Digital Workflow in Book Publishing (3)

The first two parts of this article are introductions to the mechanism and process of digitizing workflows in book publishing. The following section will summarize the issues of the benefits of digital workflows for traditional publishing, the implementation of digital workflows, and changes in publishing responsibilities.

First, the benefits of digital workflow The greatest benefit of digital workflow is to shorten the publishing cycle and improve the quality of publications.

(1) The publication cycle is first of all a publication cycle. Shortening the publication cycle directly means lowering production costs and enhancing competitiveness. The current competition in the publishing industry is becoming more and more fierce. The faster the person who publishes a book, the more important it is for the owner to occupy the market earlier. Digital workflow shortens the publishing cycle from three aspects.

The first is to reduce the time for documents to be passed between authors, editors, and readers. In the traditional paper-and-wash era, the author passed the manuscripts to the editors, and the editors sent the manuscripts to the readers. The editors then handed the manuscripts to the editors. The author is reviewing and so on, and it takes a lot of time just to pass through these transmissions. But now it is different. Manuscripts exist in the form of numbers and files and can be transmitted via E-mail. There is almost no delay. Of course, the total publication cycle is greatly shortened.

The first is to reduce manuscript review and proofreading time. With the electronic auditing system, a lot of work can be done automatically, and the workflow is more stable. Of course, the time is saved. The same is true for proofreading, because the computer system is more stable and accurate, so the work efficiency is much higher.

The other is in the production process, with the computer directly out of the film, computer direct plate-making and even direct printing technology, many of the traditional printing process has been saved, the production cycle is of course shorter.

(II) Digitalization of publication quality The promotion of publication quality has started from the content creation process. Under the traditional process, many arts are required to complete the artwork when designing an image, which inevitably takes a long time and costs a lot. Limiting the image can not be inserted too much, the quality is also difficult to have a high guarantee. Under the digital workflow, the electronic image design system will increase the work efficiency of the artist, generate more and better images at the same cost, and once you are born, you can easily change colors and other image factors.

In addition, with the computer-to-plate technology, the printing plate is directly obtained from the digital file, and it is closer to the original. Moreover, this technology is much more stable than the traditional process, and some human accidental deviations are almost reduced to zero, as long as it is the same file no matter how many times the version is made, the resulting plate is the same. This stability is also reflected in the transfer of files between different systems, so there are few cases of color under the digital workflow, image distortion, etc., so the quality will be much higher.

Second, the implementation of digital workflow methods The implementation of digital workflow is very flexible, can be completed within the community, can also be completely provided by the service provider outside the community, or both to complete.

(1) It is entirely within the community that some very large publishers are capable of undertaking all their own work. This means that publishers need to purchase the various equipment they need, and they must also specially train the relevant staff. Then the publishing society should be digitized. The workflow process completes the task step by step. But in fact, this is not a wise choice. In reality, few publishers will do the same.

(b) It is exactly the opposite of the former, which is done entirely outside the community. That is, publications are conducted outside the community from the time of review until the final archive. On the surface, publishing sociality will save money. However, publishers have to do a lot of things, including choosing suitable external service providers, coordination and communication among various service providers, coordination and control among various processes, etc. Well, it is difficult to establish a digital workflow. Of course, there are also many benefits to working entirely outside the community. First of all, there is no need for any equipment investment or staff training. This is especially important for small and medium-sized publishers. Then, when it is necessary to externalize the digital workflow, it is necessary to make a comprehensive and careful analysis and consider how to establish a cooperative relationship with potential collaborators so as to smoothly carry out various tasks. Of course, more often than not, publishers and external suppliers implement digital workflows.

(III) Intra-Community Cooperation This is the most common situation. Publishers and external suppliers do their part. According to the different publishing projects and the characteristics of both, the division of labor among publishers is very different. Some publishers complete all content generation and prepress work within the community, and only complete the work after platemaking outside the community. . Some of them only complete review work, and other tasks such as editing, coding, and prepress preparation are also left to external suppliers.

No matter what form of cooperation is to be carried out, the formation of a clear communication system is of primary importance. There must be a clear division of tasks between the publisher and the supplier. After a process is completed, it must be ensured that the next process can immediately follow it. This creates a smooth digital workflow. The coordination between these processes is also very important in the complete community work environment, whether it is the data processing department or the editorial department or the production department must have a very good cooperation.

Of course, we must also add that the digital work flow for publishing is still a very new thing. It is inevitable that there are many imperfections, and we should tolerate some mistakes in the trial phase that is not started. In addition, many skilled workers should also perform additional training to avoid mistakes as much as possible, because a small mistake may destroy the entire digital workflow.

Third, digital workflow products

(a) Content resources Content resources should be the largest outcome of digital workflows because publishers can build a large database on their own computer or supplier’s space to store their own digital content, which can then be in text, Used in image, video or audio products.

