E-publishing – Week 3

Creating an e-book

This week, Eben’s asked us to speculate on publishing an e-book through Lulu as a potential assignment topic for the module, and specifically on what the responses to the following issues might need to encompass for the project to be a success:

1. The problem
2. The context/state-of-the-art
3. The method
4. The outcomes
5. The conclusion


The Problem

I can see at least two ways to approach this:

Firstly, to look at the process of publishing a book on Lulu and compare it to traditional publishing. This would consider e-publishing as a ‘disruptive technology’ with the potential to disintermediate traditional publishing at difference stages in the publishing cycle. The research problem would be something like:

‘What effect might e-publishing in the form of individual publishing via a technology such as Lulu have on the traditional publishing life cycle?’

The second approach would be to look at what’s involved in either writing or sourcing a story or piece of work to be published and distributed via Lulu. This would look at the question more from the viewpoint of the target audience and ask how you would identify the niche, target the design, add value to the product, and raise awareness amongst the target audience. This approach could also, perhaps, usefully look at the differences between this method of getting the finished product to its intended target audience and traditional publishing methods. The research problem would, therefore, be something like:

“How do you successfully publish an e-book via a technology such as Lulu and how might the possibilities that this offers affect traditional publishing methods.”

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The context/state-of-the-art

To set the context, this section could potentially include the following:

a) Definition and exploration of the terms used, such as ‘e-publishing’, ‘e-books’, ‘disruptive technology’, ‘traditional publishing’ and ‘publishing life cycle’, as well as specific terms such as ‘Lulu’.

b) An exploration of the changes that have already taken place in publishing as a result of electronic technology, in, for example, typesetting and editing, as well as looking at the various possibilities for e-publishing that currently exist and the size/scope of the existing e-book market.

c) Since the product is to be a book, issues of copyright could also be germane.

d) If the assignment includes producing a book for a specific target market, then the nature of the relationship between author, publisher and reader could usefully be explored – issues of ‘gatekeeper’, of what the audience is looking for and how they choose what to buy, etc

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The Method

This section would outline the process used to create the e-book on Lulu. It could include:

a) choices made in terms of source of material (if self-written, who’s the story aimed at, if using out-of-copyright existing material, again who’s the target market, but also what you plan to do to add value to the material for the new target market)

b) research into target market and what you need to do to make your book appealing to them

c) choices in terms of design – overall style, illustrations, fonts, jacket, endorsements, book size, binding, etc, as well as the cost vs quality trade-off decisions

d) decisions on pricing and how to publicise the book to its intended target market

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The Outcomes

Obviously this section would depend on what happens when you actually do all the above, but I can see it including:

a) an evaluation of the final product, especially in relation to its intended target audience

b) an evaluation of the ease or difficulty of the process of creating the e-book and any particular problems experienced.

c) any differences between what was anticipated and what actually happened

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The Conclusions

Although these would again depend on the foregoing sections, I anticipate that they could include such things as:

a) digital technology has already fundamentally changed the publishing industry and has the potential to become a truly disruptive technology

b) without the traditional publisher as ‘gatekeeper’ of what should be published, readers will seek other ways of narrowing down their choices. ‘Word of mouth’ via electronic social networks and trusted reviewers will be important mechanisms

c) without the vast resources of the traditional publishing corporations to fall back on, publishing via technology such as ‘Lulu’ will revert somewhat to being a ‘cottage industry’ (as outlined by Jason Epstein in The Rattle of Pebbles, an article which first appeared on April 27, 2000 in The New York Review of Books, sourced here via http://www.bookvirtual.com/ on 29 September 2009), with individuals or small groups producing works they believe in for smaller, more targeted audiences.

d) it would be difficult for an individual author wanting to publish and distribute his or her books via a technology such as ‘Lulu’ actually to reach a global audience, although the technology theoretically makes this possible.

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