FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR 2015

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

An in-depth look at everything digital at the fair

OCTOBER 2015
Advertisement

How many
customers
are you
reaching?
The world is full of book lovers. We
want to make it possible for you
to reach them all with confidence,
convenience, and speed.

Visit our new site: www.ingramcontent.com

Whether it's digital or print, around the corner or around the globe,
Ingram's integrated solutions and unrivaled technology helps publishers
manage and distribute content to retailers, libraries and educators.
Making contents journey short and simple to anywhere in the world.

Visit Ingram at Hall 6.0, Stand E129.

www.ingramcontent.com

OCTOBER 2015

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

A New Era
Begins
Welcome to the
2015 Frankfurt Book Fair
and publishings next act
BY ANDREW RICHARD ALBANESE

fter a decade of change in the publishing industry,

the 2015 Frankfurt Book Fair (which runs October
1418) marks something of a turning point. As evidenced by the changes to the fairs layout and the
topics and speakers in the fairs professional program, it is clear that the publishing business is in longer in
the midst of a digital transition. The transition is complete.
Theres less talk of talk of digital disruption, and gone are
the tired predictions of the death of print. In 2015, both the
industry and the fair have settled into a new phase. And at
Frankfurt, it is all on display.
The variables have never been so broad, observes Mark
Kuyper, the newly installed executive director of the Book
Industry Study Group, noting that publishing today can
involve any length of content, in a growing array of delivery
methods, interwoven with vast amounts of data. It is exciting and terrifying at the same time, he says. So many
options, which ones to choose? How many can you choose?
More to the point, perhaps, is the question, how do you

choose wisely? At the 2015 Frankfurt Book Fair, you can

hear from an array of industry leaders or meet new partners
in the Business Club. Conferences like StoryDrive bring
together and explore the full range of media now at our fingertips. Demos and discussions at four Hot Spots explore the
full potential that technology has to offerincluding a boom
in mobile access. And in the LitAg, another record of number
of agents will trade in an increasingly global market for stories and ideas.
Whether youre hurrying from meeting to meeting or just
wandering the halls, try to pause for a moment to take it all
in. Publishing has entered a new era. And the conversation is
no longer about print or digital, Kuyper saysit is about
meeting the needs of the consumer.

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

OCTOBER 2015

Skoobe: Subscription E-books

Are Succeeding in Germany
Are e-book subscriptions sustainable?
Yes, says the CEO of a pioneering
service in Europe
BY ANDREW RICHARD ALBANESE

-book subscription services have been the subject of

intense interest in North American publishing, especially with the failure of Oyster last month and the
growing pains of rival service Scribd over the summer. But, before either of those services existed, there
was the German upstart Skoobe. Launched in 2012, Skoobe
is going strong. With mobile reading a hot topic at this years
Frankfurt Book Fair, Skoobe CEO Constance Landsberg
offers an international take on e-book subscriptions.

In 2012, e-book subscriptions for popular books

were barely on anyones radar. What made you
think this model was a good idea to pursue?
Back in 2012, we were definitely pioneers. Our founders
were evaluating new business models that could cater to
new audiences and expand the overall book market, and,
at that time, subscription services had already started to
establish themselves in other media markets, like the film or
music industry. That was a promising perspective, and today
we know that it was an important step forward. On digital
devices such as smartphones and tablets, many products and
services are competing for the time and attention of users.
We wanted to raise the chances for books against apps, social
media, games, music, film, and more. Today there are subscription services available in many markets all over the
world, and they are gaining more and more relevance for
readers and publishers.

Can you tell us a little about your growth?

In Germany, publishers continue to show high interest in

our model. We started out with 10,000 e-books and now
offer more than 140,000 e-books, not only in German, but
also in eight other languages. Our catalogue has been
growing extensively, especially over the last year. Since last
years fair, we have added 80,000 titles from more than
1,600 publishers. And we are very happy with the positive
response that we are seeing from customers. The latest
Bitkom study shows that more than a quarter of all readers
in Germany are reading digitally, and more than 16% are
interested in e-book subscription services.

www.publishersweekly.com

We hear a lot about the differences between the German

book market and the market
CONSTANCE
in the U.S., especially in terms LANDSBERG
of e-books. What can you tell
us about German e-book readers based on your
experience?
The growth of the German e-book market is still delayed, and
is only slowly catching up with the U.S. market. According to
the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, the sales
percentage of e-books in Germany in the second quarter of
2015 was 5.6% compared to 22% in the U.S. in 2013. In
terms of consumption, the German subscription customer is
very similar to the general German e-book reader. Romance,
thriller, and erotica are on top of their preference list, especially when they are new to Skoobe. However, reading habits
change over time, and customers start exploring other genres,
like nonfiction books and guidebooks. It happens that Skoobe
has proven to be a great tool for discovery.

In the U.S., much attention has been focused

on Oysters recent failure and Scribd, which had
to scale back some of its romance offerings and
tweak its model in recent months. I know you
dont talk about the specifics of your model for
competitive reasons. But how is the business
end working for Skoobe?

Our business model is sound and sustainable. The catalogue

is growing, and all partners who have signed with us since the
start are still on board. Publishers are growing their title base
constantly and are establishing strategies on how best to use
the potential of subscription services. Skoobe is proving to be
a great opportunity to market titles, especially from the backlist, and new authors alongside bestsellers and new releases.
As the overall quality of the catalogue is very high, customers
are eager to discover new authors and genres. Some 80% of
our customers rate the quality of our book catalogue with
very good and more than 80% have recommended books
that they have read through the service to others.

At the London Book Fair, Scribd officials

shared some considerable data about their
readershow much they read, what they read,
for example. Are there any interesting data
points from Skoobe that you can share?

Definitely. We are seeing that customers are changing the

way they read. Three-quarters of the books that users read

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

Content accessibility for all
Since the early nineteenth century
invention of braille, the concept of making
written content available to the blind or
visually impaired has been a noble
aspiration of civilized society. Making that
concept a practical reality is another
matter. Even as new, more automated,
technologies arise, the challenges of
accessibility remain formidable.
Cenveo Publisher Services helps
publishers create accessible content.
Learn how we help with the following
standards and so much more
WCAG
Section 508
RGAA
NIMAS

BITV
AODA
JIS X 8341

within Skoobe are books that they say they would not have
been likely to purchase. On average, our users spend 50 minutes each day in the app. Approximately 25% buy books
that they have discovered and read on Skoobe afterwards as
physical books, or even as e-books. These are strong indicators that Skoobe is indeed extending the book market. We
also see that readers really explore the Skoobe catalogue
before settling on a book. On average they open six books
before they start reading. Interestingly, Skoobe also seems to
impact the overall general media usage of customers. Users
report that they watch less TV and use computers and play
video games less.

Critics point to Oysters failure and Scribds

scaling back as evidence that the subscription
model cant work. But are they are missing the
point? It seems to me that the problem for
Oyster and Scribd was too much demand. In
other words, that readers were reading so
much sounds like a good problem to have, and
suggests that the numbers simply must be better
balanced, which of course is part of any business
model. What do you say to those who say
subscription e-books cant work?
Subscription services definitely work if they are based on a
sustainable business model. A sustainable model is one
where all parties involved benefitcustomers, authors, publishers, and the services themselves. But we are also convinced that subscription models are a key element to tackle
the challenges facing books and reading in the digital media
age. There is a great risk that reading books will lose relevance compared to other digital media usage. Young users
are constantly spending time reading digitally on smartphones and tablets. However, they are focusing on apps,
social media, or text messages. We need to make sure that
reading books stays a priority in young users minds, especially on the devices that they use most. Plus, when one
decides on a media subscription service, there should be the
option to choose books over movies, music, and others. We
think that the greater risk is that people will read less without a good subscription service, rather than that they will
read too much. So readersand publishersneed attractive
services like Skoobe.

