FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR 2014

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

An in-depth look at everything digital at the fair

OCTOBER 2014

Mobile
Reading
Takes the
Stage at
Frankfurt

The debate over the implementation of

Onix 3.0
E-book growth continues in the U.S., U.K.
What major players in the digital space
have planned for the fair

OCTOBER 2014

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

The Next Big Thing

BY ANDREW RICHARD ALBANESE

With new devices, self-publishing, and mobile,

digital publishing has matured

s the publishing world gathers at the 2014 Frankfurt Book Fair, the book business sits on the brink
of some major changes, with a wave of new services
and devices poised to take digital publishingand
digital readingto another level. In 2014, the digital publishing discussion is no longer focused on disruption;
instead, the emphasis is on maturation. And just as the maturity of digital storytelling is driving change in the industry at
large, it is also driving changes at the Frankfurt Book Fair,
which, in 2015, will undergo its first major reboot in two
decades. The most prominent change is the relocation of
English-language publishers from the outskirts of the fair in
Hall 8 to Hall 6 and Hall 4both are just a short walk from
all the action.
English-language publishing will be at the heart of the fair
[in 2015], and, when you talk to people, that is what they
want, notes Frankfurt Book Fair director Juergen Boos.
Convenience is, of course, important, and doing away with
20-minute walks between appointments will be welcomed.
But whats really driving the changes, Boos suggests, is something of a seismic shift in the industrya move away from
territorial thinking and toward a subject-oriented business focus, one based on business models.

Upwardly Mobile
Of course, you dont have to wait for 2015 to see the changes
at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Over the past decade, organizers
have worked hard to keep the digital discussion at the fair
current, and constantly evolving, and, in 2014, the program
hits on a number of key publishing trends that are picking up
steam.
Certainly, the rise of self-publishing is one prominent theme.
According to a recent Nielsen report, sales of self-published
e-books in the U.K. grew by 79% in 2013 compared to the previous year, and Amazons e-book sales put self-published titles
around a quarter of the total U.S. market. As such, the 2014
Frankfurt Book Fair has expanded its self-publishing offerings.
On Friday, October 10, visitors can take tours through Hall 8
featuring stops at key exhibitors working in the self-publishing
arena. The fair will also feature a full day of programming dedicated to self-publishing on Saturday, October 11, at the Publishing Perspectives Stage (also in Hall 8), during which a variety of
topics will be discussed, including social media for authors,
cover design, editing, e-book distribution, and success stories
with established authors.
Meanwhile, perhaps the most prominent topic at this years
fair is the rise of mobile reading. On Tuesday at ConTec, the

prefair digital conference, Publishing Technology will reveal

the results of a recent survey that shows that an increasing
number of people are using their mobile phones to read
e-books, although the figures vary by region.
With mobile devices poised to play a significant role in the
evolution of publishing, Samsung is a perfect fit as this years
innovation partner. This summer, the company debuted the
Galaxy Tab 4S tablet and announced a number of key partnerships. These include a deal with Barnes & Noble to offer a
branded Nook version of Samsungs new tablet and give customers $200 in B&N credits. Samsung also has deals with
National Geographic and Cond Nast to deliver their content
through Papergarden, Samsungs interactive digital magazine, which, the company says, offers sharper images and
clearer text than print editions. And, Samsung has forged a
partnership with Marvel Entertainment, giving Tab S buyers
three months of free access to Marvels digital comic library
through the Marvel Unlimited app.
Samsung representatives say that throughout the Frankfurt
Book Fair, starting at ConTec, the company will highlight
some of these advances that it seeks to bring to the book business, including the ability to use an S Pen to highlight passages
and take notes while reading a text, multiwindow features
that allow users to access information from their Web browsers while reading, and Super AMOLED screens with adaptive-display technology that adjust backlighting based on the
surrounding light.
Rory ONeill, marketing director
for European Telecommunications
Operations (ETO) at Samsung, will
speak at ConTec at 2 p.m., with book
industry consultant Michael Norris,
on a panel entitled, Getting Beyond
the Book: Creating a New Digital
Reading Experience with Innovative
Rory ONeill
Mobile Technology, moderated by
publishing industry reporter/blogger Porter Anderson. And,
all week, fair attendees can experiment with new Samsung
devices at the Samsung booth in Hall 3.0.
This is just the beginning of Samsungs foray into the world
of publishing, fair organizers say. As Samsung continues to
embrace new forms of storytelling and evolve the reading
experience of millions of users, we think that the publishing
industry can profit from this collaboration in many ways,
notes Boos. At the same time, we also know that the book
trade has a lot to offer the mobile technology sector, especially as an important content provider.

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

HOT SPOTS AND MORE
Visitors to the fair who want to catch a product demo or check
out a new device can visit five Frankfurt Hot Spots. Exhibitors
and presenters range from technical specialists and digital content providers to marketing pioneers and Internet innovators.
Exhibitors at the Hot Spot Digital Innovation (Hall 8)
demonstrate new solutions for the future of digital publishing. The Hot Spot Education (Hall 4.2) brings together
buyers and suppliers of innovative teaching and learning
aids. The Hot Spot Mobile (Hall 6.1) showcases everything
from tablets and e-readers to apps, network providers, and
content licensors. The Hot Spot Professional & Scientific
Information (Hall 4.2) provides a platform for content and

PUBLISHING PERSPECTIVES
STAGE, HALL 8
Wednesday, October 8
1010:30 a.m.
Translation Nation
Will Evans of Deep Vellum and Michael Wise of New Vessel Press
discuss the changing landscape for translation in America, what
theyre looking for, what theyve found, and how they are reaching
readers. Moderated by CLMP executive director Jeffrey Lependorf.

10:3011 a.m.
How Karma and Cooperation Boost
Self-Publishing
NancyBaumann,presidentofBookarma,looksat
how indie service providers have created new
cooperative channels, and how would-be indie
authors can navigate the full book cycle, including
how to get their works in the hands of readers.

