The Influence of Electronic Publishing on Roles in Publishing

I. Electronic publishing is an important trend

With the rapid development of Internet technology and the increasing penetration and popularity of Internet applications, almost every industry is considering the impact of Internet technology on itself, and the publishing industry should be one of the most thought-provoking and worried industries. Internet technology not only changes the traditional publishing process in production, but also changes the readers in reading habits, and it is gradually infiltrating the traditional publishing industry in the form of business. The traditional publishing industry is facing a more severe situation than the radio and television when it was born.

In the traditional publishing process, the person who assumes all aspects of the work has different roles and different technical requirements. Therefore, Intel’s understanding and incentives or impacts are also different. Therefore, understanding and receiving the Internet are also different. But one thing is certain: Electronic publishing is a huge influence for any character. This article attempts to understand the impact and changes brought about by electronic publishing on traditional publishing from these different perspectives.

The traditional publishing process and e-publishing process can generally be illustrated:

Figure I: (a) Traditional Publishing Process (b) Electronic Publishing Process

As can be seen in the figure, electronic publishing can basically be considered as a publishing and distribution system formed around digitization and networking, that is, integrating information technology into traditional publishing and reading activities such as editing, printing, distribution, and reading. The most obvious difference between electronic publishing and traditional publishing is the difference in the form of transmission, storage, and output of information. Of course, there are other forms of electronic publishing, such as optical publishing, but the most important impact on the traditional publishing industry should be online publishing, or Internet publishing.

According to information published by the literature and periodical publishers, EBSCO estimates that 50% of journals will be published electronically in the next five years; Glen M. Secor believes sales of electronic information will grow by 5% over the next five years. 10% will grow by 10% to 30% in 10 years and 50% in 20 years. Some large publishers already have many electronic journals, such as Springer-Verlag and Elsevier Science. These internationally-known large-scale publishing houses, in addition to their own periodicals that are published electronically, also participate in the publication of many electronic journals. For example, the Tulip Electronic Periodical Publishing Program, OCLC's Core Project, and CICNet's Journal Collaboration Collection Program are all displayed. Out of the publishing industry's emphasis on electronic publishing, they believe that electronic publishing is an inevitable trend of development. According to a research project that Canada has done, electronic publishing costs 28% to 48% less than paper publishing. This survey does not consider the initial equipment, but only looks at the cost of editing, selling, ordering and transmitting the entire process. . From the above perspective, we can expect that electronic publishing will be an important trend.

Second, the impact of electronic publishing on writers

It is the desk workers who are the first to be affected by electronic publishing in the publishing process. They may very much welcome these influences, because these influences bring them mostly benefits, such as increased efficiency, faster reader understanding, faster access to their own works. The following are the main aspects of the impact.

1. Writing mode changes

Most authors and editors have become accustomed to using word processing tools, graphics processing tools and networks to assist in their own creation. This is much more efficient than their "cracking." They can easily find information, copy text, paste text, make graphics, typeset, etc. It was thought that relying on these tools to create ideas that would affect inspiration has ceased to exist. Of course, there are still regrets about relying on digital tools for writing, such as the “big face” of editorial marks left behind when writing.

Another noteworthy thing is that with the emergence of the concept of network collaborative work and the introduction of corresponding application systems, collective writing, the novel interpreting, and the writing of readers and authors have changed the writing style of the writing staff.

2. Online distribution enables the author or work to be recognized by readers faster

On March 14, 2000, the adventure novelist Steven King's new short story “Riding the Bullet” accessed the internet. Within 24 hours, retail websites poured in 400,000 orders, and the number of purchases reached 500,000 within two days. On July 25, 2000, Steven King launched his new book “The Plant”, which was serialized in batches on the website. He hoped that readers would automatically pay him 1 US dollar for every download. He said that more than 75% of readers will continue to pay for the serialization. Fiction. A week later, 152,132 (76.4%) of the readers were willing to pay and set a new record for electronic publication in the publishing industry.

New writers rely on the internet for a quick start. A patent attorney named Frank Weyer used amateur writing a mystery novel. After being rejected by more than a dozen publishing houses, he decided to publish it himself. He e-mailed the summary to 15,000 students, resulting in 1,400 Internet users downloading the book.

Melisse Shapiro's horror fiction was published online, priced at $10 for download and $20 for photocopying. She sold 150 copies and 500 copies. She used this income to print 3,000 books on her own and became Amazon's 123th bestseller. The major publishers signed her contract to buy the copyright of the book.

3. Web Publishing Closes the Distance between Writers and Readers

Through the Internet, the author's work can be displayed directly to the reader without the need of editing, publishing houses and bookstores. This makes the distance between the author and the reader very close, and the intermediate link is greatly reduced. In addition, the authors and readers can also communicate directly on the Internet, so that the author gets a lot of suggestions for improvement, and timely feedback. Therefore, writing and publishing in the Internet environment are interactive.

4. Revision is easier

In the past, it was impossible to quickly revisit the edition. A maximum number of supplementary materials or errata were mailed by the publisher. However, under the Internet publishing environment, the revision is almost something that can be done on the moon or month. Even if the text does not change, a new version may be introduced due to the improvement of the software. Of course, whether this kind of software-based approach will cause the author to become bored and uncomfortable is another matter.

