By Edward Nawotka
Today’s feature story describes how several organizations in New Zealand banded together to establish a digital publishing collective that is a one-stop-shop for conversion, distribution, management, marketing and sales. The program is aided by the fact that 28 publishers accounted for 92% of the national turnover, which makes establishing working relationships among bulk of the book business that much easier.
Could a similar system with a comparably sized publishing business replicate the program? Where might this work? And could it work for a nation isolated by language, like say Iceland or Denmark, whose e-books would not have a large audience of potential customer/readers overseas?
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For the same reasons university presses in the U.S. are now joining forces and partnering with the leaders in the field to digitize their content, small publishers abroad (with limited financial means and in need of guidance) will have to do the same. But it won’t be a smooth process for all.
Isolation of language is certainly one of the barriers ahead, and the list of countries that would face this is long. But even if the content was skillfully translated into English and packaged according to the standards of the English-speaking world, the interest on the other end would be minimal at best.
Publishers in small countries (whatever the continent) remain hungry for English-language knowledge (popular and academic), but not vice versa. More often than not, it is when they secure rights to an English-language bestseller that they keep their business from going under.
The competition among publishers in those small markets is fierce and sometimes unpleasant. In some of the European countries still in transition, many other internal obstacles stand in the way of collective digitization: corruption in the private sector, lack of camaraderie among competitors, and strong (and public) alliances with political parties and their interests.
Digital publishing is changing so fast that it can be difficult for small publishers to stay abreast and keep up with the daily work. We entered e-books fairly early but soon felt we were drowning in a sea of new technology. Thankfully we joined up with a UK consortium run by the Faber Factory. Sales are up and we don’t feel alone in this new world.