Whats next for Skoobe? Are you planning to

expand or announce any new partnerships?

DIGITAL

BOOKS

JOURNALS

MAGAZINES

i n f o . p s g @ c e n v e o . c o m | www.cenveopublisherservices.com

www.publishersweekly.com

We just launched a new book list feature in our app, which

will help customers to discover new books more easily, and
we are very happy about the initial positive feedback. Well
definitely continue to work on making access to our content
catalogue easier. Furthermore, we are working on launching
some exciting new partnerships in the near futureso stay
tuned for more news from Skoobe.

DigiCore-PW-AD-DS_v01-4_CTC.ai

CM

MY

CY

CMY

9/30/15

9:20 PM

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

OCTOBER 2015

Mapping the Digital Future

Publishers and solutions providers are busy venturing
into new territories and plotting their digital courses

espite all that has been said and done, full monetization of intellectual property (IP) continues to
be a stumbling block for publishers. A new trend
highlighting this issue is the outgrowth of new
publishing universes, which is best exemplified
by the growing power of fan fiction, observes executive
v-p for business development Jane Tappuni of Publishing
Technology.

Thinking Beyond the End Product

For Tappuni, fan fiction is a huge and vastly under-reported
segment of the content industries. Some estimates suggest
that a third of all content posted on Tumblr and Wattpad, for
instance, is fan fiction. It is a parallel universe, where fans
themselves take the brands, characters and stories they love,
and remix them for themselves and their fan communities. It
is also a sector that pays scant attention to copyright laws,
apart from the kind of licensed fan fiction that Amazon has
tried to kickstart with Kindle Worlds.
The way fan fiction takes a piece of IP, chops it up, plays
with it, and distributes it over multiple networks and media,
is the kind of creative approach to content exploitation that
we have been talking about with publishers for a very long
time, says Tappuni. The possibilities opened up by digital
media mean that the book is often only the beginning of the
commercial life of a piece of IP. Yet it still remains the only
focus of many publishers, who find it conceptually and practically difficult to unbundle the book and sell it as chapters,
or a serial, for instance. Our stance at Publishing Technology
is that the book should be treated as the starting product of
the publishing process, and not the end result.

Securing Content and Future-Proofing

Software
But prior to leveraging and disseminating content, one must
make sure it is secure. For now, the publishing industry has
embraced e-book watermarking as a better alternative to
traditional DRM, says founder and manager Huub van de Pol
of Icontact, the developer of leading watermarking and personalization delivery platform BooXtream. This is a trend
that is gathering traction not just in the Netherlands, where
we are based. Basically, end users have been demanding for a
friendlier DRM alternative to Amazons Kindle for a while
now. And since Kindle is not available everywhere in the world,
publishers do need to support ePub-based e-books and offer
some kind of content protection. Our watermarking technol-

www.publishersweekly.com

BY TERI TAN

ogy offers these publishers a simple yet enriched solution.

Software also needs to be future-proofed in terms of functionality and technology. Says founder and CEO Knut
Nicholas Krause of KNK Business Software, The structure
of modern publishing software systems needs not only to be
suitable for current demands but must also be highly adaptable to future changes in publishing paradigms. Given that
publishing markets are becoming more niche-oriented,
Krause finds that the number of media formats to be served
has increased exponentially. Productivity and process optimization is therefore crucial. On the other hand, CRM
systems are in high demand as direct customer relationships
become increasingly important. Support for digital subscription-based business models and streaming content, for
instance, is getting a lot of attention, and this has impacted
all areas of the business including rights and royalties.
Krause points out that consumers are now requesting
products that can be bundled together based on their preferences and then made available instantly at point of purchase.
So the interaction between publishing software system and
e-commerce platform needs to be seamlessly efficient. This
has publishers rethinking their software and platform needs
and solutions.

Embracing and Enhancing

E-learning
Meanwhile, digital education courses, platforms, and applications for mobile devices are becoming mainstream,
observes CEO Kuba Pancewicz of Young Digital Planet. In
fact, technology has become educations daily bread. Whats
crucial in todays education is the ability to measure learning
outcomes and increase efficiency in teaching, and that has
been made possible by new technologies and specialized
analytical modules.
Pancwicz adds: Moreover, modern education is not about
theory but about putting knowledge into practice. It is about
relevancy with more emphasis on social skillscollaboration, teamwork, responsibility, and communicationas well
as selfawareness and digital literacy. It is also about the
methodologies such as project-, problem-, and inquiry-based
learning, problem solving, critical thinking, and student-centred approach.
For Uday Majithia, assistant v-p for marketing and presales
at Impelsys, more publishers are looking into becoming
educators. He adds: This applies to professional medical
associations as well as STM publishers, who clearly have the

PUBLISHING SOLUTIONS

VISIT US AT HALL NO. 4.0 E5

Address:- Solaris 1, F-wing, 6th Floor, opp. L & T Gate No. 6,

Saki vihar Road, Powai, Andheri (E), Mumbai - 400 072 India
Contact: +91 22 4066-3600 / +91 22 4066-3645
sales@ditechps.com | www.ditechps.com

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

right content, learning modules and CME [continuing medical education] courses. Many have successfully built new
product lines from existing content to offer online courses. I
am also seeing increased interest in big data and adaptive
learning, where publishers with mature digital strategies are
moving ahead with initiatives in these areas.

Juggling Investments and Returns

However, publishers do require sizable investment in migrating their content to newer technologies, standards, and
solutions, adds Majithia of Impelsys, pointing out that the
technology adoption and utilization gap between tech-savvy
publishers and the smaller, not-so-digital publishers is growing bigger, and this makes it a challenge for traditional print

Aquafadas
With a complete publishing system that rivals that of Adobe,
Aquafadass automated solutions, user-friendly enrichment
tools, and innovative app templates have powered thousands
of native mobile apps that reached over 15 million end-users
worldwide. A part of Rakuten, Aquafadas has more than
12,000 publishers using its tools for content creation, distribution, and management, including Mondadori, Flammarion,
Shueisha, Hong Kong Open University, and the University
of Shanghai.

Bayards Jaime Lire Store, for instance, uses Aquafadas

next-generation e-storefront, which collects and promotes
Bayards digital content in one place, and offers customizable
banners, categories, user accounts, and in-app purchases.
Bayard now has the most innovative and successful app to
encourage kids to read. The results speak for themselves: for
every single book sold in the stores, Bayard sells 10 through
the app; 25% of its buyers purchase through the app, accounting for 70% of its total sales; and 65% of Bayard sales is from
books featured in the app, says business development director Achille Coenegracht, adding that the Bayard team can
create enriched childrens books without any coding knowledge through a click of a button.
Meanwhile, Spains Edinumen uses Aquafadas tools to
create digital workspace Hola Mundo. Teachers can share
interactive e-textbooks with their students, work on it in the
classroom, and track student progress in real time. Students
can easily access the e-textbooks on PC, Mac, mobile or
tablet, and work on the e-textbooks themselves using the
tools available in the reader, such as bookmarks, clipping,
comments, and notes, adds Coenegracht, pointing out that
Edinumen team can create the interactive content in-house,

10

www.publishersweekly.com

OCTOBER 2015
publishers to make their mark in the digital world.
Publishers also want to save costs without sacrificing beautiful and interactive content, and they want the ability to do
this easily and quickly in-house, says business development
director Achille Coenegracht of France-based Aquafadas.
They also want tools to market their content, improve SEO
of their apps, and create viral content. Publishers are looking
to make their digital textbook content interactive, add content
to existing app quickly and easily, follow student progress
within the app, distribute content easily, and create content
automatically and modify it in real time.
The following pages highlight what some companies are
offering in the digital space, and include further thoughts on
market trends.

set up digital stores for different platforms, and even reproduce the content to sell as a white-label service.
For Sesame Street SMore app, the Sesame Street team uses
the 50-plus innovative enrichments provided in Aquafadas
InDesign plug-in to create sophisticated e-learning content.
It was the first mobile app produced inhouse by Sesame
Street, and it has interactive plays, games, stories, puzzles,
rhymes, read-aloud narration, music, and videos.
The education enrichments, says Coenegracht, are compatible with Tin Can xAPI, and enable a multitude of
interactive quizzes and tests as well as functionalities that
allow note-making, annotation, bookmarking, clipping, and
hyperlinking directly within the digital book.
Visit Aquafadas booth B79 in Hall 4.2 for more information, or attend the following talks on October 14: How the
Learning Experience is Evolving with Digital with a case
study on Edinumen/Cambridge University Press at 10 a.m.
in Hall 4.2s Hot Spot Education, and How Publishers
Integrate Apps into Their Business Strategy with a look at
French publishing giant Eyrolles, in Hall 4.0s Hot Spot
Publishing Services at 1:15 p.m.

