E-book Distribution

The Opportunity

The advent and rapid growth of digital publishing technology, coupled with the recent near-explosion of digital reader devices supported by associated online e-book stores, presents an opportunity for publishers to dramatically expand their distribution channels.

The Challenge

For publishers with limited human resources and specific knowledge capabilities, selecting the digital distribution channels to pursue represents a significant challenge.

A successful publisher knows its target reader and how to create content appropriate to that target reader, but the many-fold increase in channels through which the publisher can reach that reader presents a strategic challenge on two levels: first the publisher has to decide which broad categories of digital content distribution to be in and then, within those categories, which vendors are most appropriate.

Broad Categories of Digital Content Distribution

• Direct-to-consumer e-book vendors, such as Amazon/Kindle, Apple/iPad, Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble/Nook, Vital Source, Kobo, and Coursesmart.
• Content aggregators for large package sales to libraries, such as Overdrive, ebrary, Books 24/7 and Safari.
• Course-pack creators, such as Study.net, University Readers and Xanedu.

Within each broad category there are companies with specific strengths in terms of market focus. For example, Safari began as a digital library vendor to computer scientists who needed a virtual library of computer reference books constantly updated. Or, as another example, Study.net has built its business on digital-only course-pack sales and has penetrated the corporate education market more effectively than Xanedu. So, as a publisher, how do you best select the appropriate vendors within each broad category to achieve maximum sales while controlling pre-production and production costs?

Enter Scribe

Scribe has been producing e-books since 1993. Scribe is a more-than-full-service production house that offers publishers a full range of services to include consulting, pre-production document design, multipurpose file creation, metadata construction and file management and delivery.

Scribe can:

• Tell you, based on your publishing program and target audience, which distribution channels and vendors you should participate with and which you should not.
• Leverage your print program to facilitate successful e-book publishing. Teach you how to correlate print and electronic publishing. Work with your authors, from product inception, to create a manuscript well-positioned for enhanced discoverability via rich metadata once published and available in the digital world.
• Help you develop a specification so that your books function well on desired devices. We will help you design your publications to best convey the information contained within your books.
• Create a file that can be exported to multiple vendors with all the required title metadata and do so with high quality and timeliness. And Scribe can manage and track the flow of that file to each vendor and assure that it is posted correctly and available for sale.
• Develop a strategy to add key words and other semantic tagging that will help increase the popularity of your content. Devise a marketing strategy, including the use of social media, to promote your works. Help you to realize the ancillary marketing value of e-book production.