The Digital Publishing Handbook

The Digital Publishing Handbook

Capstrat Staff

09.01.2011
In: Interactive

There’s been an explosion in digital media options for sharing and promoting thought leadership. In fact, eReader adoption has reached 12 percent as of May 2011, up from 6 percent in November 2010 (Pew Internet Research). This is a moment of great opportunity for marketers. But in many cases, it can be harder to know which option is best.

This is a practical guide to understanding and deploying digital media for publishing thought leadership.

The most important rule

There are plenty of options for digital publishing. But if the content itself isn’t compelling, nobody will want to read it—no matter how cool or convenient the delivery mechanism.

As with any project, content is king. Before we even start thinking about the final format, we should first ask: “What do we want to say?” From there, we can consider translating it into any or all of the formats outlined here.

This isn’t a new concept. But it’s more important than ever.

Maximum options

Consumers today are used to choosing how they view things on the Internet. Some view content in small bites on their smart phones, others flip through them on their iPad’s touch screen, and others go the old-fashioned route, scrolling through on Firefox or Internet Explorer. Increasingly, they’re able to do all of the above. The key is giving them plenty of options.

Ideally, our audience would be able to view thought leadership in whatever format they like. Give them our latest mini-book as a PDF, a digital flip book, and a book in Apple’s iBookstore. They can choose how they want to view it based on their own preferences. And they can get it from a number of different places: your company, Apple, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and maybe even through an industry-specific app.

This approach introduces some important technical considerations. By developing a series of universal specifications, we can ensure that any content we develop is able to be translated into these various digital channels easily.

Types of content

Designing for the iPad, Nook, Kindle, or other tablet or eReader device requires designing in different formats.

Traditionally, our go-to for formatting content is a PDF. But, PDFs are a fixed medium where the formatting and layout are displayed the same way at all times, whether shared in print or electronically. So images, words, paragraphs, and columns are positioned at fixed coordinates within a page, at all times.

When designing for tablets and eReaders, we design with reflowable content in mind. This means that the content is reflowed optimally to adapt to the screen size, which varies. Here, the user, rather than the publisher is empowered to choose how they consume the content. This includes selecting the font family, font size, margin width, line spacing, and other attributes to make their reading experience more comfortable.

Along the way, we need to continue working closely with Brand to determine the appropriate design standards for reflowable content devices. These platforms have evolving design functionality, and some allow more control of appearance than others.

Know these terms

The following are important details and points of distinction on the various platforms. In addition to sharing the basics on each, this guide also highlights key considerations if you think this medium is right for you.

Before getting started, make sure you know the following definitions, and how they differ:

    • eBook (short for electronic book) Also known as a digital book, this is the electronic counterpart of a printed book that can be viewed on a desktop computer, laptop, smart phone, or eReader.
    • eReader (short for electronic reader) A handheld device specialized for reading eBooks. Examples of eReaders are the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, and Sony Reader.
    • ePub (short for electronic publishing) An open standard for electronic books used by many vendors for eBooks. This file format has become the universal standard within the eReader sector.
    • Tablet computer A general purpose computer contained in a single panel. The distinguishing characteristic is the use of a touch screen as the input device. The Apple iPad, Motorola Xoom, and Blackberry Playbook are all tablet computers.

eReaders

Apple iPad

The Apple iPad is an iOS-based (Apple’s mobile operating system) tablet computer designed for web browsing, eBook reading, and entertainment. The iPad incorporates a multi-touch screen, which drives user experience and allows them to interact with rich text, graphics, and media on one display.

The user can rotate the device at any time, and expects the content to maintain its focus on the primary functionality.

Although the iPad is not necessarily an eReader device, it can be used as an eReader through the Apple iBooks and Amazon Kindle applications.

Apple iPad users can interact with content in several ways:

  • Applications: single and multi-edition
  • Web pages
  • PDF downloads
  • eBooks via the iBooks and Kindle apps
  • Newsstand subscriptions

iPad eBooks

The Apple iPad allows users to download and view eBooks through the iBooks app. In addition to downloading eBooks, iPad users can also view PDFs through iBooks.

Pros

  • Publishers can update content electronically, so it’s continually refreshed and never gets stale
  • There’s a great degree of user functionality and interactivity
  • Users can download other eBook reader apps to access the Kindle and Nook bookstores
  • Content developers can incorporate live links that allow users to flip between the eBook and a website
  • There’s a greater degree of flexibility on image placement
  • Several text styles can be incorporated into one book using text color, size, and weight
  • Publishers can offer books for free, while other stores require a minimum fee
  • iBooks works with VoiceOver, the screen reader in iPad, so it can read the contents of the page to the user

Cons

  • Apple requires you to submit an application prior to accessing resources for creating your eBook
  • Getting application approval takes about48 hours
  • You cannot change the identifying information: the name associated with the tax I.D. number becomes the author name
  • Apple requires all eBooks to have a unique ISBN number1
  • There’s a poor developer support system for eBooks
  • It can take as long as one month for QA and for the book to appear in iBooks
  • There’s a great deal of competition once listed in iBooks

Kindle

The Kindle, powered by Amazon.com, allows content publishers to share their books via Kindle devices and on Kindle apps for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, PC, Mac, Blackberry, Android-based devices, and Windows Phone 7.