1111:30 a.m.
Fight for Copyright: How Publishing
Can Show Support
Is there really a fight for copyright? The International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organizations thinks so, and will convene a panel of
industry thought leaders to discuss why anticopyright champions have come to dominate
the discussion on intellectual property, and
what steps the industry needs to take to make
the case for copyright and not cede the debate
to Silicon Valley.

2:303 p.m.
The Big Debate: Mobile Phone Reading
This session will dive into Publishing Technolo-

www.publishersweekly.com

OCTOBER 2014
service providers that focus on specialist information, academic resources, and libraries. And the Hot Spot Publishing
Services (Hall 4.0) features everything from print and digital
service industries to production and distribution.
Meanwhile, the Publishing Perspectives stage will once
again feature a slate of informative 30-minute sessions and
interviews, many moderated by Mark Dressler, the Charlie
Rose of the Frankfurt Book Fair. Below, weve highlighted a
few interesting programs, but check the fair schedule for a
complete listing.
Andrew Richard Albanese is a senior writer and features
editor at Publishers Weekly.

gys research into consumer adoption of mobile phones for book

reading in the U.K. and the U.S. markets, offering insights into how
many consumers are currently reading on their phones, which platforms are the most popular, and what are the most common barriers
to more widespread mobile book reading.

3:304 p.m.
How Grove Atlantic Gets Its Groove
This one should be fun. The colorful Morgan Entrekin, president and
publisher of Grove Atlantic Books, in conversation with Dressler, will
share his thoughts on striking rights deals, expanding Groves

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Hendrik Wittkopf, Global Supplier
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The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

OCTOBER 2014

stable of literary talent that includes such notables as Jim Harrison,

and on trends he foresees, including whether Entrekin still believes
Frankfurt is all about alcohol and cigarettes.

nities that he sees for Ingram and the industry as a whole, as the
quiet intermediary through which all physical books flowed has
been continually reinvented and connected in a digital world.

Thursday, October 9

4:305 p.m.
Sourcing the Crowd: Publishing Unbound

1010:30 a.m.
Small Shops: Big Books
CLMP executive director Jeffrey Lependorf talks with two independent literary publishers with impressive catalogues: Bruce
McPherson of McPherson & Co. and Erika Goldman of Bellevue
Literary Press. How do these small presses accomplish so much
with such limited resources?

1212:30 p.m.
Big Data: Mining the Equity Hiding in Your List
Michael Tamblyn, president and chief content officer of Kobo, will
discuss with Dressler how data can help publishers understand
their readers, beyond what they purchase, and unlock important
business intelligence and revenue opportunitiesthe subject
of a white paper will be released at the fair.

12:301 p.m.
Betting on the Future of Books: Ingrams Next Chapter
Ingram chairman John Ingram will discuss with Dressler opportuAdvert V7_Layout 1 01/10/2014 17:54 Page 1

Philip Jones, editor of the U.K.-based Bookseller magazine, talks

with Dan Kieran and Isobel Frankish of Unbound, the successful
crowdfunding company.

Friday, October 10
1010:30 a.m.
Mission Transition
CLMPs Jeffrey Lependorf interviews Chris Fischbach, publisher
of Coffee House Press, on what it means to be handed the reins
from the founding publisher of a well-established, highly regarded
indie house.

11:30 p.m.
One of Our Own: Book Exec to Bestselling Author
Penguin v-p Ananth Padmanabhan sits down with Dressler to discuss his debut, Play with Me. Ananth will share his authorial and
industry perspective on what surely has been a roller coaster ride
on the bestseller lists.

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Utilizing technology
to develop &
deliver relevant,
engaging
learning content
& assessments

Hall 4.2 | Stand C92

Dont forget to catch LearningMate on the Education Hotspot Stage!

Digital Innovation: Insights from Leading Education Publishers
10 October at 10:30 am

Education Hotspot Stage (Hall 4.2)

Join LearningMates CEO Samudra Sen in a must-see

panel featuring senior executives from Wiley, Cengage,
and Wolters Kluwer as they discuss new ideas that
are changing the course of education content and
assessments today.

Moderator:
Samudra Sen

The panel will talk about next generation authoring

workflows, content enrichment strategies, recent
advances in instructional technology, big data and
content analytics in the context of digital first product
development. Join the conversation and learn why these
themes need to be a part of your strategy to compete
and succeed in a fast changing education marketplace.

Jim Donohue

Learningmate.com

Panelists:
Paul Labay

Reid Sherline

CEO, LearningMate Solutions

VP & Director, Digital Delivery for
Global Education, John Wiley
EVP & Chief Product Officer,
Cengage Learning
VP, Publishing, Wolters Kluwer Health

