ePublishing: What is ePublishing (Electronic Publishing)

Electronic Publishing, ePublishing or Digital Publishing: What is ePublishing (Electronic Publishing)

It becoming increasingly common to distribute books, magazines, and newspapers to consumers online or through tablet reading devices (eReaders), a market that is growing by millions each year, generated by online vendors such as Amazon’s bookstore for Kindle, Apple’s iTunes bookstore, and e-books in the Android Market.

• Although distribution via the Internet (online publishing) is strongly associated with electronic publishing, don’t forget, there are many non network electronic publications such as technical manuals and encyclopaedias distributed on CD and DVD.

Electronic publishing is increasingly popular in works of fiction as well as with scientific articles. Growth is especially prevalent in areas where standard book retailers fear to tread or with books by new authors that would be unlikely to be profitable for traditional publishers. Self publication of e-books is growing all the time and software such as Kindle Ritual, combined with WordPress and Kindle Direct Publishing (Amazon’s e-book publishing platform), will see this area of electronic publish continue to expand.

• Electronic publishing has become common in scientific publishing where it has been argued that peer-reviewed scientific journals are in the process of being replaced by electronic publishing.

Electronic Publishing Process

The electronic publishing process is basically the same as the traditional publishing process with two important differences;

• ePublishing  does not require a printing press to print the final product and
• a physical product does not require distribution.

Being electronic content, ePublishing is generally conducted over the Internet and through electronic bookstores and viewed by the reader on either their computer or eReader (Kindle, iPad, tablet device, etc.). Very rarely will the consumer even consider printing the e-book.

Advantages of ePublishing Include:

• Negligible investment by the publisher.
• Greater willingness of publishers to accept new writers.
• Less risk trying non-traditional niches publishing areas.
• Faster publishing time for accepted manuscripts (weeks not years).
• Greater flexibility within the writer/publisher relationship.
• The ability for authors to Self-Publish.
• Writers can update text easily at virtually no cost.
• EPublishing offers greater longevity for works with slower sales.
• Writers get a higher percentage of royalties (Amazon/Kindle up to 70%).
• E-book writers normally retain all other rights to the work.
• Royalties are paid more frequently by e-publishers, i.e. monthly or quarterly rather than annually.

Disadvantages of ePublishing Include:

• At the moment it seems to be harder to get a ‘best seller’ with e-publishing.
• Writers are responsible for providing their own ongoing marketing for e-published work.
• E-book authors do not (in general) command the same respect as traditional authors.
• Generally, e-book authors do not receive an advance.
• E-Books are easy to copy so piracy is a major concern in the e-publishing industry.
• Prices are not always significantly cheaper for e-works, despite the lower overhead.

Why ePublish?

Why would you want to use ePublishing? Well, ePublishing gives authors the opportunity to reach a global audience in a low cost effective manner. For authors capable of making the move from traditional publishing methods to ePublishing, this is a very promising and lucrative market with a large global audience. Software such as Kindle Ritual is there for those wanting to publish direct to the Amazon Kindle market place.

What is ePublishing (electronic Publishing) Conclusion

Well, I hope you found something useful and enjoyed this article, What is ePublishing (Electronic Publishing). Don’t forget to let me have your thoughts in the comment box below. See you soon.