Rethinking digital book publishing workflows, and a demo of PressBooks, an open source book publishing tool built on WordPress.

1. Open, Webby Book
Publishing
Hugh McGuire - PressBooks (etc.): @hughmcguire
Kirk Biglione - Oxford Media Works: @kirkbiglione
John Maxwell - Simon Fraser University: @jmaxsfu

2. 1. What is a Book? (Hugh)
2. Overview of what’s happening now (Kirk)
3. Proposal & examples of some other ways
(Kirk)
4. More examples from SFU, with whys
5. Presentation of PressBooks - a tool to make
some of this easy

3. Question:
What is a book?

5. WORDS

6. STRUCTURE
WORDS

7. IMAGES & MEDIA
STRUCTURE
WORDS

8. IMAGES & MEDIA
STRUCTURE
WORDS
META DATA

9. IMAGES & MEDIA
STRUCTURE
WORDS
META DATA PRINT
BOOK

10. IMAGES & MEDIA
STRUCTURE
WORDS EPUB/
EBOOK
META DATA PRINT
BOOK

11. IMAGES & MEDIA WEB PAGE
STRUCTURE
WORDS EPUB/
EBOOK
META DATA PRINT
BOOK

12. IMAGES & MEDIA
WEB PAGE
STRUCTURE
WORDS EPUB/
EBOOK
META DATA PRINT
BOOK
AUDIO

13. WHO KNOWS
WHAT ELSE?
IMAGES & MEDIA
WEB PAGE
STRUCTURE
WORDS EPUB/
EBOOK
META DATA PRINT
BOOK
AUDIO

14. WHO KNOWS
WHAT ELSE?
IMAGES & MEDIA
WEB PAGE
STRUCTURE
CRITICISM
WORDS EPUB/
EBOOK
META DATA PRINT
BOOK
AUDIO

15. CONVERSATION
WHO KNOWS
WHAT ELSE?
IMAGES & MEDIA
WEB PAGE
STRUCTURE
CRITICISM
WORDS EPUB/
EBOOK
META DATA PRINT
BOOK
AUDIO

16. TEACHING
CONVERSATION
WHO KNOWS
WHAT ELSE?
IMAGES & MEDIA
WEB PAGE
STRUCTURE
CRITICISM
WORDS EPUB/
EBOOK
META DATA PRINT
BOOK
AUDIO

17. BUYING
TEACHING
CONVERSATION
WHO KNOWS
WHAT ELSE?
IMAGES & MEDIA
WEB PAGE
STRUCTURE
CRITICISM
WORDS EPUB/
EBOOK
META DATA PRINT
BOOK
AUDIO

18. BUYING
TEACHING
CONVERSATION
WHO KNOWS
WHAT ELSE?
IMAGES & MEDIA
WEB PAGE
STRUCTURE
CRITICISM
WORDS EPUB/
EBOOK
SELLING
META DATA PRINT
BOOK
AUDIO

19. BUYING
TEACHING
CONVERSATION
WHO KNOWS
WHAT ELSE?
IMAGES & MEDIA
WEB PAGE
STRUCTURE
CRITICISM
WORDS EPUB/
EBOOK
SELLING
META DATA PRINT
BOOK
REVIEWS
AUDIO

20. BUYING
TEACHING
CONVERSATION
WHO KNOWS
WHAT ELSE?
IMAGES & MEDIA
WEB PAGE
STRUCTURE
CRITICISM
WORDS EPUB/
EBOOK
SELLING
META DATA PRINT
BOOK
REVIEWS
FLAMEWARS
AUDIO

21. BUYING
TEACHING
CONVERSATION
WHO KNOWS
WHAT ELSE?
IMAGES & MEDIA
WEB PAGE
STRUCTURE
CRITICISM
WORDS EPUB/
EBOOK
SELLING
META DATA PRINT
LENDING
BOOK
REVIEWS
FLAMEWARS
AUDIO

22. PRINT
BOOK

23. BUYING
TEACHING
CONVERSATION
WHO KNOWS
WHAT ELSE?
IMAGES & MEDIA
WEB PAGE
STRUCTURE
CRITICISM
WORDS EPUB/
EBOOK
SELLING
META DATA PRINT
LENDING
BOOK
REVIEWS
FLAMEWARS
AUDIO

24. Proposal:
If that’s what books *are*, then we
need to change how we make them.

25. (and maybe it needn’t
be so hard to start
changing).

26. Meet the #dpplatypus
@kirkbiglione

27. EPUB

32. InDesign
File->Save As->HTML5
(another egg)

33. A web-native CMS

34. Geek Slide
summarized

39. Link Bundle
http://bit.ly/ee9vgO
Photo Credits
epub egg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wasabicube/275001052/
format eggs
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cobalt/450371204 /
email: kirkb@oxfordmediaworks.com
twitter: @kirkbiglione

40. 3 reasons why we take
the Web seriously for
book publishing

41. Pragmatist's argument:
Web is simply a superior
platform for developing
e-publications

42. Liberty argument:
Open, transparent
standards are increasingly
valuable in an age of
would-be monopolists.

43. Futurist's argument:
The web is THE publishing
platform of our time...

44. In 2050, the platform we'll
be using won't be a
replacement of the Web,
but the evolution of it.

45. With that in mind,
How to re-imagine
book publishing as if
the web mattered?

46. 1. Ickmull:
Printing the Web in
InDesign
HTML to IDML via XSLT
http://code.google.com/p/ickmull

47. 2. The Book of MPub (2010)
An end-to-end book development
project, entirely in WordPress, open
peer reviewed, with simultaneous
print, epub, web incarnations.
http://tkbr.ccsp.sfu.ca/bookofmpub

48. 3. Editorial workflow
support in WordPress
Ongoing graduate student
R&D, going for low-hanging
fruit

51. PressBooks:
An open source,
webby,
book publishing tool
built on WordPress.

52. * Adapts WordPress admin for
book production workflows

53. * Generates clean, well-
formatted books in multiple
outputs
* Makes it easy for an editorial
team to work together (I think)

54. Export formats:
* Web (HTML)
* ePub
* Print-on-Demand ready PDF
(note: this was done Sunday afternoon)
* InDesign ready XML

55. And now ...

56. ... for the foolhardy ...

57. ...a live demo!

58. (What could possibly go
wrong?)

59. backup screenshots

69. pressbooks.com ...
still in private alpha
(but open special for
today only!)

70. Hugh McGuire:
hughmcguire@gmail.com
Kirk Biglione:
kbiglione@gmail.com
John Maxwell:
jmax.sfu@gmail.com