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

OCTOBER 2014

Onix 3.0: Global Publishing,

Global Metadata

mong the challenges technology poses for publishing is the issue of how to handle globalization.
With the potential to reach a truly global marketplace, there is a need for automated M2M (machine
to machinereally, computer to computer) data
exchange, with which the books and serial products, as well
as the information about each productthe metadatacan
be easily exchanged. And as demand surges for e-books, new
digital product, subscriptions, nuanced pricing, etc., there is
a pressing need for standards, not only within the metadata
itself, but with the structure in which it is presented.
Thankfully, in Europe and the U.S., the publishing supply
chain has an advantage. For the past 15 years, the industry
has adopted, albeit incompletely, Onixan online information exchange standard for sharing data and metadata electronically. Over time, its sophistication in terms of syntax (the
fields into which the information is placed) and semantics
(the richness of information in each field) has grown steadily.
And even as Onix 2.1 achieved scale in the U.S., U.K., and
German markets, new digital products, markets, and business models have prompted the four-year build of Onix 3.0.
The new iteration offers several improvements over Onix
2.1, explains Jesus Paraita, technical director of DILVE, the
Spanish equivalent of Onix, which is owned and managed by
the Spanish Federation of Publishers Guilds (FGEE). Among
the new features are the ability to handle different e-book
characteristics, such as formats, DRM, etc.; information
about varying market availability and distribution; collateral
resources describing the product, such as author videos and
links to other sites; and details on a variety of business
modelssubscription, rental, and discount pricingthat
often vary from country to country.
And more generally, says Graham Bell, executive director
of Editeur, the principle player in an international group governing Onix, Onix 3.0 is simpler than Onix 2.1, so that data
recipients have an easier job. Theres a lot more consistency in
the way the various Onix data structures are used.
Chris Saynor, head of a new Onix 3 BISG working group
and metadata specialist at GiantChair (www.giantchair.
com), characterizes the new standard as the Esperanto of
global publishing. However, with the readiness of Onix 3.0,
publishing has also reached a turning point: this new standard is not compatible with earlier versions, and a controversial sunset has been proposed to encourage the entire publishing supply chain to move to its adoption.
In the U.S., and some European countries, Onix 2.1 is

www.publishersweekly.com

BY JAMES LICHTENBERG

now so entrenched, there is a general

lack of motivation to change, says
Phil Madans, executive director of digital publishing technology at Hachette Book Group USA. He
points out that work-arounds have been developed that make
it possible to include some Onix 3.0 functionality.
Christer Perslov, managing director at Bokrondellen in
Stockholm, says his organization did a hard switch from
Onix 2.1 to 3.0, which is easier, because in a small country
like ours, all five book chains could get together and agree.
But even so, he cautions, the way Onix 3.0 is used in one
country is not quite the same as in another.
Adding to the inertia created by the sunk costs and infrastructure of Onix 2.1 is what both Paraita and Madans classify as a chicken-and-egg problem. Publishers may ask, If few
recipients are taking the Onix 3.0 feed, why should we take on
the effort and cost of the change? And recipients, such as
wholesalers or retailers, may reply, If publishers are still sending the metadata in 2.1, whats the point of upgrading?
Curiously, larger publishers may also be at a certain disadvantage, as many people in a large company enter information
into Onix, which means inconsistencies arise more easily. And
the sheer size of the major publishers creates an even larger
gap between those tasked with implementing Onix, and those
responsible for the strategy and direction of the company.
Exacerbating the problem is the fact that senior publishing
executives have rarely focused much attention on metadata.
This gap could become a vulnerability, however, especially as
the strategic use of technology becomes a critical factor,
accelerating need for quick-response marketplace shifts.
Saynor recalls one publisher commenting during a webinar
last year that what we need is a metadata expert on the
board of directors!
That may not happen soon, but with Onix 3.0, other things
may be changing. Onix [3.0] has the potential to be the critical communication format that helps bind a fragmented
supply chain across the full spectrum of titles, information
sheets, catalogue information, and promotional materials as
well as geographies, says Ken Michaels Global COO of
Macmillan Science and Education. Editorial and marketing
knowledge can be passed on to all channel partners to help
both streamline commerce [globally], reduce costs, and optimize revenue.

Jim Lichtenberg is president of Lightspeed LLC, a New

York Citybased consulting firm.

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

Kurzweil Looks to
Broaden Firefly Reach

deliver ebooks
to any device

10

Frankfurt Book Fair

www.publishersweekly.com
Hall 8.0 Booth N94

BY JAMES LICHTENBERG

hildren with special learning needs continue to require

attention worldwide. The U.S. has moved from a
policy of isolating such students in special-education
classes and schools to one of mainstreaming, which
integrates them with students in general classrooms.
Since 2000, this philosophy has been strongly endorsed by
Unescos Education for All initiative, which affirms that education is not only a fundamental right for all children but
that all children have the right to learn together. The goal
by 2015 is to provide every child in the world with a primary
education. Until recently, educational opportunities for learning-challenged students have lagged. But now new digital
technology solutions for mainstreaming special-needs students have come to the fore.
One such program, from Kurzweil Education, a division of
Cambrium Learning Group Inc., is Kurzweil 3000-Firefly,
educational software that, as Richard Flower, director of
international sales, puts it, allows students to read, understand, and demonstrate their knowledge within one intuitive environment. The program includes a cloud-based central library giving access to curricula, anytime, anywhere, on
a variety of different devices.
Part of what makes the program effective, says Debby
Frohbieter, marketing project manager, is that no adjustments need to be made to the curriculum.... Special-needs
students use Firefly to keep up with their classmates. A key
element of this, as Flower points out, is for students to be able
to show what they know. A dyslexic student who has
learned using technology-based tools will not have a level
playing field if a test is only paper-based.
Firefly, which launched in the U.S. two years ago and was
primarily marketed to K12 schools, school districts, and
parents, is being introduced into Europe with a new iOS version and applications in a variety of languages, including
French, German, and Italian. In addition, Kurzweil Education recently announced that Sensotec, Kurzweil Educations
partner in Belgium, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Jordan Education Initiative, a nonprofit
started by Queen Rania Al-Abdullah, to pilot Firefly in four
Jordanian schools. The one-year program, which begins this
month, will allow a deeper understanding of how Kurzweil
software can enhance Jordanian students English skills. A
results-based evaluation will serve as a proof of concept for
the prototype. Efforts are also underway in other Middle
Eastern countries and in South Africa to find strategic partners that can take the program to the level required by each

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The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

OCTOBER 2014

Nielsen: E-books Growth Continues

in U.S. and U.K.

