-a mature business with 500 years of history-making it hard to predict what shape the business will take in the years to come. This article looks at two of those challenges: first, the tension between a fast-changing technological marketplace and the standard book contract that locks in book rights for life of copyright; and second, the specific complications presented by image rights. There are, however, first steps being taken to allow books to make the transition to the digital marketplace with all their rights information intact and easily accessible, facilitating future transactions between agents, publishers, and new trading partners. The final section looks at the work begun by the Book Industry Study Group to create a standardized rights framework for this purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifteen years ago, a senior publishing executive had three cardinal points on her calendar: Frankfurt Book Fair (October), the AAP annual meeting (February) and BookExpo (May). That was then. Between December 2009, and March 2010, there have been over half a dozen major meetings. With slightly different emphases: e.g. trade publishing, technology, and printing and manufacture, each of the events sought to project the future of publishing at a time of digital transformation of content, the arrival of new devices such as the iPad, and significant distress within the industry. Using the engineering metric of “signal to noise ratio,” the article takes a look at some of the high points of these well-attended meetings, and the ratio of promising experimentation and reasoned hypotheses to digital hype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Print academic journals are dead. As we watch large metropolitan newspapers fail (as are many small town newspapers), the same economic forces are driving online scholarly publishing. This phenomenon is more than print journals going online. The options available with new low-cost online publishing software and the rise in the ability to use ratings from user generated content suggest more near-term changes are likely. Many of the outcomes are unsettled: the economics of online publishing; the standards for peer review, rank, and tenure; and the very nature of scholarly publishing itself. What is certain, however, is that the economics of online academic publishing—modeled via Anderson’s Long Tail Theory—will make it possible to provide greater access, more collaboration, and, ultimately, improved research and researchers. Universities acting as publishing centers with their e-reserves will be expected to change their faculty evaluations, providing greater academic rewards for those who act as editors, reviewers, and proofreaders within this new born-online and only-online world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Publishing agreements have long operated with certain assumptions about what books are and what publishers do. These assumptions are increasingly at odds with the new technological forms in which books are created and marketed, from e-books and Kindle 2 read-aloud works to so-called “vooks” that incorporate on-demand streaming video and other internet-based features in conjunction with hard copy books. Publishers’ contracts need to be re-thought in light of these changed circumstances. Specifically, publishing contracts today should focus on the activities in which the publisher may engage, and not the form in which the work may be presented, a point that was made clear several years ago in the Random House v. RosettaBooks litigation. In defining these activities, contracts should track the language of the exclusive rights enumerated in §106 of the Copyright Act. Finally, to the extent that books are becoming “audiovisual works” publishers may be able to shift to a work-made-for-hire model for obtaining ownership, rather than relying on grants from individual authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This collaborative, retrospective autoethnography begins by offering an overview of the encyclopedias with which we have been involved, as both contributors and consulting editors, over the past decade. We then review our strategies for recruiting authors and maintaining their interest to ensure the highest quality entries; it also covers the mechanics of processing these entries. Next, we discuss the actual and perceived benefits of editing an encyclopedia, the most significant issues we encountered, and our solutions. Finally, we contextualize the previous information in light of recent changes in the scholarly publishing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An account of the process of constant experimentation that drives our industry-leading newsletters and web site; the lessons behind our entrepreneurial experiences that should be meaningful to many within book publishing; and suggestions for how publishers of all sizes can employ a similar mindset in getting closer to readers and leveraging their natural assets for success in today’s rapidly changing marketplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes current industry practices toward the identification of digital book content. It highlights key technology trends, workflow considerations and supply chain behaviors, and examines the implications of these trends and behaviors on the production, discoverability, purchasing and consumption of digital book products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To develop digital publishing, is an important part for China’s progress into an informed country, and the new designated direction for the development of publishing industry in China. This article introduces the macro-planning for developing digital publishing in China, the present status and problems of this industry, as well as personal viewpoints on how to develop a digital publishing industry in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the role of the open access movement and institutional repositories in eliminating the distinction between non-grey and grey literature. The history of open access can be traced during the time when the U.S. Department of Education made the Education Resources Information Center freely available in 1966. The Budapest Open Archives Initiative, which was convened by the Open Society Institute in 2001, states that the literature that should be freely available online is that which scholars give to the world with no expectation of payment.

The article provides information on Psydok, a subject specific repository implemented under the Digital Psychology Information project of the Saarland University and State Library and Institute for Psychology Information in Germany in 2002. The systematic integration of Psydok offers advantages compared with the practice of publishing documents on Web servers of academic institutions or faculties. Most documents published on Psydok can be assigned to the grey literature genre. The repository offers a persistent identifier in form of an Uniform Resource Name for each document.

Presents information on a study which evaluated academic library holdings in the subject areas of English and American literature, philosophy and North American history, in the U.S., as of 2003. Discussion on the working hypothesis; Sales projections for university press titles for the coming years; Assessment of the future of online publishing.

Focuses on the project called the Alexandria Library Scholars Collective, aimed at linking major digital archives in various countries through the Alexandria software. Operating budget for 2003; Controversies involved in the project; Features of the software; Goals of the project.

The Columbia University Online Books Evaluation Project sought to understand both user reactions to online books in the scholarly world and the cost profiles of print and online books. Scholars [...]