I recently came across an article about WoodWing Software; the first company to introduce an effective system of publishing media the iPad. As I hope to one day own an iPad I found this article very interesting.
The number of apps created with WoodWing's Digital Magazine Tools recently passed the century mark, and has since then grown to well over 150 apps. Furthermore, publishers worldwide have produced more than 1,500 digital issues, making the WoodWing Digital Magazine Tools the most popular tablet-publishing solution on the market today. Each month, about 25 new publications are brought to the iPad using WoodWing's solution. A continuously updated list of published iPad apps is available at www.woodwing.com/tablet-gallery. As a result of the large number of tablet publications already created with WoodWing's Digital Magazine Tools, WoodWing's Authorized Solution Partners worldwide have become tablet-publishing experts.But, WoodWing isn't the only company bringing in the apps; Infinity Publishing is making breakthrough solutions in the app industry as well.
Infinity recently launched OneBook, the first all-in-one app for self-publishing that offers print, eBook, and audio book formats. Infinity's product is being called a 'breakthrough solution' for individuals looking to market their products in various way.
An article from MarketWire had this to say about Infinity's new app:
Photo from startupmeme.com
Infinity Publishing, a pioneer in self-publishing, today announced the introduction of OneBook (http://blog.infinitypublishing.com/onebook-program/), a unique All-in-One offering for independent authors that allows them to publish their book in print, eBook and audio book formats. The new offering represents a significant value for authors looking for an efficient way to market their work in multiple formats to the world. OneBook combines high-quality production with comprehensive global distribution and is priced 20% below the cost to publish in each format separately. In addition, working with a single publishing company for all versions allows authors to maintain greater control over the publication of their work and to be confident that it will be presented consistently across all three formats in multiple channels of distribution.
Besides my hope of someday owning an iPad or eReader, I also have a professional thougt on these new apps by Infinity and WoodWing as I am a journalist and hope to one day write a novel or two.
Both of these apps could prove highly useful in my professional career and I am eager to see where these company's take these technologies.
 |
| Photo from blog.newfiction.com |
However, one can't help but wonder how these apps are affecting the publishing industry as a whole. Will there soon be a shortage in actual paged publications, aka books and newspapers and magazines?
Hopefully we wouldn't convert entirely over to apps. It would be a sad thing to loose our printed pages to technological applications. Nothing can really match the real thing.
I know I want a hard copy book with real pages of my book if I ever get published, an app simply would not do.
The topic is interesting in this blog post. I wonder how long it will take until most of our "stuff" is completely digital. Scary to think that eventually we could have all of our paper turn into digital screens.
ReplyDeleteI only have a few things to mention that may improve your blog. The videos and pictures are excellent, however, I would try to place them so the text wraps around them. Your first picture does it and I feel like it makes the text look shorter and the blog look "neater". To me, the pictures and videos always look lonely (for lack of a better word) when they are placed at the bottom of the post.
The last thing I noticed were just a few spelling/grammatical errors. Other than that, great post!
Book publishing is a notoriously stubborn business, and many avid readers prefer actual books to digital editons, so I believe that physical media (especially books) aren't going anywhere for quite some time, but I do see a rise of digital alternatives.
ReplyDeleteI don't follow self-publishing, so I found this article to be very interesting. I know that self-publishing is a great way to get your foot in the door of the publishing industry, and publishing to e-readers is a great way to do that.
The only complaint that I had with this post was there seemed to be more sources than your own writing - I know that's not the case, but some more analysis of what your where linking to would be really great.
For your next posts, how about writing on how the publishing industry has used e-reader technology, and how authors are reacting. Also: Borders (the gigantic bookstore chain) just filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy - the impact from that would probably make a great article.
Amanda, your posts always introduce me to new aspects of publishing. Being a pretty staunch traditionalist in what formats I read from, I wouldn’t know much about this changing industry without the things you write!
ReplyDeleteYou have a lot of quality sources to back up what you have to say about both the year books and the apps, but it would I would love to know what you have to say about these new technologies. You seems to know a lot about the industry, let your readers hear YOU instead of letting block quote dominate the post.
You seem to be pretty select in what you use for your multimedia elements, but some of the video clips can be better explained by you. The Woodwing clip showed a lot of how the technology is applied to these eReaders and tablets, but readers (myself included) who are no familiar with this technology might not have any idea as to why it is important. The later clip on the page didn’t play for me, but, judging from the title, you could have let that clip take the lead while you applied your expertise to introduce Woodwing.
I know this probably sounds overly critical, but you really are doing a great job at sharing your passion for publishing with readers.