BY JO HENRY, WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JIM MILLIOT

-book sales continue to grow in both the U.S. and

U.K., but to varying degrees. According to the latest
results from Nielsen Books & Consumers survey of
Americas book-buying behavior, e-books accounted
for 23% of unit sales in the first six months of 2014,
led by the adult fiction and the young adult categories, both
of which saw e-books take a 30% share of unit sales in the
first half of 2014. While e-books have been a meaningful part
of adult fiction since the formats early days, there has been a
notable surge in YA e-books in 2014.
Beginning in 2012 with the success of the Hunger Games
trilogy, YA e-books have taken off, and that trend has continued in 2014, fueled by strong e-book sales of titles like the
Divergent series and The Fault in Our Stars. E-book sales
represented only 22% of unit sales in the adult nonfiction
category, and 13% of childrens sales excluding young adult.
Meanwhile, in the U.K., the Nielsen data show e-books
continuing to grow, but not enough to halt an overall volume

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decline in the book market, as print sales decline at a greater

rate than the growth in digital. Notably, however, the value of
the e-book U.K. market this year has increased more sharply
than volume, with consumers beginning to pay higher prices
for their digital content.
In early 2013, e-book prices were at a historic low, with
U.K. consumers paying 3.39 on average for each e-book,
about half of what they were paying for a paperback and a
third of what they were paying for a hardcover title. By the
first half of 2014, consumers were paying 4.14 on average
for e-books, a 12% increase.
Although e-books remain much more important to the
adult fiction market than to the other main categories, the
latest data reveals that nonfiction and childrens e-books are
at last breaking through in the U.K., with significant growth
in purchases of both categories. This, of course, has had an
impact on the value increase in e-books, with the average
price paid for a nonfiction e-book some 74% higher than that
paid for fiction in the first half of 2014.
The uptick in tablet ownership is also playing a role,
enabling consumers to engage with illustrated and complex
digital content. And, as tablet use rises, the number of e-books
bought to read on dedicated e-readers continues to decline.
Although there has been much speculation about when smartphones might begin having a significant impact on the e-book
market, in the first half of 2014 just 6% of e-books bought by
U.K. consumers were bought to read primarily on a mobile
phone, the same proportion as in the first half of 2013.
With consumers now paying more for e-books, the actual
purchasing decision is no longer just about price. Instead, its
increasingly about the author or the subjectparticularly
important for nonfiction e-books, the category that has seen
the most significant growth. But the survey shows that a
slightly lower proportion of e-books were bought on impulse
in the first half of 2014 compared to 2013, a phenomenon
that may be linked to higher prices.
Library e-book lending in the U.K., meanwhile, has yet to
come of age. Only a very small proportion of the 50,000
respondents interviewed for the U.K. survey said they had
borrowed an e-book, whether from Amazon or a public

library, or via an e-book subscription service.

Jo Henry is v-p of research and analytics, Nielsen Book. Jim
Milliot is PWs editorial director. More information on
Nielsen data regarding the U.K. market is available from
Hazel Kenyon (hazel.kenyon@nielsen.com). More information on the U.S. market can be obtained by contacting
Charles Friscia (charles.friscia@nielsen.com).

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The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

OCTOBER 2014

Navigating the Digital Landscape

ublishers continue to struggle with print vs. digital

issues, says Marianne Calilhanna, marketing director
of Cenveo Publisher Services. Bottom lines are getting squeezed and the pressure to produce multi-output content is intense, she explains. Publishers
want to know whether apps make sense for the STM segment, how to make money from e-learning, how the market
will adapt to HTML5, or what HTML5 means for their digital products. These complex questions have no easy, single
answer. The real answer is, It depends, but that is, of course,
not a satisfying response.

Challenging and Changing Mind-sets

What is definiteand obviousis the way publishers are
starting to think about how print can support digital and vice
versa. Calilhanna finds that consumers no longer exist within
separate buckets, but rather move across different media. A
digital product is just one aspect of a greater publishing ecosystem, of which the print medium still plays an important
part. The print-is-dead hysteria has died down, as it is proven
to be untrue and rather pass, and it is becoming clear that
print and digital will enjoy a synergistic relationship.
For now, inertia and a legacy mind-set remain the two biggest stumbling blocks preventing more publishers from
adopting new technologies. We have encountered and
responded to RFPs from publishers who are actively looking
for solutions, says Michael Cairns, CEO of Publishing Technology. We also contended with many who just realized that
they need to start looking, and some who have not even figured out yetor cant admitthat their systems are unfit for
todays marketplace and customer demands. It is often when
the costs of not upgrading becomes apparent that reluctant
publishers take the plunge. He adds that the opportunities
may take the form of social network integration, monetization of rights, permissions compliance, digital fulfillment,
semantic enrichment, or repackaging of content.

Keeping Up with Demands and Trends

Given the ever-evolving digital landscape, keeping in sync
with the convergence of content and technology, and with
new publishing demands, is paramount. With publishing
shifting toward more of a learning experience instead of just
online reading, our products and services have also evolved
in order to help publishers thrive in a world where voice,
data, and video come together, and where information delivery is combined with learning and entertainment, says Uday
Majithia, assistant v-p for marketing and presales at Impelsys, adding that publishers are also looking to offer their content and learning programs on a single platform. Our role is

14

www.publishersweekly.com

BY TERI TAN

to help publishers to increase their brand presence, establish

their content and products, and put them right in front of
their usersand to make it easy for them to do all that and
more.
Over at Publishing Technology, the team is shining the
spotlight on mobile phone e-reading as a growing habit that
may eclipse other e-book channels such as dedicated e-readers and even tablets. While the mobile phone has its shortcomings as an e-reading device, Cairns says, it does provide
new opportunities to engage with readers in a variety of settings, economic levels, and regions as the technology evolves
and levels the playing field. Publishers will want to pay close
attention to how they tailor and deliver content to this wide
and ready-equipped global market. (At ConTec Frankfurt,
he unveiled the findings of a new U.K./U.S. survey on the rise
of mobile e-reading and its implications on publishers, device
manufacturers and readers; the survey findings are available
from www.publishingtechnology.com/research).