Nook

The Nook is Barnes & Noble’s version of an eReader. The latest models offer books, magazines, and newspapers in full color, in addition to apps and other features.

Pros

  • Content can be uploaded as a Word doc for publishing, among other formats
  • Sharing content in color is an option for Nook Color owners
  • Published content can be downloaded free of charge
  • Updates to published content involve uploading the revised file
  • Books submitted via PubIt!—Barnes & Noble’s self publishing software—will be approved within 24 to 72 hours
  • Updates to book content or cover image will appear within 24 to 72 hours. If the updates do not appear, Barnes & Noble contacts the publisher.
  • An ISBN number is not required to publish
  • Embedded fonts, columns, and bulleted or numbered lists are supported

Cons

  • There is very little control over design and formatting
  • Nook only has 26 to 27 percent eBook market share as of June 20112
  • Cannot link to other sources as readers cannot leave the eBook to view a webpage
  • Limited image and table formatting

Mobile

Not all websites are designed with mobile users in mind. And given that a majority of your audience is on the go, our goal should be to provide them with the best possible user experience.

Optimizing for mobile viewing means avoiding unsupported technologies like Flash, plug-ins, and Java that are not compatible with most mobile platforms. Optimized webpages also correctly scale content for the device screen and include text on-screen so users don’t need to download attachments.

Consideration should be given to length as well to prevent continuous scrolling on smaller screens.

Take for example a new POV. Users would first view article pages that typically
features a few paragraphs of teaser/lead-in text and a PDF to download at the bottom. For a mobile-friendly experience, a link to “Read the full article” should be
included that opens a new page with the POV text and imagery. If possible, the POV should be divided into digestible chunks that readers can page through—perhaps by using jump links.

Keep in mind, though, that making your content viewable on a mobile device is very different from creating a mobile app.

Creating a unique mobile experience

These days, it seems like everyone has an app. So what about you?

One of the advantages to creating a mobile application is that it allows you to tailor the user’s experience to match the constraints of a mobile device. This could mean chunking content into small pieces and allowing users to thumb through the pages. Interactivity can also be incorporated, further engaging your audience.

Special consideration should be given to how these applications are categorized. Do we focus on functions? Business issues? Industries? One approach is to create apps for each of your major industries/audiences. Since clients are more likely to think about themselves in terms of their industry, this makes it easy to find the thought leadership that applies to them.

Industry-based applications could include not only content generated by the industry teams, but also function-driven thinking that applies to that industry.

Apple iPad apps

There are two types of applications we can design for: single or multi-edition.

Single edition apps allow distribution from Apple without per-issue fees, but distribution will happen from scratch each time a publication is released. iPad users simply visit the App Store and download the app to view the content available at that time. This means email promotions would be necessary to generate interest.

Through a multi-edition app, newly published content is automatically pushed to users who have the app installed and downloaded to their device. (When a fee is involved, the user can elect whether or not to download the publication, but they’re still notified that it’s available.) This means we can share new thought leadership with users who already have the app without needing to promote it through emails and web traffic.

Think of this as a subscription-based service: when a new POV is released, the next edition is automatically pushed to the user, without the user having to search for the new content.

Providing an interactive experience

Whether you’re creating content for use in a single edition or multi-edition app, creating iPad apps allows users to interact with your content on an entirely new level.

Pros

  • There’s an optimal user experience and flexibility
  • Apps can be designed for one iOS platform (iPad only) or for multiple platforms (iPhone and iPad)
  • Live links, streaming video, and rich graphic displays (photos, tables, graphs) are allowed
  • Includes expanded functionality: users can use one section of the app at a time and switch between portions of the app and entire apps as they please
  • Users can search for specific terms
  • App creators can control the entire look and feel through specific font families, text sizing, and design elements

Cons

  • iOS devices (Pad, iPhone, iPod Touch) do not support Flash, Java, or third-party plug-ins within web content
  • Users expect to be able to use “gestures” to enhance their direct manipulation of onscreen objects. Experience is greatly reduced when gestures are not available
  • There’s no fixed positioning

If you build it, will they come?

Not necessarily.

If you go through all the hurdles required to get something posted in the iTunes store, on Amazon.com, or the Barnes & Noble site, you still have to figure out a way to
push people there. Otherwise, you’re going to be looking at some embarrassingly low download numbers.

Some ideas to consider when marketing digital content include sharing it with relevant groups on LinkedIn, tweeting about it, reaching out to a group of social bloggers, and setting up an API with trusted site partners. The API allows content to flow seamlessly to selected sites as soon as it’s posted for sharing with new audiences.

Next steps

This is just a broad overview of what’s possible with digital publishing, and these options will continue to evolve. As teams begin to develop new thought leadership, we can share additional details on how to execute on these various channels.

We’re here if you have any questions and hope to keep an open conversation going about how to take your content to the next level.

2 XDnet (2011). Barnes & Noble: Nook market share, sales surge, but so do losses. Retrieved from www.zdnet.com.