DiTech Process Solutions

A business partner of Typefi Systems since 2013, DiTech is
always about helping clients to have the fastest turnaround
using the latest technologies, says founder and CEO Nizam
Ahmed. Take Typefi: it generates both print PDF and ePub
files with just a click of a button using inputs such as Word,
Google Docs, CMS databases and XML files. This super-fast
process allows us to produce more typeset and ePub pages
than ever before, and such efficiency has attracted several
leading publishers to work with us.

The network for creative collaboration

Digitally discover and analyze thousands of unpublished manuscripts
Collaborate and communicate with writers and colleagues
Better organize your slush pile process with simple to use title management tools

The best news... Its FREE!!!

Come visit us at Hall 4 Stand H31, Frankfurt Book Fair 2015!

www.inkubate.com

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

Better and faster networks coupled with newer mobile
devices have upped the ante for publishers and digital solutions providers. A shorter turnaround time at a reduced cost
with no compromise on quality is something that publishers
demand from solutions providers. If a 500-page book previously took seven to 10 days for typesetting, the demand is
now for the same output quality within four days. So we have
to employ the latest technologiesor partner with those with
the right technologiesto improve productivity and reduce
production costs while delivering high quality standards,
explains Ahmed, whose team also offers fixed layout ePub,
read-aloud conversion and interactive ePub processes besides
conventional solutions.
Ahmed adds: We work on restoring or retaining old hard
copies as well turning them into PDFs or ePubs for posterity.
We also cover niche areas such as converting text into Braille
for the visually impaired. We are a one-stop shop for publishers big and small.
For one German publisher, for instance, his team converted
27,000 pages of German and Dutch within two weeks. The
pages with Greek characters and MathML images were
challenging but our team developed inhouse automated tools
to speed up the process. We are now generating 40,000 to
50,000 pages in the same two-week period while maintaining
the high quality output, adds Ahmed, whose team converted
more than 200 old videocassettes containing educational
materials into DVDs for an Australian university. The clinical clean-up of the old videocassettes was tedious as most of
the quality was bad.
In another project, this time for a U.K.-based publisher, the
challenge involved converting its existing eight exam series
into interactive ePub format. The fill-in-the-blank, true-orfalse, multiple choices, drag-and-drop, and all sorts of
quizzes had to be made interactive and user-friendly. With
the new format, students are now able to work on the series
on iOS and Readium, and check their performance immediately, explains Ahmed, who is at booth E5 in Hall 4.0 to
provide more case studies and information about DiTech.

Enthrill
Enthrill has been quietly working
away at its goal of creating a new
sales channel for publishers. In
2014, it rolled out Walmarts first
e-book program, and Enthrill has
been adding retailers to its distribution through its unique e-book
gift card program since then.
Enthrill is now distributed in over 3,100 retail stores in
Canada, including Shoppers Drug Mart, Safeway, Sears, and
of course, Walmart. Contracts are already in place to double
that number in 2016, and we are actually working on expanding into 90,000 retail stores by the end of 2016, says
co-founder and CEO Kevin Franco, adding that his team has

12

www.publishersweekly.com

OCTOBER 2015
learned a lot about what customers are looking for in a e-book
gift card product, and has fine-tuned our offerings after
several iterations and improvements to Enthrill services.
Since Enthrill delivers to any reading device regardless of
its platform, it is able to work with various loyalty programs
to offer their members e-books in exchange for points or
miles. We are working with programs such as Air Miles,
whereby their members can redeem for gift cards in the
Enthrill system, and download the e-book to any device they
choose, adds Franco.
Customers look at Enthrill program for giving e-books, and
not to purchase for themselves, says Franco.This means that
title-specific e-book gift cards do not resonate with the purchaser. They would much rather purchase a specified amount
of gift card, and let the card recipients choose the titles for
themselves, says Franco, adding that since giving a book is
the best gift of all, we make it possible to give e-books without
worrying if it will work on the recipients deviceours work
on every device that is available out there.
Challenge-wise, Franco says, we are constantly at war
with the clock. As a physical consumer product, it takes us
six months to iterate our product, which means that a significant investment is required just to operate while we learn
something, act on it, and get it into market.
Proliferating the distribution of e-books and giving publishers alternate paths to the market, remains the biggest goal
at Enthrill. Publishers that are interested in expanding their
reach and sales should be working with us as Enthrill has
proven to be effective in increasing the number of customers
redeeming gift cards for e-books on our platforms, says
Franco, who will be at Frankfurt to provide additional information on Enthrill. Do email him at kevin.franco@enthrill.
com to schedule an appointment.

Icontact
New tools and add-ons are making BooXtream even more
attractive for a wider audience. In Frankfurt, we will introduce two ready-to-run plug-ins for WordPress/WooCommerce
and Shopify, two of the worlds most popular e-commerce
platforms. With these plug-ins, clients can easily use the platforms without having to incur software development costs,
says Icontact founder and manager Huub van de Pol, who
will be at booth D40 in Hall 6.2 to provide the plug-in demos.
These plug-ins provide a big step forward in expanding
our already large customer base, adds van de Pol, whose
company developed flagship product BooXtream five years
ago. This summer, the BooXtream Web service watermarked
millions of e-books in only a couple of weeks, with sometimes more than six transactions per second. Our scalable
platform with distributed servers around the globe handles
such volume perfectly. From our perspective, e-book sales
are still rising and not plateauing at all.
Installations of BooXtream and its tools have been taking
place much further than Amsterdam, where Icontact is

promotional

Educational content for

preschoolers how to twist
technology into more effective teaching
by Young Digital Planet, Hall 4.2, C67
Preschool education is becoming more and more accessible, yet the United Nations experts stress the significance
of qualitative aspects regarding educational resources and
teaching methods. The need for quality content is directly proportional to constantly rising pre-primary enrolment
rate. Additionally, publishers need to face the fact that policy-makers underline the importance of ICT literacy as one of
the fundamental skills required by modern society.
Technology a daily reality
Apparently, mobile devices have already become an inseparable part of our being. Children become proficient tablet users much sooner than they can cope with tying up their shoe
laces. The key is to take advantage of this situation and use
the digital channel wisely to encourage kids to put abit more
effort into their shoe laces issue. It is feasible as long as multimedia content is authenticated with good methodology. The
digital aids must be friendly both to kids and the grown-ups,
preserving balance between tradition and innovation. Educational technology has aunique potential to facilitate the
teaching of 21st-century skills beyond foundational literacy,
focusing on competencies (critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication) and character qualities
such as persistence, adaptability and curiosity. The sooner
the above-mentioned qualities are stimulated, the better the
results of the educational process.
In search for hugh quality resources
Kindergarten teachers living in exactly the same environment as their pupils are also immersed in the world of technologies. They still face various problems of their pupils
such as attention deficit, which is typical of preschoolers or
behavioral, social and emotional challenges, which today
also need some extra consideration and work. Facing the
fast changing and developing world with agrowing number
of children with special needs, awider and wider spectrum
of teachers need some support and tools enabling them to
work with children from different environments, with diverse
capabilities and cultural or ethnical origins. They are one of
the most creative groups and cope very well but, as we can
observe, they are overloaded with extra effort they have to
put into preparing classes and making up interesting aids for
kids.