Managing Data, Big and Meta

From the micro to the macro, publishers now have to contend
with the way they deal with, and leverage, data.
For SourceHOV, it is about working with publishers to
automate their content creation and enrichment at one end,
and social media analysis and data mining at the other, says
director of business development Gary Rodrigues. We
believe that publishers need to embrace tools that give them
direct access to and ownership of their customer data as they
continue to engage with the market directly. It is all about
actionable intelligence. He adds that a big data solutions
platform, delivered through sister company Rule 14, is one of
SourceHOVs innovative technologies to continually drive
improvements in the digital publishing workflow.
Legal publishers, for example, are faced with an ever-increasing volume of primary law globally. The need to add
value, improve searchability, and publish into local and international markets has a dramatic impact on costs, Rodrigues
explains. Such issues are similar to those faced by STM publishers with the increasing amount of content for abstraction
and indexing.
As for metadata, the biggest misconception is that it is too
complicated for publishers and authors to understand, says
John Bantivoglio, CEO of GiantChair, pointing out that it is
the same book information that industry people have dealt
with since the dawn of publishing. But with e-book distribution and e-commerce, the quantity and variety of metadata
that publishers need to providein Onix, for instancehave
become complex because each print and digital format has its
own metadata requirements, and each receiver of that meta-

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

OCTOBER 2014
data may want to view it in different ways. So the latest standard, Onix 3.0, reflects a global and multilingual market
with more ways of pricing, distributing, accessing, selling and
sharing the information across geographic barriers, he
explains. It also creates a standard communication tool that
reduces the need for customized messages for individual
receivers.
Publishers need to embrace metadata because it holds the
key to discoverability and profitability, which leads to a book
being purchased or borrowed. Good metadata enables publishers to take advantage of new sales channels and to easily
market the rights to, and update prices for, their titles, Bantivoglio says. Onixsuite, GiantChairs cloud-based metadata
management platform, breaks down the process to make life
easier for publishers and distributors.
The following pages highlight what some companies are
offering in the digital space, and include further thoughts on
trends.

Cenveo Publisher Services

Working toward the goal of streamlining publishing workflows and providing a single-source, multichannel publishing
process, Cenveo Publisher Services has launched a cloudbased ecosystem that provides a new experience in content
development and delivery.

The Cenveo Publisher Suite, which made its debut at the

Society for Scholarly Publishings 2014 annual meeting in
May, is made up of three interlinked toolsets. As marketing
director Marianne Calilhanna explains, It starts with Smart
Edit, a pre-edit, copyedit, and conversion tool that automates
common tasks authors and editors perform during the content creation and production process. This output is then
ingested by automated composition engine Smart Compose,
which generates proofs based on publishers styles. [Then]
Smart Proof, an online proofing and correction tool, takes
over, presenting composed pages via any Web browser while
offering an interface for real-time content updating. Cenveo
now uses this system to support many of its STM journal
publishing customers.
Meanwhile, the team has also been busy developing
rich-media learning content for various publishers. One K6
math project, for instance, required the creation of more than
20,000 screens, storyboarding for upwards of 500 Web
games, and 2,000 complex interactions and simulations.
Cenveo collaborated with the clients product management,

advanced onix m
ma
anagement made easy
There is no better investment for those in the publishing
industry than to have clean and correct metadata for all
formats in the ONIX 3.0 standard. Publishers need to have
correct information and pricing on as many retailers sites as
possible. However, getting data into shape and keeping it that
way is not easy.
We can help you optimize your data, whether already in ONIX
or not, and give you the tools to easily manage your ONIX
properly. With Onixsuites latest release, publishers and
distributors can now update values such as availability, rights
and prices in multiple currencies and share these seamlessly
with partners around the globe.

onixsuite
BY

GIANTCHAIR

Come visit us at our stand M144, Hall 8.0 or go to onixsuite.com

15

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

and instructional and multimedia design teams to build
requirements for the product, and set up the processes and
engagement model to enable rapid development. We had to
define the acceptance criteria, standards, guidelines, and metrics together with a risk-management framework, Calihanna says. Interaction templates, gaming engines, and
graphic libraries were developed and completed early in the
lifecycle so as to mitigate risks associated with complex multimedia development.
For another project requiring the development of 300
instructional animation objects for English language arts
(ELA) and mathematics curricula, tight coordination
between Cenveos onshore/offshore offices and the K12
publishing client was crucial. Since it was the publishers
first foray into digital development, they were often not able
to visualize the product until a working prototype was created, Calilhanna says. To mitigate the risks related to the
requirements, our team worked with the client through many
development cyclesincluding detailed visual storyboard
before a working version was produced. Her U.S. team,
Calilhanna adds, worked with the authors, created a detailed
script with commentary, instructions and visual design direction, and handed it off to the animation and visual design
team in Mumbai.
To learn more about Cenveos expertise and suite of solutions, email Calilhanna at marianne.calilhanna@cenveo.com
or visit www.cenveopublisherservices.com.

Enthrill
The novel idea of placing e-book gift cards in mass-market
retail stores has gained a lot of traction in recent months,
with Enthrill now in the midst of launching a large e-book
program with Walmart Canada. Available in some 300
stores, the program will have a diverse selection from publishers including HarperCollins, Harlequin, Kensington, and
Scholastic.
We had spent the past couple of years building the infrastructure, doing focus groups and niche-market testing, says
Enthrill co-founder and CEO Kevin Franco. Now that the
information and results are in, we are ready to enter heavy-traffic retail locations such as Walmart, Target, Toys R Us, and LS
Travel Retail. This fall, our e-book gift cards will be placed in
nearly 1,000 retail stores.
Then there is Enthrills author card program, an idea that
caught on after Guy Kawasaki adopted it for his book APE:
Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur, co-written with Shawn
Welch. He can now sell and sign e-books at his speaking
events, thus carrying thousands of e-books in person, something that he could not do with print books, Franco says.
We have also helped publishers to sell to corporate customers through cloud-based software Endpaper. They simply log
in, create download codes for specific titles, and email those
codes to their customers, without worrying about the type of
devices their customers may own. It gives publishers total

