A Whole Earth Catalog for the New Millennium
Wikipedia is the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. The English version, started in 2001, has over 857,500 posted articles. Its current events page is filled with excellent information of interest to authors and publishers, including a summary of worldwide political events and ongoing developments. In-depth sections on writing and publishing include thoughtful articles on the state of publishing and bookselling, with extensive background and history.
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Feature
The Virtual Book Cover
Why Self-Managed Online Publishing is the Wave of the Future
In the mid-1990s, the global business community witnessed what both Bill Gates and Vint Cerf, known as the “Father of the Internet,” referred to as The Internet Tidal Wave. Businesses rushed to establish an online commercial presence, and those that did not buckled under the rising waters of electronic competition. Since the dotcom shakedown of the early 21st century, companies have recognized Internet-based commerce as a vital part of a successful business model, and have moved to post product and service information online for worldwide consumption.Publishing companies and bookstores have also identified the potential that the Internet holds for driving the online sale of books and written materials. Many of the most well-known traditional bookstores -— Barnes & Noble, Borders, Waldenbooks, etc. —- have teamed with e-commerce giants such as Amazon.com to maximize online book sales. These virtual book merchants frequently offer a “taste” to potential online customers, allowing them to view the table of contents and a few pages of the book’s first chapter in hopes of “hooking” buyers. This strategy has fueled book sales by driving up interest among potential readers, who, after reading the first five pages of a novel, are typically more inclined to purchase the book itself.
In addition to online book vendors, retail companies have capitalized on the reach and ubiquity of the Internet by creating online catalogs in much the same fashion as Barnes & Noble and Borders have created online versions of sections of their books to pique customer interest. And, by and large, this strategy has worked well, allowing potential customers to flip through the pages of a retailer’s catalog from the comfort of their own home, at any time of the day or night. Greater visibility correlates to an increase in sales, and companies with online catalogs and virtual shopping baskets typically associate at least part of their quarterly revenues with online sales.
The case for creating an online version of traditional print material, be it a catalog, book sample, or magazine, has become even stronger with the emergence of high-quality, low-cost online publishing solutions. In recent years there has been a shift toward the self-publication of catalogs and other print materials from the expensive outsourcing of these publishing tasks to media consultants. Many companies -— particularly small to medium-sized businesses -— have found software solutions that allow their employees to produce online documents of the same quality as those produced by expensive external consultants. Thus, it has not only become important to have online versions of print documents available on the Internet, but also very desirable to create these documents without the help of external consultants or organizations.
With these two points in mind, it is possible to construct a list of reasons why companies a) have moved towards producing online versions of print documents such as books and catalogs, and b) are increasingly employing “do-it-yourself” software solutions to do so.
In addition to these reasons, companies have recognized that the online publication of print documents:
In the past, online documents were found almost exclusively in Adobe PDF formats, and required the viewer to first install Adobe software on his home computer, and then to download an entire document before it could be viewed. While Adobe PDF files are still found frequently online, more and more companies have moved towards producing online documents with web-based publishing solutions that allow customers to simply open a new window to view documents, instead of downloading them onto their desktops or a temporary Internet folder.
The electronic format of today’s online print materials not only increases user-friendliness, but also turns traditional search engines into important marketing tools. Search engines such as Google, MSN, and Yahoo! automatically route customers to the pages of virtual catalogs and online books by offering URLs to individuals who search for relevant topics or keywords. Thus, customers who are interested in specific products or themes will immediately find documents that relate to their interests, increasing the possibility of a sale.
The importance of establishing an online document presence will only grow in the years to come. More and more customers are turning to Internet-based commerce to purchase gifts, luxury products, and even necessities. Online publishing solutions that allow companies to create online versions of their catalogs and print-based products will continue to expand the revenues of small- to medium-sized businesses, and ensure that customers will be able to find whatever they want, whenever they want it.
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YOSHI KITAMURA:
Throughout his career, RealRead founder Mr.Yoshi Kitamura has worked to make data communication easier to use, so that the general public can instinctively access information without jumping through complicated technical hoops.
Typical HTML documents on the web display their contents vertically, so readers must continuously scroll down to read the entire document. Yet since the invention of the printing press, printed materials have been presented as side-by-side pages, and it feels natural to read material presented in horizontal form. Yoshi thought that since our eyes are located horizontally and the human brain has evolved to quickly process horizontal movements, why can’t printed material viewed the same way on the Internet? He set about looking for a way to integrate logic-based HTML with natural reading mannerisms.
The RealRead solution improves online document display technology by presenting information in an easy-to-read, instinctive format that does not require the reader to download large files or special software. The company is expanding its ability to integrate into existing software for document creation and management, as well as various Internet services.
Find out more, view a presentation and view publishing application demos at the RealRead website.