Comments for Arthur Attwell

Comment on New EPUB spec gives tech companies the edge by Arthur

Arthur — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:41:57 +0000

@Thad, you’re right that hiring and keeping web-savvy staff can be expensive – whether you hire them in or give existing staff opportunities to learn through training and experimentation. One way or another, these increased costs will go to editorial, design and composition. Even if the final coding is done off-shore, initial in-house product development could require UX/UI specialists, game-design experts, and authors and editors capable of integrating text with interactive elements, like geolocation and social networking. I’m talking about frontlist, of course. Backlist conversions will remain off-shored, $100–$500 once-offs.

Comment on New EPUB spec gives tech companies the edge by Thad McIlroy

Thad McIlroy — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 04:05:51 +0000

I agree with you conceptually, but I think this plays out differently in “the real world.” While EPUB2 was easy enough for anyone to do with an old pair of scissors and a paperclip, the larger publishers farmed out the service to offshore vendors for about $75/$100 for a straightforward book. They’ll still farm it out, paying up to $500/book. That’s inconsequential compare to print costs (I’m assuming that editorial. design and composition costs remain as is).

I’d argue that the real cost of technology in publishing is in hiring and holding on to smart staff who can visualize the broad business opportunities that surround publishing in an online world. Those people are expensive. They’re also smart enough to know when to farm out technology grunt-work like ebook production.

Comment on New EPUB spec gives tech companies the edge by Test drive: Readium e-reading demo app off to great start: Librarians please note | LibraryCity

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:31:31 +0000

[...] New EPUB spec gives tech companies the edge, from Arthur Attwell. I myself don’t mind ePub’s complexities as long as there are easy [...]

Comment on A sea-change in South African schoolbook publishing by Arthur

Arthur — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:25:42 +0000

Linette, I think these are all important questions that will be resolved project by project. There is always concern about quality and objectivity when govt chooses the books. But then again, publishers have to stick so desperately closely to the written curriculum these days to get their books approved that there is already little slack for deviation from what the state lays down. As for funding, it’s cheaper to print open-licensed books than to purchase commercial ones. And I believe corporations will gladly sponsor the development of open-licensed textbooks as social-responsibility spending if they’re developing expertise in their given areas, and getting their logos on millions of schooldesks.

Comment on A sea-change in South African schoolbook publishing by Linette Downes-Webb

Linette Downes-Webb — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:12:30 +0000

Arthur, this is a brilliant idea, and having the Shuttleworth Foundation and Paperight involved, is great. However, after 30 years in publishing, I must confess to having become a little cynical. Who decides upon the content of these free books? Does Umalusi still do the quality assurance, and is SAQA still involved in the project? Further, where does or will the DoBE get the millions (if not billions) to fund such a massive project such as this one? The Shuttleworth Foundation may donate many millions, but philanthrophy is not exactly an inbred trait in many of our richest citizens …

Comment on A sea-change in South African schoolbook publishing by Savyra Meyer

Savyra Meyer — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:07:21 +0000

Wow! Very important to know about, Atrthur! Thank you so much for posting this. At the moment we’re busy with another tsunami of work as you probably know and we’re all doing things we didn’t know were possible.

But as you say, it does take its toll eventually and the prospect of doing it all under better circumstances can only mean a better final product.

Great news, very exciting and most of all am happy for the kids.

Comment on A sea-change in South African schoolbook publishing by Anthea

Anthea — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:33:16 +0000

Yes! The writing has been on the industry’s headstone for a while. MDs who lack the vision to switch strategies now, might soon be unemployed…

Comment on Ereaders for Christmas? My recommendations by Arthur

Arthur — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:03:18 +0000

Thanks for the info, Dave. I didn’t realise we couldn’t buy the ad-subsidised version here. Good to know!

Comment on Ereaders for Christmas? My recommendations by Dave Buchanan

Dave Buchanan — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:02:59 +0000

Hi AA – Hear hear from me too regarding SA authors. BTW tho I’m unrepentantly Luddite myself wrt ereaders, my better half loves shiny new gadgets, so I took the plunge & ordered the keyboard Kindle from Amazon – and it wouldn’t let me order the $139-plus-ads version, I had to go to the “international” page & pay full price. Into each life a little rain, etc etc.

Comment on Ereaders for Christmas? My recommendations by Arthur

Arthur — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 18:02:24 +0000

Glad to hear that, Joanne. Last Christmas, ereaders were certainly a hit for young readers in the US:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/05/books/05ebooks.html

Let’s hope something similar happens here before long.