16

www.publishersweekly.com

OCTOBER 2014
control to sell directly and
allows them to fulfill B2B
orders. Enthrill, he adds,
delivers to all reading devices
including dedicated e-ink
readers.
Our distribution is truly
device-agnostic, as we deliver
into the reading environment
that the consumer is using, Franco explains. We do not
change consumer habits by having them download another
app. We put their book on the bookshelf they already use, so
we are able to collect consumer data that is otherwise not
accessible: we know what devices are being used as well as
which apps are used on which devices. Such data is invaluable to publishers who wish to tailor their content based on
their users reading environment and experience. Endpaper
also has engagement tools that publishers can use to directly
access their end consumers.
For more on Enthrill and its solutions, join Franco at the
Hug the Alien roundtable, Beyond Beta: Publishing Startups Making an Impact in the Marketplace, October 8 at 2
p.m. in Hall 4.2s Dimension Room; or visit booth N94 in
Hall 8.

GiantChair
Metadata is at the core of GiantChair. Its cloud-based metadata management system Onixsuite has helped more than
100 clients. Onixsuite allows publishers, retailers, authors,
and distributors to easily create, correct, update, enhance,
and distribute book metadata in multiple languages and currencies from anywhere with a Web connection, says CEO
John Bantivoglio, adding that Onixsuite is scalable to suit
every need and budgetfrom an inexpensive off-the-shelf
solution to an enterprise-level platform (accompanied by
data cleaning and optimization functionalities).
Getting metadata cleaned and making it fit to share with
the book supply chain is one of the challenges that publishers
face, he says. This is where Onixsuites unique Scorecard
and catalog management feature comes in. It highlights
metadata errors with pinpoint accuracy that does away with
cryptic exception reports or, worse, rejected files. So finding
and fixing batches of titles with similar problems can be
done in minutes. But for publishers who need to clean up a
large volume of metadata quickly, our team offers custom
data-cleaning.

OCTOBER 2014
Bantivoglio says he finds it difficult to get publishing and
distribution industry people to understand that metadata is
everyones business. With the Internet, book information is
accessible globally, which means that the potential reading
audience is also global, he says. Metadata coordination
therefore merits executive managementlevel collaboration
that goes beyond the lone IT department. Those in editorial,
sales, marketing, content creation, logistics, and so on need to
get involved to ensure quality metadata that will help in selling and promoting the titles.
But perhaps the biggest challenge lies in convincing publishers of the dramatic ROI that metadataand Onixsuite
can deliver. Many publishers also seem to think that the only
way to share their metadata is through an Excel spreadsheet
or by relying on their distributors to create good metadata for
them, Bantivoglio explains. They miss the point: those closest to the titles or work create the best metadata. And with
Onixsuite, they do not really need to understand Onix 2.1 or
Onix 3.0 to make it work.
Attend GiantChairs Sell More Books and Communicate
Better Using Onix presentation, October 10, at 11 a.m., in
Hall 8s Hot Spot Digital Innovation, or visit Bantivoglio and
his team at booth M144 in the same hall to learn more about
metadata and its benefits, and about Onixsuite.

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

Impelsys
Used by more than 100 publishers, Impelsyss flagship e-book
delivery platform, iPublishCentral, has been continually
updated based on the latest market requirements. The
newest, 6.0 version is our mobile-focused initiative that
allows publishers to offer their users easy purchase, navigation, and search options direct from handheld devices, says
assistant v-p for marketing and presales Uday Majithia,
whose goal is to help publishers stay ahead of the market by
providing them with innovative solutions and new functionalities. With this mobile-first approach, iPublishCentral 6.0
has further enhanced the user experience with features such
as dictionary lookup, text to speech, and usability changes to
the administration console.
Also from Impelsys is Appiness, its product and service line
for app development services. Appiness to us is like a happiness campaign that we are spreading through great apps that
offer readers one-of-a-kind reading experience on their tablets
and mobile devices, Majithia explains. Our AppStudio team
has developed more than 100 apps for STM, educational, chil-

The digital future is uncertain, but dont let paper hold you down. Unfold your potential and bring your content to life with a tailored solution from our full spectrum
of extensible software and industry services. Visit Publishing Technology in Hall 4.2 (M35) and Hall 8.0 (F98) to learn how we can transform your business.

publishingtechnology.com/frankfurt

17

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

OCTOBER 2014

LearningMate on the Changes Coming to the Education Market

Smarter workflow, content analytics
and mobile delivery will influence
how educational content and products are developed, managed and
made available to students and
teachers in the education market,
from kindergarten to the postgraduate level, next year, observes CEO
Samudra Sen of LearningMate.
As the world increasingly adopts digital
content as a mainstream
teaching medium,
enabling workflows for
production becomes
incredibly important. Smarter workflow starts right at the planning stage,
where it is critical to interweave intuitive, easy-to-use tools with mechanisms that allow content to be easily
aligned to learning objectives and
standards as well as developed in such
ways that it can be reused or re-sequenced for inclusion in various
product configurations. Then rapid
authoring of assessment and learning
content is deployed. At this stage, creating collaborative working environments that allow groups to participate in content development becomes
key. Next comes delivery and packaging where seamless output to multiple
learning platforms and device types is
required. Finally, analytics is brought
in to track the workflow to continually assess its effectiveness and efficiency, says Sen, pointing out that his

company is developing tools to help

create bite-sized learning materials
that are aligned to competencies and
standards. Content, he insists, needs
to be highly engaging and portable
across devices.
Going beyond initial development,
students and teachers expect their
content and resources to be continu-