They do search the internet for inspirational rhymes, songs

or any sort of activities focused on diverse skills enhancement. They are aware of the deep abyss of the virtual library,
yet they feel their time is devoured by endless hours spent
in front of the screen in search of high-quality educational
content.
The reversed methodological approach
The clue of using IT tools does not lie in one-to-one digitalization of content. It is far more than amultimedia presentation and mundane push-and-play exercises. What would
guarantee kids engagement and progress is full interactivity,
top graphic design and aloveable leading character, which
communicates with them and reverses the roles of master
and student. Such a reversed methodological approach is
used in the Early Years Curriculum and guarantees a successful incorporation of the latest trends in early childhood
education.
Facilitating education process
Fundamentally, the role of the teacher shifts towards aprocess facilitator. Children start taking an active part in the process and instantly show what theyve learnt, which ensures
both engagement and fun. This method is in line with brain
friendly learning theory and allows teachers to stand back
and have more time to observe children. The method is not
about one way knowledge transmission or pure entertainment. It is about letting children express their feelings, present their ideas and discuss their viewpoints with peers and
the teacher. Only in such circumstances can the right level of
attention and engagement be attained when children are
fascinated and eager to explore the subject themselves.
Young Digital Planet - the bridge to technologies
Young Digital Planet education experts will give you more insight into this method and the new solution. Having successfully implemented digital content into the Slovak preschool
market, we believe the next generation of html5 content
coupled with the comprehensive guidelines for teachers will
make acomplete solution addressing publishers needs.
www.ydp.eu

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

located. Black Inc Book, which won the 2015 Australian
Book Industry Award, for instance, integrated BooXtream
in their Drupal-based e-bookstore in just a couple of days.
Our free API [application programming interface], the
software samples, and free test account made the implementation easy, not to mention affordable, adds van de Pol.
Another client, the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation, which is the global tax expert, uses BooXtream
not only for their e-bookstore, but also for the KPMG
Corporate Tax Handbook that they publish and produce
annually. BooXtream batch mode is used to watermark and
personalize all copies of the handbook, thus giving the freely
distributed corporate publication a unique feature.
Several independent e-bookstores such as PeruBookstore,
Tienda Books, Verso Books, and eLibris use BooXtream
technology not only to watermark every e-book transacted
through their sites but also as a repository, distribution, and
downloading platform.
Keeping up with the expanding ePub standard is a priority. BooXtream must be able to process any e-book, regardless
of the type of tools used to create it. We also need to cater to

OCTOBER 2015
the needs of new consumers such as self-publishing
authors with simple and ready-to-run solutions.
And, as one of the pioneers in the e-book watermarking industry, we have to offer the best value
and technology so that builders of e-commerce
platforms will choose to adopt BooXtream rather than build
their own system, says van de Pol, who will present The
Benefits of E-book Watermarking over DRM on October
15 at 11:30 a.m. in Hall 6.2s Hot Spot Digital Innovation.

Impelsys
Todays readers expect content that they can rely on for all
their learning needs, with embedded ancillaries, interactive
exercises, simulations, and assessments, says assistant v-p
for marketing and presales Uday Majithia. Content has
evolved, and e-books offer more than a linear reading experience. This convergence of reading and learning has given
publishers tremendous opportunities to build new product
lines focused on learning delivery. Our flagship product,
iPublishCentral, has also evolved to support publishers

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 (L35) and Hall 6.2 (B28) to learn how we can transform your business.

@publishingtech

publishingtechnology.com/frankfurt

OCTOBER 2015
and their userswith an engaging learning experience
through all-inclusive smart content on a single platform.
iPublishCentral 6.0 now offers mobile-adaptive portal
design templates with improved usability, and smoother
interface for online and offline access. It fully supports ePub3
to enable embedded interactive ancillaries, media files, quizzes, animation and much more. At the same time, it provides
geo-restriction of sales to go with geo-pricing, multilanguage
portal support, and language localization on apps. Impelsyss
engineering and R&D team also added R2L (right-to-left)
language support for content and user interface.
Another new feature of iPublishCentral is its cloud-based
services. Explains Majithia: Some of our publishing clients
have been asking for features to extend their existing solutions, and so we have made several modules within
iPublishCentral and KnowledgePlatformour content and
learning delivery platformaccessible through APIs. Basically, this cloud-based service-oriented architecture allows
publishers to plug in, use, and integrate individual modules
that we offer, from Readers to DRM to Analytics.
KnowledgePlatform continues to offer rich XML-driven
content while supporting both PDF and ePub readers. With
the cloud services, we have seamlessly combined CMS and
LMS solutions under a single platform to align KnowledgePlatform to our emerging philosophy where reading and

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

learning go hand-in-hand, says Majithia, who has seen 15
publishers from South Americaa new market for Impelsyssigning up for iPublishCentral.
We have added four adopters from East Asia while
strengthening our presence in North America and Europe.
Our platform is becoming a truly global solution, adds
Majithia, whose team recently replaced an aging platform
used by a leading South American STM publisher with an
adaptive and scalable solution based on iPublishCentral to
support changing user demands.
The team also built a next-generation learning solution
using KnowledgePlatform for a medical association. We
designed and created specifications for their HTML-compliant SCORM courses to offer adaptive learning experience
online and offline, says Majithia, who is at booth J55 in Hall
4.2 to provide more case studies as well as demos of iPublishCentral and KnowledgePlatform.

Inkubate
Version 2.0 of Inkubate has arrived! For writers, there is
tweet-like PitchIts to advertise their works to agents, editors, and publishers (AEPs) within the Inkubate network.
A writer can send a PitchIt message with attached profile,
excerpt, and synopsis of their unpublished manuscript,
which is stored within the Inkubate platform, explains chief

15

knkPublishing
Inspiring Publishing Software

Realize your vision

with flexible
publishing software

Hall 4.0 stand F1

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

Where Innovative Content &
Technology Meet Advanced
Learning Design

OUR K-20 Solutions

Instructional
Design

Project
Management

Accessibility
Compliance

mobile

learning

editorial
services

Quality Assurance

Engineering
& Architecture
Development

Interactive
Media

assessments

HTML5

content
development

data & analytics

Authoring Tools

Hall 4.2 | Stand C78

Hot Spot Education

marketing officer David Bass. A PitchIt message is mapped

to AEPs who have similar genre interests to the writer who
is creating the message. So there is a high degree of correlation on the subject matter between the two sides.
For AEPs, the newly launched predictive analytics tool
MarkIt can be used to determining which titles they are
looking at acquiring could sell well by comparing their bestselling titles with our database of Nielsen BookScans top
100 list over a 12-month period, explains Bass, adding that
publishers are very excited about the predictive outcomes
from MarkIt because we are confirming one additional level
of data for them about the content they have either acquired
or looking to acquire.
Facilitating communication between the two user communitiesAEPs who are discovering new writers, and
interacting with themis the biggest challenge, adds Bass.
We want both sets of users to have the best tools for collaborating with each other based upon search-and-content
analytics outcomes that are presented to them. So we want
to continue improving the tools to locate unique content from
the writers. On the other side, we want to make sure authors
are able to know that AEPs are looking at their profiles and
titles. Fostering this type of discovery, collaboration and
content analytics, Bass says, has motivated Inkubate to keep
improving its platform.
Another goal is to ensure that everyone who uses Inkubate
recognizes that it is not a display site even though it enables
authors to upload and display their content. Bass says: We
are much more about solving the management of content
once it is discovered and considered to be valuable to the
AEPs. We want to make the slush pile process less of a hassle,
and provide AEPs with different ways to organize and communicate with authors they want to acquire rights from, and
with their publishing colleagues about it.
Discover more about Inkubate 2.0 at its booth H31 in Hall
4.0. Or visit inkubate.com to use the platform at any time,
or to schedule a meeting for demo on its software and tools
at the fair.

