Economics of Electronic Publishing

Introduction to and Meaning of Electronic Publishing

Over the years, publishing has evolved tremendously from the use of tree backs and other materials to produce books to the current process of book production which are paper and electronic forms. This evolution has mainly been blue to information and communication technology (ICT). Publishing can be defined as the process and profession of producing books, magazines, journals, newsletters, etc and making them available to the public. Materials published are people's ideas put together by professionals. Publishing can also be said to be a business which coordinates the various processes needed to nurture from the idea in the mind of an author to a reading material available to a an audience. The material published can either be print copy or an electronic copy. 

Electronic publishing, also referred to as e-publishing is the digital publication of reading materials such as periodicals, journals, magazines, newsletters, encyclopaedia, books and other interactive media as well as the development of digital libraries and catalogues. Electronic publishing can also mean the application of ICT by publishers in the search, capture, shape, storage, update and distribution of information, art and media and to dessiminate same to an audience. Electronic publishing also entails carrying out the publishing process electronically such as acquisition of manuscript, editing, design, formatting, marketing, sales and distribution of published  materials. The materials published electronically are accessed with the use of  electronic devices such as tablets, computers, smartphones, digital e-readers, etc. Most popular types of e-books are fiction, journals, e-zine,  and multimedia e-books with diverse features such as improved indexing (for journals and other scholarly texts), search, navigation and e-discovering tools and functionality. 

For e-books to get to their target audience, there are diverse e-book publishing platforms that make this possible. Some examples are Amazon's Kindle, Nook  by Barnes and Noble, the Be-book Neo, etc Locally, we have the Kobo, E-bay, zeedek, LuLu Draft2Digital , Wordcraft, Parosia, ect. E-products and services include e-books, e-periodicals, e-database, e-pub on CD-ROM, print-on-demand (POD) digital contents, electronic ink, emails publication and web publication.

Benefits of Electronic Publishing

The economics of electronic publishing discusses the benefits of electronic publishing over traditional publishing. These are numerous but not limited to: 

• promoting high global visibility for both authors and publishers; 
• connecting authors and readers, thereby giving room for profitable interactions;g
• giving authors and publishers updates on changes in the market structure, enabling them forecast; 
• enabling readers to have a wider access to books especially those that can not be found in physical/traditional libraries; 
• creating an equal playing field for both old and new authors, thereby bringing new authors to limelight as well as exposing them to the diverse competitors in the field; 
• making reading books and access to no and other information materials convenient, profitable, cost effective a nd easy; 
• helping to overcome geographical barriers that traditional book publishing suffers; 
• making publishing cost effective as it entails lower investment, no storage cost, low inventory and eco friendly; 
• promoting better broadband connectivity and an increased use of e-books in the different levels of schooling for easy research and studies;  
• averting the problem of continual updating required of textbooks and an easy access to updated versions; and
• enabling book publishers test the acceptability of a new title before bulk printing to avert pre-production costs. 

With the above-listed benefits of electronic publishing, there are several shortcomings that are experienced in the field of e-publishing. These include the expensive nature of electronic readers which makes its accessibility to everyone nearly impossible; the constant changes in technology which renders reader incapable of accessing certain materials in particular formats; the strains experienced in the eyes due to constant exposure to light from electronic trading tools; the saturation of badly written materials, thereby making it difficult for reader to identify relevant information; problem of constant power supply in a country like Nigeria; copyright infringement in the forms of plagiarism, piracy and  unauthorised downloading; high technological access and charges; low internet; the problem of language barrier and unavailability of sustainable funding of publications, etc.

Despite the above shortcomings of electronic publishing, like music, e-book publishing has now become social in nature that readers can comment on and share contents and reading experiences. Thus the ultimate goal of e-publishing is to provide fast and easy information contained in publications with simple and powerful search/retrieval capabilities. 

Conclusion

Today, new frontiers are being discovered and put to work to constantly improve on the available level of e-publishing as it has the potential of greatly increasing the spread of knowledge throughout the academic and non-academic arena. And with the access to basic ICT tools, it is hoped that the continued improvement of e-publishing will close the digital divide between the developed and the developing countries, making the global village smaller while making tremendous achievements in the not too far future.

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