5. Book is more convenient

In the past, in order to produce a book, in addition to writing work, it took a great deal of energy to be spent on the editors and publishers, and even to contact the printing factory and sell it on their own. It was miserable. With the development of online publishing, e-books are in full swing, and the cost of publishing has plummeted. Authors, editors, publishers, and bookstores must become well-coordinated teams to better develop themselves.

Third, the impact of electronic publishing on publishers and publishers

Electronic publishing is not easily accepted by publishers or publishers, and their feelings may be more shocking. How to timely adapt to the development and trend of electronic publishing technology, properly guide all departments and personnel of the publishing house to use new technologies to arm themselves, and take active measures, this will be the key to whether the publishing house can maintain its leading position and profit margin.

1. Traditional publishing faces shock

The Encyclopaedia Britannica, published in 1768, is the most complete and authoritative encyclopedia in the world. In 1980, Microsoft hoped to cooperate with the British Encyclopedia to obtain the company's authorized publication CD-ROM version, but failed to reach an agreement. So he turned to Encarta Multimedia Encyclopedia jointly with Funk & Wagnall Encyclopedia, Inc., and sold it to users together with the software. The Britannic Encyclopaedia of more than two hundred years of history was lost to electronic publishing.

At the same time, more media have entered the electronic publishing industry. Time Warner, which has broadband cable networks, cable TV programs, film productions, music, Time magazine, and international magazines such as Fortune, People, Sports Illustrated, and Entertainment Weekly, merged with AOL as AOL Timer Warner in early 2000. . At the same time, the iPublish department was established and divided into three sub-sections: iRead, iWrite, and iLearn. The first part, iRead, provides publications; the second part, iWrite, allows members to submit new works to the editors of the time. The editors will decide whether to publish or publish on the Internet; Part III iLearn, author of Time Warner and Experts will provide users with valuable advice and expertise.

2. Traditional publishing has more opportunities and more room for development

In the face of electronic publishing, the publishers are not all disadvantaged. In fact, as long as traditional publishing keeps pace with technological development, the use of the Internet to create a new division of labor cooperation, resource sharing environment, and through the Internet to connect publishers and authors, sellers, shorten the job process time, provide digital sales services and real-time information Electronic publishing will bring new vitality and market to the publishing work, gaining more room for development and gaining more benefits. For example, with electronic publishing, we can at least get the following benefits directly: no inventory: no inventory, no storage, transportation, and management costs; reduced damage to the ecological environment; lower prices: less paper and shipping costs; functionality and Convenience: Combine with other software, become more powerful and more convenient; easy to update and correct: Publishers can easily update or edit books; Personalization: According to individual needs in the special layout of the front cover or back cover, make different Content; etc.

3. Database Publishing

Information can be reprocessed, and information reprocessing costs are lower. Therefore, how to use the information already possessed by the publishers to extract new publications is also a new opportunity and challenge for publishers. From the perspective of information processing, Database Publishing is this model. Extract the data to be used from the database, and then print it as a table, or arrange the Internet. Data warehousing, data storage, layout design and output printing may all be performed in different places. Especially with the media-related database printing and publishing system, its data collection points can be distributed all over the world, and such dispersed data can be timely stored into the database through the network. In order to facilitate the inquiry and update, publishers can create classified information search windows on their own websites, such as guides, manuals, dictionaries, test papers, etc., and they can use web publishing to replace traditional paper publishing.

4. Interactive rapid distribution and communication

The advantages of online publishing in information dissemination are very obvious. Paper books are disseminated by hand, and electronic publications are disseminated through the Internet. This kind of information dissemination method or the issuance method, its essential advantage lies in its emptiness. Geographical, climate, ethnic, etc. do not affect the spread of information. Of course, electronic publishing has such cross-temporal nature in broadcasting, broadcasting and television. However, according to the electronic publishing of the Internet, there are unique characteristics in information dissemination, that is, two-way interaction. Regardless of broadcasting, television, or newspapers, their information transmission methods are one-way, and the roles of information sources and information receivers are relatively fixed. The network is different, and the dissemination of information is bi-directional and interactive. Recipients of information can also be publishers of information. Recipients of information can exchange information with the publisher of the information on the same media in a timely manner. This is impossible for various media in the past. It is through this two-way interaction that publishers can obtain demand information in a timely manner, learn about the progress of publishing, understand the issue of distribution, and master market conditions. This kind of publishing method that can establish convenient communication channels with all parties is really a good news for the publishing house.

5. Print on Demand

The rise of online publishing has led to the wave of on-demand printing. The so-called on-demand printing on the Internet means that readers can select the desired book or chapter on the Internet. The manufacturer then selects the book to be printed according to the reader. This new publishing model provides an opportunity for the rebirth of out-of-print books, because traditional paper books must be considered cost-effective and need to reach a certain market demand before they have a chance to be republished. As a result, some papers are sold poorly. Books are out of print. You can print only one book at a time when you print on demand. Readers do not have to worry about a book being out of print.

In addition