KNK Business Software

www.learningmate.com

The only Microsoft-certifi ed publishing software in the

world, KNK Publishing from KNK Business Software offers
full publishing functionality for print, online, and mobile
publishers. Its customizable and scalable modules cover
areas such as asset management, multichannel publishing,
order-to-cash, e-commerce, subscription, logistics and warehousing, rights and royalties, cash flow management and
business intelligence. Currently, some 150 publishers in

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

OCTOBER 2015

North America, Europe and Asia

use KNK Publishing.
One of the modules, KNK integration platform, is a middleware
that easily connects with online
bookstores, distributors, aggregators, and other third-party
products and suppliers that support old technologiesiSeries/AS400 software, for
instanceas well as those utilizing the most modern Webbased services, says founder and CEO Knut Nicholas
Krause, whose company is headquartered in Kiel, Germany.
The platforms high-end solution is Microsoft BizTalk,
which is most appropriate for publishers with small IT
departments.
KNK Publishing, explains Krause, has a different architecture compared to products from competitors such as
Klopotek and SAP. Our solution offers publishers a content-based architecture with flexible metadata management
that can be easily customized for any new media product type
and format. It also allows a new contract structure that supports innovative paid content models, and analyzes the
economic success of new leads and existing customers.
Royalty contracts on KNK Publishing, for instance, are
generated through a single-source content platform. This

means that the publisher can sell different and complex bundles, and yet easily create annual royalty accounting for
different media types and formats, says Krause, whose team
recently installed KNK Publishing at Florida-based A Beka
Book and Montreal-based French language publisher TC
Media Livres (formerly, Cheneliere). Last December, Royal
Boom Publishers, one of the biggest educational players in
the Netherlands, became the countrys first publisher to
install KNK Publishing.
For TC Media Livres, the team also installed two additional
modules: KNK Workflow (to support complex authorization
processes within the company) and Jet Reports (a tool to
create business intelligence reports for inhouse data-crunching and analysis).
As for Cond Nast Japan, modules such as business management, financial accounting, bulk sales, and group
reporting were installed. At Bastei Lubbe, Germanys
third-largest trade book publisher, where its editorial and
production departments have already used KNK Publishing,
a new CRM module was recently added to enable direct
connection with their readers.
Visit booth F1 in Hall 4.0 for more information on KNK
Publishing, or register at knkpublishingsoftware.com to
attend a 20-minute software presentation, which will be held
at 10 a.m. on the first three days of the fair.

Detailed and intuitive

THATS WHAT YOU NEED IN A RIGHTS MANAGER.

Any Agent.
Any Organisation. Any Title.
Does your current rights
system report on this quickly?

There is a better way!

For a demonstration or just a conversation
come and meet us on Stand J94 in hall 4.2

OCTOBER 2015
LearningMate
Helping clients to fast track their product development and
reduce their upfront investment has led LearningMate to
build ACE (Assessment and Content Engine), QuAD (Question Authoring and Assessment Delivery Tool), GoClass, and
Frost. Clients use our tools for a fraction of the cost it would
take them to build their own or license from a third-party
vendor, says CEO Samudra Sen, adding that the tools are
enablers or accelerators to maintain clients competitive
advantage.
A midsize nursing and health sciences publisher, which
urgently needs an adaptive platform allowing personalized
learning experiences, for instance, turns to ACE. The entire
development and time-to-market took less than a year, and
today, 30,000 students are using the publishers ACE platform, which has extensive reporting with powerful
dashboards and analytics to drive better student learning
outcomes, explains Sen, adding that the highly flexible and
scalable ACE allows the publisher to roll out multiple products simultaneously.

Stand out.

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

As for QuAD, it has already been used by some of the
biggest publishing houses in the world to generate more than
a million questions. Prior to implementing QuAD at one
major K12 and higher education publisher, the LearningMate team took on a consulting exercise to understand the
business needs, develop the roadmap, evaluate the application landscape, and finalize accessibility guidelines. We
developed more than 6,500 interactive test items in disciplines such as language arts, mathematics, geography, and
English. In order to fast track the development process, we
also developed over 200 templates. We are currently authoring another 40,000 test items to add to the existing 100,000,
says Sen.
GoClass, which won the platinum award at the 2013 IMS
Conference, on the other hand, is a mobile teaching app that
redefines the boundaries of computing in the classroom. A
year ago, one K12 publisher selected GoClass as the engine
for their flagship intervention product in Literacy, allowing
instructors to teach on a one-to-one computing environment
with differentiated instruction. GoClass is now used in 170
districts covering 356 schools and 24,000 students in the U.S.
As for Frost, it allows content authoring and previewing
on the fly, thus providing the ability to quickly create innovative and flexible interactive teaching materials. Two major
publishers are currently beta-testing Frost, which supports

Providing customized print and digital

solutions to a global clientele of academic,
professional, healthcare and legal publishers.

www.oksgroup.com

21

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

both drag-and-drop and XML edit modes.
Attend From Educational Analytics to Innovations in
Print session on October 16 at 12 p.m. in Hall 4.0s Forum
Production in Publishing, where v-p for enterprise solutions Amit Soman will provide even more case studies on
learning and analytics. Or visit booth C78 in Hall 4.2 for
more information.

MPS Limited
The need to enable faster time-to-market through automation and efficient workflows has seen MPS adding many
features to its flagship DigiCore platform. The DigiComp
automated composition engine, for instance, now supports
InDesign Server while its configurable QA tool has been
rolled out for automated output validation in exception-based
routing. Its XML review and editing tool DigiEdit, on the
other hand, has additional math editing GUI and enhanced
functionalities for copy editors. We have also rolled out a
Rights and Permissions Management module within DigiCore for managing permissions for text and images, says
senior v-p for technology Narendra Kumar.
As for cloud-based MPSTrak, it now offers reminders and
notifications management, user personalization, audit trail
management, mail processing from external servers, and
integration with the Rights and Permissions module.
MPSTrak is gaining momentum and maturity with each
implementation. At a leading STM society, where a 12-yearold desktop-based system had functioned as the main
production tracking and management tool, MPSTrak is now
implemented to manage the 70-plus journals that are available online and in print. An XML Editor now offers authors
online proofing capabilities while custom-built Web-based
APIs provide real-time
integration between
internal and external
systems such as those
at their aggregators
and online bookstores, adds Kumar.
With a leading medical publisher, the implementation of
MPSTrak with features such as scheduling, work task tracking, reporting, and online content editing, is about reducing
operational costs and production lead-time while increasing
process transparency to stakeholders and authors, explains
Kumar, whose team also implemented MPSTrak and DigiCore at an Australian publisher to facilitate seamless online,
mobile, and offline product channels.
Publishers are striving to enhance their viability during
these uncertain times of shifting business models, and are
seeking more than just lower costs from their suppliers. For
CEO Rahul Arora, the fundamentals of the MPS business are
no longer driven by wage arbitrage, but are balanced by its
contribution towards the revenue side of the publishing.
Today, we have deeper collaboration with publishers in the

22

www.publishersweekly.com

OCTOBER 2015
areas of product development, platform improvement, and
richer analytics. Also, our vision is to have our entire services
business be managed through MPS platforms that are either
integrated with existing publisher systems and/or used by
publishers through a Platform as a Service model. We possess technology capabilities to not only address the
conventional segment, but also to create technology-intensive platforms for smaller publishers.
Arora and his team will be at booth N10 in Hall 4.2 to
provide more information and demos on MPS suite of platforms and services.

