Challenge

Book publishing worldwide is still a very manual process. At most book publishing companies, manuscripts are usually still hand-written, the editing is still mostly done on paper, with the corrections re-keyed, and pages are typeset page by page using a traditional page layout program manually.

It's a very distributed process, with authors and editors often working offsite on contract, couriering around materials, and typesetting following the same pattern.
The exchange of data between participants in the book industry is also a great challenge. The traditional formats used to exchange information between the publishers, distributors and booksellers have been difficult, with little standardisation in fields or classification. With a vast number of small book publishers operating, and with a great number of franschised and independent booksellers, industry-wide inefficiencies hold back the entire sector.

In Australia, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has found that the average profit margin for book publishers is very low, and that turnover is dominated by larger players.

The 20 largest book publishers generated 74% of the total income for book publishers and other major contributors. Similarly, the 20 largest book publishers achieved 76% of the value of total book sales and sold 73% of all books. Book publishers have an average profit margin of 4.1%. For the largest 20 book publishers, the profit margin is 3.4%. For other book publishers, the profit margin was 6.5% while other major contributors had a profit margin of 5.6%.
It's an industry with high turnover, many players, and low profit margins. So this is an industry worldwide which has the potential for massive benefits from improvements in both the way that books are created and produced, and in the way that the industry exchanges information between publishers, sellers and suppliers. It's an industry that is also facing a shakeup from online operators such as amazon.com, and new formats such as PDFs and ebooks.

Solution

Macmillan uses edDesk Book Publisher for its web and print marketing and catalogue management to address the challenges facing the book publishing industry worldwide.

The Results

The solution manages book data and metadata according to the new XML-based ONIX 2.1 specification for the exchange of book data, agreed to as the new worldwide standard for book data exchange.

It generates catalogue and book content data automatically in electronic form, for web-based book sales and catalogue generation, and output to ebooks and other new formats.

Automates the web marketing process - with workflow, copy management and approvals saving time and cost.

Manages book data in an industry-standard compliant form based on XML - saving on data exchange costs and improving supply chain management.

Integrates and automates exchange of data between multiple databases and systems.

Benefits for Macmillan Publishers

Ability to better serve customers.

Being able to deliver products from a "one stop shop" for the large number of publishing houses represented.

Better position the company in a tough marketing environment.

Ability to output the data to multiple media delivers both time and cost efficiencies.

About the client

Macmillan Publishers Australia is celebrating 100 years in Australia as a leading book publisher. Its divisions include:

Macmillan Education Australia: publishes titles for the Primary and Secondary educational markets.

Palgrave Macmillan: Responsible for the publishing, marketing and sales of academic trade, text, and scientific, technical, medical, professional and reference titles in Australia.

It also includes Pan Macmillan and Macmillan Distribution Services.

Summary

Organisation's industry: Book publishing
Type of deployment: Web publishing, integrated print and web marketing, book catalogue management, rich data integration.