EPUB Boot Camp: Best Practices

Different Workflows for Different Folks

Trade Case Study - Hachette
Look beyond the printed page
Plan for all types of formats at the beginning of the process
Incorporate contextual tagging
Extend traditional editorial mark-up to include EPUB/XML

Hachette’s Mark-up
Chances are you’re already doing some kind of standard mark-up in copyediting and editorial
EPUB/XML is just the digital equivalent
XML is text!

Hachette: If It’s So Easy, Why Isn’t Everyone Doing It?
Editorial is still mostly paper-based
Training editors is a difficult prospect
Copyediting is outsourced to freelancers
Production design is outsourced/offshored
General lack of tagging expertise across the board
Not many good tools out there

Hachette’s Conclusion: Standardize, standardize, standardize
Do a pilot program first
Make Word your friend
Use track changes
Ask authors to work digitally
Test to find a combination of manual and automated tagging processes

Results of Hachette Pilot
Structurally tagged, EPUB-ready documents result in cost savings/increased efficiency
First pass pages are cleaner with the new workflow
Freelance copyeditors who work digitally are more expensive
Structural tagging in Word is tedious (MS Word templates are not very effective)

Hachette Pilot Findings Con’t
Need a standard vocabulary for context tagging
Better tools required – XML writers (DocBook, etc) are too complicated
Track changes as an editorial tool produces mixed results
Some authors not willing to change
Difficult to standardize

Scholarly Case Study - Wiley
Wiley have found that MS Word Templates are effective for them
Not highly technical
Decoupled from other technology
Structural and semantic tagging can be expressed in Word
Macros speed up formatting

Wiley Transform to XML
Compositors do the converting
Add additional tags – rights data, metadata – drawn from Wiley’s own systems
Linking between elements
Generates an EPUB file and a clean Word document

What Works for Wiley
Collaboration between Editorial and Production to standardize styles and tags
Heavy communication – between departments, among authors, “putting it out there”
Monthly roundtables
Focusing early efforts on series titles

Wiley’s Upsides
Workflow efficiencies
Clean manuscripts at the end of the process
Many points of entry and collaboration in the new workflow

Recommendations from Wiley
Get your head out of the print space
An ebook is not a print book
Books are not just books – they are paper books, ebooks, chunks, and websites
Understand how your compositors work with the EPUB DTD – that will affect how (and what) you deliver to them

Best Practices for EPUB
Begin with the end in mind
Commit to sustained change
Vision, purpose, execution, refinement
It’s not (just) about EPUB

Begin with the end in mind … Planning Implementation
Establish and evaluate end-user requirements
Assess your processes across functions and handoffs
Model both current (operational) and future (strategic) benefits
Solicit senior-level support for sustained change
Determine the point at which you want to implement EPUB
Obtain and maintain operating buy-in, support and dialogue
Rank your key business benefits and measure progress openly
Plan for early wins, ideally spread across multiple functions
Exploit the value of prototyping
Capture and share deep editorial knowledge
Foster and communicate objective measurements
Capitalize on the value of new, downstream uses

Commit to sustained change … Planning Implementation

It’s not (just) about EPUB … Planning Implementation

Steps for getting started
Needs analysis: establish your current capabilities, needs and long-term goals
Gap analysis: identify the gaps between where you are and where you want to be
Request for information: Solicit more detailed information about vendor capabilities and costs necessary to accurately determine the scope and budget of your EPUB implementation
Vendor evaluation: Review the various products and services on offer and map to your needs

Helpful Tools
Calibre
BookGlutton
eCub
EPUB Check

Calibre
Open-source tool
Cross-platform – Windows, OS X, Linux
TXT and HTML  EPUB conversions
Ebook cataloguing system
Supports many other conversions
14 input formats
3 output formats
Can do bulk conversions
Website is difficult to navigate/understand

BookGlutton
API on the BookGlutton.com website
HTML  EPUB conversions
Word  HTML  EPUB conversions
Accepts only one file at a time – no bulk conversions
Extremely simple to use

eCub
TXT  EPUB (and mobi, with the mobigen application)
XHTML  EPUB (and mobi, with the mobigen application)
Downloadable app
Windows
Linux
Solaris
OS X
Unencrypted files only – no DRM

EPUB Check
Validates EPUB files
Available from Google Code
http://code.google.com/p/epubcheck/

Vendors that support EPUB
Mobipocket (Amazon)
Stanza (iPhone)
Bookworm
Sony
Feedbooks
O’Reilly’s Safari
Fictionwise (Barnes & Noble)

Useful Resources
http://www.idpf.org
http://www.epubbooks.com/
http://www.bisg.org
http://www.booknetcanada.ca

In-Depth
Build a digital book with EPUB seminar
EPUB resources and guides – comprehensive list from O’Reilly
Liza Daly/ThreePress tools

[email_address]

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EPUB Boot Camp: Best Practices

by booknetcanada on Mar 31, 2009

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EPUB Boot Camp: Best Practices — Presentation Transcript