OKS Group
The focus of OKS Group, says founder and CEO Vinit
Khanna, is on helping clients to expand and monetize their
digital offerings, from e-books and journals to digital classroom products.
And this is where the groups cloud-based workflow platform e2e comes into the picture. The updated e2e actively
solves client challenges, namely in eliminating the cumbersome, single-threaded process of file transfer, typesetting,
and corrections. It offers the efficiencies of true collaboration
and online communication, and more autonomy for authors,
thus resulting in greater speed and accuracy, says Khanna,
adding that from a collaboration and cost standpoint, e2e
is ideal for Open Access publishers, and incredibly helpful
for the others.
Among the advantages of
e2e are: platform independence (requiring no local
software installation); an
integrated math editor; customized client rules defined
upfront; zero reliance on
conventional typesetting to
generate structured content, create pages, and incorporate
corrections; and the ability to realize significant cost savings
while taking advantage of parallel product deliveries in
XML, HTML, PDF, and ePub3.
Flexibility, says Khanna, is a key feature. The bottom line
is that e2e is a single platform that can easily support multiple outputs. It streamlines workflow with lower risk of
introducing errors, which means a higher quality result at
reduced cost and faster turnaround times to the publisher.
OKS Group is well positioned to work with European
customers offering digital classroom as well as traditional
print products, Khanna says.We are proud of our translation
capabilities, and our ability to serve clients in their local language. We are especially happy to be in Frankfurt because of
our strong teams supporting the German, Dutch and Swedish
speaking markets. We give each client the customized solution
they need, from compliance with their platform specificationsfor Bookshelf in the Netherlands, for instanceto
project management and client support in their language.

The clean proof that science needs. Now.

Demo of Proof Central, an elegant way to proof STM content and page, at M90. Hall 4.2. October 14 - 18.
To preview, visit http://www.tnq.co.in/proong.html
Special TNQ Event: Single URL Publishing. 16:30 - 17:00 hours. October 16. Hall 4.2 L101. White Paper at
http://www.tnq.co.in/tnqfrankfurt2015.html

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

While STM has always been among the groups strengths
due to its ability to handle complex formulas and layouts,
there are many other services that the team can provide.
Our staff is trained to find sellers of pirated content. We
offer graphic, editorial, and data services. We work with
clients to identify opportunities to repurpose, digitize and
monetize older content. We research rights and permissions.
Our clients understand that the way to succeed is to have a
comprehensive strategy and the ability to execute it, and we
have the tools, experience, and knowledgeable resources
to deliver exactly that.

OCTOBER 2015
Contact marketing@oksgroup.com to fix an appointment
to discuss your projects with OKS Group team members from
Germany, Sweden, and India.

Publishing Technology
Last month, Publishing Technology launched a midtier solution IngentaDrive for publishers who are looking to host
their own branded site using standardized technology but
without the considerable investment in time and bespoke
software development. IngentaDrive offers the best of our
specialized solutions such as user-tested templates, self-ser-

Tackling Accessibility and NIMAS

Challenges at Cenveo Publisher Services
A content-centric approach is the key to resolving accessibility issues for publishers, says Kevin Burns, senior v-p of
content solutions.Words and imagesparticularly images
with rich, descriptive metadataare almost all inherently
digital today. By authoring or converting this digital source
data to a structured, machine-readable format, publishers
can have content in multiple outcomes, including NIMAS
[National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standards],
economically, and even profitably.
All four major specialized output formats for accessibilityBraille, large print, audio and digital textfollow
predictable rules and logic. So a structured master file
approach is used to create the content once, and output it
as needed in as many formats as required, with minimal
manual intervention, adds Burns, pointing out that
NIMAS, an XML-based specification for organizing and
structuring textbook and other educational content, is the
format of choice.
At Cenveo, the input for NIMAS projects is often a combination of Word files, hard copy, PDFs or XML as well as
existing metadata for each textbook, says business manager
Yogesh Jedhe. We use robust transformation technology
tools to extract data from input files, apply or edit XML
tags, and process and tag image files. These steps parallel
the process of creating XML files for print production. Then
our content analysts make sure that the elements requiring
detailed human judgment, such as image descriptions, are
properly created. Finally, our team validates the XML file
against the NIMAS schema and a series of business rules,
which are designed to check the file beyond basic NIMAS
compliance.
Jedhe and his team also work with clientss subject matter experts to make sure that image description fields are
populated with text that truly help visually impaired students. Elements such as math equations must be captured
accurately and effectively to convey information to the
visually impaired. So far, the team has converted more than

24

www.publishersweekly.com

2,700 books for educational publishers big and small.

Reiterating the importance of creating great NIMAS files
instead of good enough output, Burns says: All too often,
budget constraints lead conversion teams to choose the
easiest and cheapest way instead of doing the right thing to
create a good NIMAS file. But successful NIMAS conversions must include accurate comprehension of visual design
elements used in print. Without a certain level of visual
literacysuch as the use of sidebars, bullet lists or calloutsthe resulting NIMAS output will lack the granularity
and nuance of its printed counterpart.
Long description for images, which is a NIMAS requirement for any visual element in a printed textbook, is often
an issue. Published captions or call-outs are not truly meaningful for someone visually impaired if these are just copied
and pasted from the print version. So those creating the
NIMAS file must have an understanding of the subject in
order to create additional content that really make images
accessible to the print disabled.
The long descriptions for images are also vital to making
content usable, and discoverable, down the road. Having
contentespecially nontext contentthat is easily discoverable is exactly what things like long descriptions in
NIMAS files are all about. Discoverability and content
repurposing may well be the financial driver for managed
content practices that will, as a side benefit, result in better
NIMAS files, adds Burns, pointing out that with mobile
devices becoming better in conveying sound, large print and
even tactile data, the potential for accessibility increases.
With NIMAS, there is savings, and even profitability, if a
publishers content is more broadly discoverable and easily
repurposed while avoiding the need to recreate it for each
new project.
Executive v-p for global content services Atul Goel will
be at Frankfurt with sales and marketing director Marion
Morrow. Email marion.morrow@cenveo.com to schedule
an appointment for demos on Cenveos myriad services.

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

vice management system, modern responsive design, and
standard third-party integration, says marketing manager
Mike Groth, whose team will provide daily demos on IngentaDrive and Ingentaconnect services at 11 a.m. from its booth
with PCG (Publishers Communication Group), a division of
Publishing Technology, in Hall 4.2 L35.
The well-established Ingentaconnect platform, says Groth,
recently added 5,400 new titles from the British Library,
available via its Document Supply service. With Ingentaconnects user base of over 25,000 registered institutions in
170 countries along with a built-in network of library discovery partnerships, this increases the discoverability of
British Library content to a new global audience, says Groth,
whose team has just implemented a new publishing platform
for the Society of General Microbiology, the largest such
society in Europe. It brings together 55,000 articles from six
journals, and employs the best features of Pub2web technology and third-party integrations such as Figshare. Meanwhile,
PCG has partnered with Japanese publisher Meteo to bring
its database of otherwise inaccessible medical content to
Americas academic and medical institutions.
At Frankfurt, Publishing Technology will unveil a cloud
version of Product Manager title management solution, which
is a part of the advance enterprise system. Initially configured
for one of the worlds largest trade publishers to manage their
IP globally, the app enables easy aggregating, bundling and
monetization of print and digital assets by applying flexible
business models. The SaaS version of Product Manager, adds
Groth, removes barriers between different business functions, ensuring everyone in a publishing organization is
editing and using the same data. Daily demos on this cloud
version are held at 12 p.m. at its Hall 4.2 booth as well as from
Publishing Technologys main booth in Hall 6.2 B28.
PCG managing director Melissanne Scheld will chair
What Is a Publisher Now? Lessons from the Classroom
roundtable at 2 p.m. on October 14 in Hall 4.2s Hot Spot
Professional and Scientific Information. Then at 4 p.m. in
Hall 6.2s Hot Spot Digital Innovation, executive v-p for
business development Jane Tappuni will speak at Mickey
Mouse to Minecraft: Licensing Childrens Brands. On the
following day, executive v-p for product strategy Randy
Petway and Helen Sun, CEO of Publishing Technology
China, will be discussing about Open Access: The Next
Wave in Hall 4.Cs Concorde Room at 9 a.m.