ously updated and adapted to their

usage, adds Sen, whose team has
developed an advanced sensor architecture for open content and proprietary delivery systems that can report
back on key content performance
parameters to various stakeholders in
the product development process.
An acquisitions editor can now
make informed decisions about revising a part of a product within days of
its release to fine-tune its fit in the
market. This same architecture also
informs marketing and sales functions within the publishers organization with better data about how their
customers are benefitting from various components of their products.
In classrooms around the world,
the conversation is shifting away
from mobile delivery to teaching and
learning workflows that work on any

drens, and trade publishers. On the other hand, we have

KnowledgePlatform, an XML-based all-inclusive customizable platform enabling personalized reading, researching and
online learning experience. It is built to support books, journals, reference works, multimedia and online courses.
Majithia also points out that the platform is modular, extendable, and supports integration with existing applications
through a range of APIs (application program interfaces).
By using KnowledgePlatform, publishers can set up content repositoriesfor books, journals, databases, or any
other digital contentor create advanced e-learning solutions with adaptive assessments. Easy-to-use interface
makes both content and learning solutions modules a breeze

18

www.publishersweekly.com

device and network, according to Sen.

LearningMates GoClass platform,
launched in 2012, for instance, has
enabled teachers to effectively present
and collaborate on learning materials
with students in a classroom. The
GoClass platform incorporates
advanced analytics that can help
inform teachers and students to make
better decisions about
course design, teaching and learning. In
the past year, the team
has helped multiple
content houses
develop digital curricular resources
using GoClass technology.
By combining cutting edge
advances in workflow, analytics
and mobile delivery, Sen hopes to
create a future where publishers,
teachers and students all work
together to create better outcomes
for our students.
More on this future and the above
key influences will be discussed by
Sen along with a panel featuring
senior executives from Cengage, John
Wiley and Wolters Kluwers during
Embracing Innovation: Insights
From Top Educational Publishers on
October 10, at 10:30 a.m., at Hall
4.2s Hot Spot Education. Visitors can
learn more about LearningMate and
its products and solutions, and connect with Sen and his team at stand
C92 in the same hall.

for publishers and administrators to create, customize, and

maintain, says marketing manager Shubha Khaddar. Portals built using this framework can support delivery of online
teaching resources and integrated assessments. We have used
it to create an integrated platform that allows one clients
40,000-plus members access to comprehensive topic-specific
and educational content in geriatric medicine.
Another client, an association for financial planning, used
KnowledgePlatform to make its taxonomical content available
to online readers. The portal is categorized into chapters, sections and subsections with enhanced search capabilities and
seamless navigation. Learn more about this platform and other
Impelsys products and solutions at stand K55 in Hall 4.2.

BookExpo America (BEA) is the premier

publishing event in North America.
BEA is the place to conduct rights, network with the industry,
increase distribution channels, and get media exposure.

BEA 2015 moves to midweek and is now

2.5 streamlined days of all business.
This new weekday format delivers the high level industry
connections you need in a compact timeframe.

New low-cost and totally turnkey booth packages available:

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Contact Tim Rohach at trohach@reedexpo.com for information
on exhibiting at BEA 2015.
NEW 2015 Show Dates2.5 Days Midweek
Wednesday, May 27 - Friday, May 29, 2015:
Exhibits, Conference & Special Events
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Javits Center, New York City | www.thebookcon.com
Sponsored by

Produced & Managed by

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

OCTOBER 2014

Publishing Technology

SourceHOV and Rule 14

This Frankfurt Book Fair will find the Publishing Technology

team launching a newly upgraded Ingentaconnect service
with an improved interface and user experience, and enhanced
features such as Connect Compilations, which enables collating and repackaging of different content types to create customized e-publications. Then there is the new digital-only
Order to Cash application for publishers looking to create
and distribute digital content without replacing their print
fulfillment systems. The latter is a part of our advance enterprise system, says marketing manager Michael Groth,
which will be showcased alongside other industry-specialized software and services such as Pub2web digital hosting
platform and Publishers Communication Group [PCG] sales
and marketing consultancy.

This is the first time SourceHOV, and its sister company Rule
14, are exhibiting at Frankfurt. We intend to show publishers, both large and small, how easy it is to use Rule 14s big
data solution to drive their business forward, says London-based director of business development Gary Rodrigues,
adding that legal and STM publisherswho are spending
millions of dollars creating abstracts and summaries, and
detailed metadata and taxonomiescan now use intelligent
tools like Rule 14 to reduce cost, improve time to market, and
add new data sources to their product portfolio.
Publishers, aggregators, and distributors that have many
thousands of customers through their direct-to market channels, Rodrigues says, can now profile and capture real-time
information from their systems, the Web and social media to
aid them in real-time decision-making. This is particularly
interesting to trade publishers, for instance, as they seek to
understand what is selling now, and try and create the next
bestseller.
Recent months have seen the team helping one legal publisher to summarize more than 100,000 legal judgments from
one jurisdiction. By studying manually crafted headnotes, the
Rule 14 platform was able to accumulate a repository of
underlying patterns within the judgments, and automatically
extract key information using machine learning. In another
project, for a business publisher wanting to gauge the level of
interest and public sentiment about Afghanistans first democratic transfer of power following a presidential election,
Rule 14 was asked to aggregate traditional news sources and
social media outlets. Some of the results are published on
demo.rule14.com/election.
But convincing publishers to try out Rule 14 is not easy.
There is an inherent level of suspicion about intelligent
learning through machine, especially if the system is being
asked to extract content from primary law or technical documents, Rodrigues says. But the technology is here and it