If publishers develop the necessary content management tools, these generated content resources can be said to be the publisher’s greatest asset. The benefits it can bring to publishers are as follows:

· Lower production and distribution costs · Reduce the expansion of other market information barriers · Generate multiple versions and new products from existing content · Provide personalized products for specific readers and individuals · Eliminate possible conflicts of information in data changes in databases · Create new Partnerships, expand profit space

(B) Byproducts If content resources are the greatest outcome of digital workflow, then the by-products derived from content resources are also a great asset. These by-products include reprints, new products, and personalized products for consumers.

With digital documents, reprinting and republishing of books is much easier. Either production or promotion can eliminate many unnecessary duplications of the past. For electronic publications, publishers can also directly provide an e-print version of HTML or Other site standards, so that readers can see these content directly on their own site.

New products refer to products obtained by using the original contents to change the media or form for publication, such as network publications derived from original print publications, multimedia publications, or collections of different articles compiled, periodicals, etc.

Personalized product pointers provide products for different readership characteristics, such as personalized brochures, recommended bibliographies, etc.

The content resources and its by-products brought by the digital workflow have expanded the profit margin of traditional publishing, and have also injected unlimited vitality into the fierce publishing competition. But at the same time, it should be pointed out that the introduction of digital workflow requires a lot of investment in the early stage, mainly hardware and software configuration and personnel training, and it is necessary to enter such a model that is different from traditional publishing. The conversion of thinking concepts is of primary importance. The long-term investment concept can not only focus on short-term return, otherwise the first step is difficult to take.

Fourth, the social impact of digital workflow (A) the impact on the publishing industry As mentioned above, the introduction of digital workflow brings a brand-new publishing model, which saves a lot of time while improving product quality. And costs, which will inevitably affect the development of the entire publishing industry. It should be said that the situation of the current publishing industry is not optimistic, especially in the field of academic publishing, the increase in the price due to rising costs, and the shrinking of the volume of subscriptions caused by the tightening of library funds all constrain the development of the market. In particular, the emergence of electronic publishing, for such new technologies, publishers do not have much vested advantages, and the author himself can conduct electronic publishing, so many people predict that electronic publishing will be the future publishing trend, and the author will gradually Replace publishers themselves to do this work. However, the emergence of digital workflows has changed the unfavorable situation of publishers because the authors are unable to complete technical editing, proofreading, typesetting, etc., as compared to publishers, and it is difficult to ensure quality. And these are the expertise of publishers. The inadequacies of publishers in the past were due to the fact that the costs were too high. Now that digital workflows have been formed, all jobs have become economically effective. Therefore, publishers will remain the main players of future publications. .

(2) Changes in the functional mode of the author, publisher, and supply of goods will undoubtedly cause changes in functions and division of labor. The first is that the relationship between the author and the publisher has changed. Under the traditional paper and ink publishing environment, the delivery of manuscripts is mainly carried out by postal methods. It is often the author who sends the manuscript to the publisher. The editorial reviewer decides to adopt and reject the manuscript. Or retreat, the manuscript will take a lot of time in the transmission of this manuscript, and then there is still a lot of work to be done to arrive at the manuscript in the editor's hands. Some of them will be better if the author can participate, but this will require more reforms. Samples, proofreading, manuscript delivery time, so it is often only in the final author let the manuscript read again. The situation under the digital workflow is not the same. Because the manuscript exists in electronic form, manuscript changes, backup, transfer, etc. are very convenient. Authors and editors can communicate and cooperate with each other at any time. For example, the author can follow the publisher in the creation segment. The provided template generation content, even some of them will be marked in the SGML format according to the publisher's DTD. Most of the publishers in the editing process will also require the author to correct the edited manuscript.

Another important functional change takes place between publishers and external suppliers. In the traditional publishing model, publishers are the absolute publishing subject, suppliers are only passive service providers, and their work is often not valued by publishers. . But now it is completely different. As mentioned above, the format of the digital workflow includes most of the technical factors. Most publishers will choose many external partners to complete publishing tasks at this time, such as electronic review, typesetting, and proofreading. The work done entirely within the publishing house now often requires the cooperation of external suppliers. For publishers to face such a new model, it is necessary to recognize the importance of external suppliers at the moment and it is possible to coordinate the entire workflow. For external suppliers, the increase of autonomy means that the responsibility increases. Suppliers should no longer hold the attitude that they are obedient, but must be integrated into the role of publishers, especially for publishing. A whole grasp.

In addition, from a technical point of view, the technology that is digitally workflow-inclusive is rapidly advancing. Each technological update means that publishers and external suppliers must perform more quality control and personnel training, in order to achieve a smooth workflow. In the process of transferring information from the author to the reader, the communication and coordination among all the collaborators has also become crucial.

V. Looking into the future of the digital workflow Review of the development of the printing and publishing industry, from the invention of lead type printing in Gutenberg to the invention of computers, during which the development of technology was slow. However, the invention of the computer broke this pattern. With the invention of the imagesetter in the late 1960s, technology has developed substantially every year. The development of technology has also changed the mode of publishing. First, all aspects of publishing - - Editing, proofreading, typesetting... Gradually realizes automation. Today's more updated technologies have brought these links together to form a completely digital workflow. This is book publishing.