SourceHOV and Rule 14

SourceHOV will launch two new products at Frankfurt this
year. One of them is known as Jet, which is an automated
metadata extraction for academic publishers. By applying
machine learning, natural language processing, and mathe-

25

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

matical modeling to content, manual intervention is
completely removed, says senior director of editorial services John Sollami. This provides immense speed for the
publisher to go to market, and does away with vendor dependency. The results are time, cost, and quality benefits.
Machine learning, natural language processing, and mathematical modeling are crucial for anyone publishing content
and wanting to utilize it fully, Solami adds. Every publisher
must accurately identify various essential elements in their
content in order to utilize it. The question is how to do so
without incurring the time, cost, and accuracy issues of manual intervention. More
publishers are now recognizing the great benefits of
automating this process,
and are clamoring for a
solution. Our solution for
these publishers is Jet.
The chief developer of
Jet and manager of Rule
14, an affiliate company of SourceHOV, Shao-Shao Cheng,
will deliver a talk on Automated Metadata Extraction Using
ML-NLP-Mathematical Modeling at 3:15 p.m. on October
16 in Hall 4.0s Hot Spot Publishing Services.

OCTOBER 2015
The second product, BoxOffice, provides a range of cloudbased enterprise information management services that
enable organizations to ingest, extract, and store key data
from documents. It empowers business units with actionable and trackable intelligence, says Nakul Parashar, v-p for
enterprise content management, adding that cloud-based
BoxOffice offers greater security, a drastic reduction in paper
handling, and allows role-based access for seamless retrieval
in most formats.
For Parashar, publishers as clients have always been looking at reducing costs, but for most, cost reductions have now
become critical to survival. Publishers are looking at achieving high quality, better project management, and faster
turnaround times at much lower costs, which are all major
challenges to solutions providers like us. They also want to
repurpose their content. At SourceHOV, we took these challenges as our guiding spirit to achieve our objective, which is
to help publishers.
Adds Parashar, We already have a number of proven
technologies and workflows in place, and now we have added
BoxOffice and Jet, which are new products that use forward-thinking content extraction and classification
techniques. Our products are deployed at a number of large
organizations as enterprise-wide solutions, and have been
proven successful in helping publishers.
For more information on SourceHOV and Rule 14 products and solutions, visit booth L54 in Hall 4.2.

Stison Publishing Solutions

Getting the metadata right from the start takes the center
stage at Stison. We understand that metadata is not glamorous. But getting the right systems and technology in place
to handle bibliographic and other data means publishers can
do away with many of those mundane and repetitive jobs
around numbers and recordsand get on with the creative
things they do so well. Consider it as an investment, and that
metadata control is not just for the big boys, says managing
director Alex Murphy.
Stisons cloud-based scalable publishing management solution gives publishers,
distributors, and rights
agents control of their
data so that they can
simply send it where
they want to. So driven
is Stison about the importance of metadata that it offers its
core Title Manager module free for publishers with less than
200 publications.
Adds Murphy: It is our aim to avoid tech-speak and the
complications traditionally associated with software installations. Our publishing solution with its different modules
is designed to be simple and intuitive; no lengthy training
course or a thick tome of instruction manual required. You
can just log on and run it in no time. The modulescovering

26

www.publishersweekly.com

OCTOBER 2015

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

royalties, e-book, Web, production, rights, and title managementenable all information to be stored in a single platform
for quick access wherever you are.
Over the last 12 months, the team has been busy installing
rights and royalty management modules at various publishing
houses. Aside from being able to import sales data from any
number of sources quicklyand painlesslythe module
offers the ability to generate royalty statements on the fly, and
bulk send those statements via email. During one installation
process, an error report and the ensuing investigation led
Murphy and his team to uncover the fact that the publisher
had been overpaying some of their authors.But with the new
module, cross-checking will ensure such error does not recur.
Ultimately, good practice is about accuracy of data, and
that is why Stison believes in getting it right from the start.
One client went from an accuracy of just under 50% to
around 90% after installing our title management module,
says Murphy, pointing out that with the technology changing
so fast, using a system like Stison ensures that data can be
managed, transferred, sent and distributed any where at any
time easily. Having your data in a smart, tagged database
ensures that you are planning for the future as well as today.
Visit booth J94 in Hall 4.2 to get more information and case
studies on Stison.

Chinas K12 publishing house. We also collaborate with

Hong Kong Education City Limited, which is under the aegis
of the territorys ministry of education. Our Digital Books and
Media Solution, or DBMS, for instance, is used to digitize the
Hong Kong and Macao educational sectors, says Pancewicz.
During Frankfurt, YDPs booth (C67 in Hall 4.2) will offer
presentations on various topics including gamifying books,
perfect blended learning for kindergarten, supporting teachers in their digital journey, the special role of math and science
in todays education, 21st-century learning and teaching
skills, and creation of truly interactive books. Presentations
start at 10 a.m. daily from October 14 to 16. Head of YDP
think tank Jolanta Galecka will focus on Textbook Digitization in Germany: Lessons Learned at 11 a.m. on October
16 at Hall 4.2s Hot Spot Education. Online and mobile
solutions product manager Marcin Skrabka, on the other
hand, will explore the topic, Gamifying Books and Content
on Mobile Devices, at 12:30 p.m. on the same day over at
Hall 6.2s Hot Spot Digital Innovation.
Free copies of The Book of Trends in Education 2.0, a
comprehensive 334-page report on 51 of the most recent
trends in education by 22 YDP experts and renowned specialists in the field, are available from its booth and website

(ydp.eu).

Young Digital Planet

With Your Partner in 21st Century Education as its Frankfurt theme, Polish firm Young Digital Planet (YDP) is all
about empowering teachers, engaging students, and improving learning outcomes. Established in Gdansk in 1990, and
staffed by a group of education specialists and technology
professionals, YDP is a part of Sanoma Learning, one of
Europes leading educational companies. It offers digital
solutions for K12 and preschool education, and delivery
platforms and technologies for the publishing industry. Its
products have been used in more than 45 countries, with its
digital courses localized accordingly.
We believe that efficacy in education is achieved by focusing on individual needs. So we have adopted a personalized
approach that allows students to choose their learning path
and style, and unlock their potential, says CEO Kuba Pancewicz, adding that more freedom in learning boosts
self-motivations, which is the best way to achieve true
engagement. This philosophy and its innovative solutions
have seen the company winning various awards including
Polands New Technology Leader Award, Top Quality
Quality International (QI) Laureate title and the gold prize,
and Ambassador of the
Polish Economy award.
One of its big projects
revolves around providing
content and content development technologies to
Peoples Education Press,

Selling eBooks Direct to Consumer?

Tired of DRM issues?

Switch to BooXtream!

