Introduction
In the publishing world, it can be stated that most of the aspects related to the quality and the representation of the books were invented. The directions that publishers take are different, though. Some focus on delivery and supply channels, others focus on marketing, while Snowbooks publishers take a whole different approach in their strategy. Snowbooks is a small and independent publishing company launched in 2004 (Snowbooks, 2010). Winning several awards and being nominated for, even more, Snowbooks describes the key to the success as a fresh approach. It can be stated that their approach is certainly fresh, considering that being an award-winning company, Snowbooks is actually operated by two people, who are the founders and the creators of the company (Snowbooks, 2010). Thus, what is the main strategy of Snowbooks, publishing, and how such a strategy can be related to the way digital publishers operate? The following sections of the present paper will attempt to answer such a question.
Administrative Tasks
The main emphasis in digital publishing is on administrative tasks. The founder of Snowbooks, Emma Barnes, admitted that the core of the tasks performed regularly is related to administration (Oxford Brookes University, 2010). Accordingly, automating redundant tasks might lead to that most of the functions in a small publishing company can be performed by one person only (Oxford Brookes University, 2010). In that regard, it can be understood that digital publishing does not necessarily refer to publishing electronic books (e-books) only, where “virtually all publishing is digital to some extent, whether the content is delivered electronically or in print (Kasdorf, 2003). Taking the job of an editor as an example, the value of administrative tasks can be seen through “[c]orresponding with authors, sending proposals or manuscripts out to external readers, considering readers’ reports and liaising with authors about possible changes, [etc]” (Thompson, 2005). Thus, it can be implied that one of the core strategies for small publishers might be seen in emphasizing that one of the keys to getting successful effective management of administrative tasks.
Format
Another core aspect of Snowbooks’ publishing strategy, directly related to its digitalisation, is the choice of the format used to manage titles. The emphasis of such aspect by Emma Barnes can be understood ambiguously, where on the one hand, Barnes emphasises the benefits of such format, while on the other, she also owns a software company that distributes management tools based on such format – Onix central (Oxford Brookes University, 2010, Onix Central, 2010). The importance of the format can be explained by making life easier in tasks that are largely redundant and repeated. Onix, in that regard, is a standardisation of the communication taking place between all the parties involved in the publishing business. One of its core advantages is being open-standard, and thus, free to use. Being an IT-driven company and a publishing company at the same time (both founders of Snowbooks are the owners of Onix Central), part of their success is understanding how to make one of the main processes in publishing – managing bibliographic information between the publishing company and the customers, effective. Similarly, whether the publisher delivers books in print or electronic format, reliance on bibliographic information is essential. In the case of electronic format, the conversion of bibliographic information into a structured environment is essential. In the print bookcase, such conversion might be required to manage the correspondence between the publisher and the book store, e.g. Amazon, regarding the requirements, the titles, the ISBNs, etc. Selling 25 thousand books, the effectiveness of such tasks is crucial, especially for small publishers.
Task Automation
The aforementioned elements of the strategy can be seen as the most important for Snowbooks publishing, as emphasized by Emma Barnes. These elements can be summed up through Barnes’s personal position on repeated tasks, which task automation. If there is any task that can be automated, it should be, especially considering that there are a lot of ready-to-use solutions that can perform such processes. Furthermore, such an approach is scalable, where Barnes even at its current scale does not manually enter any information when conducting correspondence with stores. With the company constantly growing, such automation can be scaled up to more processes and tasks. There are other concerns that publishing companies might have such as the selection of books to publish, digital rights management, etc. With the personal approach taken by Snowbooks publishing, those aspects are not yet an issue to consider, where selecting genres preferred by the owners is the approach used at the current time. The challenge that can be defined at the moment is the fear of oversaturation, as admitted by James Bridle, one of the publishers working with Snowbooks. Oversaturation can be seen through the example wherewith up to “10,000 books published every month, it’s getting harder and harder to pick up on the best” (The Book Depository, n.d.).
Conclusion
It can be concluded that the strategy of Snowbooks is essentially distinguished from other publishers. Nevertheless, the scale of the company and the fact that it is an award-winning publisher indicates that such a strategy works. The focus on administrative tasks, the format, and the automation of processes can be seen as the main aspects contributing to the success of Snowbooks in digital publishing.
References
KASDORF, W. E. 2003. The Columbia guide to digital publishing, New York, Columbia University Press.
ONIX CENTRAL. 2010. Onix Central -Homepage [Online]. Onix Central. Web.
OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY. 2010. Emma Barnes – How to get ahead with digital publishing. Web.
SNOWBOOKS. 2010. Snowbooks: About us [Online]. Snowbooks. Web.
THE BOOK DEPOSITORY. n.d. Publisher of the week – Snowbooks [Online]. The Book Depository. Web.
THOMPSON, J. B. 2005. Books in the digital age : the transformation of academic and higher education publishing in Britain and the United States, Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA, Polity Press.