The Order to Cash module was recently adopted by Macmillan Distribution and ditions Lefebvre Sarrut (ELS). As
Groth explains, It allows Macmillan Distribution to offer
publishers an increasing number of subscription-based
models for both digital and print content while providing
readers with a seamless user experience at the point of purchase. As for ELS, the new system allows it to package, market,
deliver, and sell all of its print, e-book, and video content on
French tax, law, and business from a single application. It
replaces a complex and disparate series of legacy sales and
billing solutions across three subsidiaries.
Meanwhile, 20 new publishersincluding Amsterdam
University Press, East View Press, the Institute of Education
Press, Scrivener Publishing, and the Society for American
Archaeologyhave joined more than 250 others that have
hosted nearly 10,000 publications on Ingentaconnect and
made their content discoverable in 26,000 libraries across
170 countries. We are using our Pub2web platform to create a
new journals portal for the Society for General Microbiology,
and a global site for Beijing-based Zhonghua Book Company
to host its collection of ancient Chinese works, adds Groth,
whose colleagues will be at Hall 4.2 (booth M35) and Hall 8
(F98) to showcase the companys products and services.
CEO Michael Cairns will chair What is a Publisher Now?
Opportunities for the Post-Open Access Era roundtable, at
11 a.m. on October 8 in Hall 4.2s Hot Spot Professional and
Scientific Information. Then, at 2:30 p.m., COO Randy Petway
will pick up on the mobile e-reading conversation as the host
of The Great Debate: How Much Money is in Mobile in
Hall 8s Publishing Perspective Stage. And at 3 p.m. on October 9, back in the Hall 4.2 Hot Spot, PCG managing director
Melissanne Scheld will lead the Spotlight on University
Presses: How They Stay Dynamic and Relevant panel.

20

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The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

OCTOBER 2014

takes time to train the engine. The more data it handles, the
better it gets, hence Big Data solution. Some publishers
want immediate and complete results, which may not be
possible. It should be viewed pragmatically. Automating,
say, 75% of the content creation will have a huge impact on
costs and time to market. So we have to manage expectations

and look for the optimum level of automation and human

intervention.
Shao-Shao Cheng, head of Rule 14, will present Rule 14: Big
Data Solutions for Publishers at 1 p.m. on October 9 in Hall 8s
Hot Spot Digital Innovation. For more information, visit booth
L132 in Hall 8 or email gary.rodrigues@sourcehov.com.

Tracking (and Dealing with) Key Workflow Trends at MPS

Newer and better workflows, tools, and
processes are watchwords in the digital
solutions industry. With the rise of
self-publishing, open access, and interactive multimedia, the push for ever-dynamic content delivery across different
platforms and devices is relentless.
For Narendra Kumar, senior v-p of
technology at MPS Limited, the trends
and shifts in workflow have never been
more obvious than in the last few years.
The adoption of public domain DTDs
[document type definitions], albeit customized to fit internal needs, is the most
significant since many publishers have
already developed and used their own
DTD in the past, Kumar says. Such
adoption of a standardized tag set, further moving toward standardized
workflows, is good news for digital
solutions providers like MPS, as well as
online retailers and aggregators.
Standardizing, automating, and simplifying workflows and processes are
ways to obtain higher content accuracy
and faster turnaround times. STM
publishers, for instance, are standardizing page layout and minimizing title-totitle design variation, says Kumar,
adding that auto-page-proof production using standardized layout requires
an efficient and streamlined workflow
management system. Our product,
DigiComp, is being used by several
publishers to autogenerate page proofs
from XML files.
Achieving faster turnaround times is
also about avoiding rework and minimizing delays. As Kumar explains,
This means shifting the process of
checking the submission of artwork,
content, and accompanying materials
right to the start of the workflow management system. It improves efficiency

22

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and reduces wasted resources.

Publishers are also embracing SAAS
(software as a service) models for specific processes. Cloud-based digital publishing platforms, for instance, enable
different people to work simultaneously
on a specific project. They improve work
efficiencies, and this reason alone has
convinced the more conservative publishers to adopt them. At MPS, DigiEdit
enables authors, reviewers, and copyeditors to review and edit content using
a WYSIWYG-based system with XML
in the background.

Now that publishers are either overhauling or revamping their legacy tracking systems, dynamic cloud-based workflow management platforms are gaining
favor, Kumar says. Implementing a
highly configurable e-tracking system
that is integrated with other in-house
platforms gives publishers more operational agility to meet ever-evolving editorial and production processes in a
shifting publishing world. The quest for
seamless job and metadata exchanges,
he adds, has fast-tracked the integration
of different publishing systems, platforms, and processes.
Eliminating redundancies to produce a more streamlined and efficient
workflow is the goal. Even manuscript
submission and peer-review systems,
which used to be separate, are being
integrated into the production workflow, according to Kumar. Back in

2010, Kumar and his team developed

MPSTrak, a comprehensive workflow
management system that offers a plugand-play model with editorial, production and content management components. It integrates seamlessly with
DigiEdit, DigiComp and DigiEnhance
(to add interactivity to the content)
modules of MPS DigiCore platform.
Publishers have turned to ePub, the
de facto standard, to support the multitude of devices in the market, he
explains. So the workflow is now
designed in such a way that the content
is processed and finalized as a single
standard, say XML, and then transformed into formats such as ePub, PDF,
Mobi, and HTML. It is a one-source
multi-product publishing process.
Kumar explains that the fast-growing
demand for online-only multimedia-enriched materials has prompted publishing workflows to evolve and produce
multi-deliverables for both print and
online: For instance, we have developed
an efficient workflow to deliver
multi-folio content to iTunes App Store
for clients who sought help in distributing content across various mobile platforms.
Another key trend, Kumar says, is the
increasing call for semantic tagging and
enrichment to ensure highly accessible
and searchable content; at MPS, this
means validating client content against
CrossRef and PubMed databases to find
DOIs (document object identifiers) or
retrieve missing bibliographic and metadata information. My teams role is to
quickly identify industry trends and publishers needs, and to either develop new
solutions or adapt existing workflows to
meet those needs. Visit booth P17 in
Hall 4.2 for more information.

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