Social Soft DRM - The Better DRM Alternative

The Leading Supplier of Digital Watermarking

Protect and enhance your eBooks with BooXtream:
Easy to install - Full ePub compatibility
Consumer friendly - Support desk friendly
Cost effective - No license fee - No subscription fee
In use by publishers and eBook web shops world wide
New
Create and send personalised eBook review copies
Improved API, plug-ins for WordPress / WooCommerce, Shopify

International Book Industry Technology Supplier Award

www.booxtream.com

hall 6.2 stand D40

27

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

What Libraries Need
to Consider When
Looking at E-book
Lending Solutions
BY MARIBEL RIAZA AND JAVIER CELAYA

E-book lending in libraries has its challenges,

but as the explosion of new players, platforms,
and service providers in the field suggests,
it is on the upswing. How do you choose
which e-book lending service is best for
your library?

hat may be the most difficult part of the equation. Competition is supposed to be good for markets but is the market for
library e-book lending services getting overly complicated?
Are all the new players and models just adding to the confusion in the marketplace for libraries? For libraries, there are
lending limits, time limits, complicated pricing, and publishers who
only work with some services and not others. And, for patrons, just
how many plug-ins and systems and steps should a reader have to be
expected to navigate just to get an e-book?
As a 2014 report on e-books from the International Federation of
Library Associations, observed: Taken globally, the current situation
is a patchwork at best.
The key to understanding what services may work for your library
is to first explore your librarys needs and priorities. To help, Dosdoce.
com has created an infographic 12 Key Aspects to Consider in a Public E-lending Initiative. The aim of this visual tool is to help lead
librarians through the various different steps to consider when launching or renewing e-lending initiatives, and to highlight a variety of
issues that librarians must analyze, including the following:

1. Technology Ownership vs.

License Agreements
The first and most obvious decision a library has to make will be about
its technology. Currently, there are three main options.
The first is coding and owning ones own platform. Second is

28

www.publishersweekly.com

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

negotiating for a custom platform or white label version of a
third-party platform. Finally, and the most common solution for
libraries, is to execute a licensing agreement with one of the
commercial platforms available in the marketplace, such as
OverDrive, Baker & Taylor, 3M, etc.
While the first option is initially more laborious, it can provide
librarians with more control, as well as more flexibility for their
e-lending initiatives, and is becoming more popular as initiatives
progress, such as Library Simplified, led by the New York Public
Library, or the recently launched e-Liburutegia, the e-lending
platform used by the government of Spains autonomous Basque
Country. Similar projects in Belgium and Grenoble, France, are
also validating this option.

2. The Large Variety of

License Models
In this infographic we have identified at least 12 types of different
purchase licenses. They include standardized licenses that limit
the number of loans per title (usually around 26 loans before
access must be repurchased); licenses that apply a time period
restriction, usually one or two years, after which all remaining
loans are canceled even if some titles might not have been checked;
and non-expiring licenses that allow libraries to offer titles until
all 26 loans have taken place, even if that takes longer. And
there are also a range of new, innovative streaming models. These
models hold promise, although they have yet to garner broad
participation from publishers.

3. Fostering Demand for

E-Books at Libraries
With the Internet having radically changed the ways people seek
and find information and content over the past two decades,
perhaps the most basic question is how long libraries will keep
supporting digital services that based on 20th-century physical
experiences?
Geo-location, facial recognition, smart sensors (beacons),
recommendation systems based on user satisfaction, interactive
applications, and other third-generation technological enhancements offer libraries an impressive range of possibilities to enrich
users experiences. With all this in mind, we hope this infographicwill become a handy reference tool for librarians worldwide as they consider technology purchases. After all, a librarys
technology must not only help meet the demands of patrons
today but should also anticipate and be flexible enough to help
you meet the shifting demands of your future patrons as well.
Maribel Riaza is a project manager at Spanish cultural
portal Dosdoce.com, and Javier Celaya is a founding partner
at the company.

29

The DIGITAL SPOTLIGHT

OCTOBER 2015

Four Questions for BISG Executive

Director Mark Kuyper
BY ANDREW RICHARD ALBANESE
On June 15, Mark Kuyper, former CEO of the
Evangelical Christian Publishers Association,
succeeded Len Vlahos as executive director of
the Book Industry Study Group, the U.S.s leading book trade association for standardized
best practices, research, information, and
educational events. Where will BISG go next?
As we kickoff the 2015 Frankfurt Book Fair,
whats your take on the state of publishing?
I think we are an industry on the brink of significant innovation. We have made it through the challenging work of introducing content in digital formats. But while it has been a lot
of work, it has generally been uninspired. For the most part,
we have taken what was once in print and made it available
digitally. I am not minimizing what has been doneit has
required new technology, workflows, skills, marketing, and
more, and there have been some wonderful flashes of innovation. But I think our brightest, most creative days, are ahead.
The variables have never been so broad: any length of content, delivered in an array of methods and formats, interwoven with stunning amounts of data. It is exciting and terrifying at the same time.

Can you talk about your vision, and what topics you see BISG seeking to study and address?
In the big picture, I would like to see BISG be the most valuable resource for the book community when it comes to
information about how to efficiently move content. Currently,
we have a collaborative working group compiling best practices in accessibility. Later this year, we will publish a Quick
Start Guide to Accessibility and offer a summit on this topic.
We are also partnering with BookNet Canada to bring a data
quality testing tool to our publishers, as well as to give providers an opportunity to be certified for their level of accuracy. We have also partnered with the American Library
Association to release Digital Content in Public Libraries this
fall, which provides the latest information about patrons and
their uses of books, e-books, audio and other resources provided by public libraries. Our much-anticipated YA subject
code listing will be available soon as well. These are just a
few of the projects we will deliver this year. We also want to
create a system of ongoing workflow evaluation in our ecosystem, to make sure we can find and extinguish fires quickly.

30

www.publishersweekly.com

For so much of the last decade,

digital distribution has dominated the headlines. Yet physi- MARK KUYPER
cal distribution remains the industrys lifeblood.
How do you see the print and digital ecosystem
evolving?
Its funny how we have created this mythical battle between
print and digital. I think both will exist for a long time to
come and the percentages and market shares will fluctuate.
Neither print nor physical will win out. The consumer will
win, though, because as technology expands, it creates more
options to deliver content.
I constantly talk about how business always trends toward
its most efficient means and toward what gives consumers
more of what they want. In that context, I think the most
efficient process is for content to move directly from the creator to the consumer. There will be myriad ways for publishers to assist in that process, but every one of them will have
to prove their value.
When I speak to publishers today, they often talk about
managing the breadth of exposure for an author, including
video, conferences, social media, print, digital, online events,
interactive content, and so forth. So, I think there will be
many more delivery options to discuss than the two we have
pitted against each other in the current environment.

Data has really become a hot topic at conferences

lately. How important is it to keep metadata and
our data practices front and center?
Its very important. Everything we do in life, not just reading
books, is increasingly driven by data. Data gives you the
tools to learn and improve. For example, I just read an article
about the Google self-driving car, which is a car conceived
and operated by datathe car is always collecting data to
tell the car what to do. The car is constantly seeking information to perform better. The same is true for books. Data
attached to books helps them travel more efficiently through
our ecosystem, but it can also feed back data to help us be
smarter about how we create and distribute content. Right
now, we are able know how many pages are read in a digital
book, but in the future we will be able to glean now-unfathomable amounts of information about distribution, use, and
consumer behaviordata we can barely imagine today. That
data will give us the information we need to make us smarter
and better at what we dothough, I have to add the caveat
that this all has to be tempered with respect for privacy.

Be it print, digital or both.

Looking for new ways to generate revenue from existing content?
Want to develop stronger relationships with your readers?
Want to take advantage of opportunities that were too hard before?
The new content marketplace is increasingly centred on the individual consumer, but
while the opportunities have multiplied, the ability for publishers to take advantage of
them has been extremely limited. Now, with Ingrams Construct, you can easily and
cost-effectively transform your content to meet the needs of your customers.
From childrens personalized storybooks to anthologies, custom textbooks to
conference-specific editions, we have easy to implement solutions that allow you to
take control of your content and find new roads to market, be it print, digital or both.

Talk to Ingram about how publishers are customizing and

personalizing their books using Ingrams Ingram Construct
and producing both print and digital custom books.

To find out how we can help you sell more books

worldwide, visit Ingram at Hall 6.0, Stand E129.

www.ingramcontent.com

P&E
Its a hybrid world
Make certain youre always
offering customers the books they
want in the formats they read
mostand capture every sale.

Visit our new site: www.ingramcontent.com