California State University to license content from major college publishers — from TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home by Paul Biba
The Digital Marketplace, an initiative of the California State University Office of the Chancellor, announced plans today to launch a pilot to license digital course content from Bedford/Freeman/Worth, Cengage Learning, McGraw-Hill Education, Pearson, and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
McGraw-Hill Education: Product Manager – Student Innovations
Profession: Marketing -> Product Management
The McGraw-Hill Companies is driving the education, financial services, and business information markets through leading brands such as McGraw-Hill Education, Standard & Poor’s and J. D. Power and Associates. McGraw-Hill Education addresses virtually every aspect of the education market from pre-K through professional learning.
Using traditional materials, online learning and multimedia tools, we empower the growth of teachers, professionals and students of all ages. Our technical innovations are changing the way people learn, with e-books, online tutoring, customized course Web sites and subscription services. We are also a leading provider of reference and trade publishing for the medical, business, engineering and other professions. McGraw-Hill is investing in and committed to innovation, both in its business and in shaping the future of higher education.
The Learning Ecosystems Group is the team responsible for defining that vision of the future. We are building businesses that meet the needs of higher education students – products that can be directly marketed to students and to institutions, including our current GradeGuru product as well as the significant digital platform products in our short-term pipeline. The Learning Ecosystems Group is thus offering a unique and exciting opportunity for an experienced Product Manager in our New York City offices. The ultimate aim for this Product Manager is loosely to develop, deliver and monetize products/ services that will give students the tools they need to meet their course goals, as well as to drive the research, ideation and vision for new product(s)/ service(s) that are responsive to the needs of students.
Essential Accountabilities
Creating Digital Magazines — from Adobe by Dave Dickson on July 19, 2010
Earlier this year when WIRED Magazine launched its digital edition (and sold more issues than the newsstand version without cannibalizing print sales) we noted that it was created with InDesign CS5 along with new publishing technologies. Today, we’ve released a short video that overviews these new technologies, including more detail on how they fit into the digital magazine authoring workflow.
Late this summer, we’ll post these new publishing technologies on Adobe Labs so a broad set of media, corporate and retail catalog publishers will be able to create compelling content experiences. Using this Digital Magazine Solution, these publishers can create immersive content without having to hire additional developers or invest in extensive retraining for staff. Publishers can add interactivity without writing code via InDesign and create monetizable digital magazines for the Apple iPad – with other platforms and devices expected in the future.
InDesign CS5 + Digital Content Bundler
…
The “.issue” Format + Digital Content Viewer
This new .issue format is a compressed file format that contains vertical and horizontal magazine layouts, metadata, code to enable interactivity, and associated assets (images, video, etc.) Once the layouts have been packaged into the .issue format, the file is then rendered and displayed to the end-user using a publisher-branded Digital Content Viewer. The WIRED Reader, for example, is the first instance of a publisher-branded viewer. This Digital Content Viewer allows readers to interact with and navigate through the magazine content (including via the innovative “browse” mode). Previously we announced the Digital Content Viewer for Apple iPad; in the future we also expect to develop the Digital Content Viewer on Adobe AIR for desktops and other devices.
Organize e-books in iTunes — from Macworld.com by Kirk McElhearn
With the arrival of iOS 4, the iPad, and iTunes 9.2, iTunes can now manage e-books for syncing to Apple’s iBooks app. iTunes accepts two types of book files: those in ePub format, and PDF files. Organizing e-books in iTunes can be a bit baffling, however. Here’s a look at how you can keep your e-book library spic and span.
Zinio, NACS Media Solutions Partner to Create First Collegiate Digital Newsstand — from prnewswire.com
Newsstand will offer 3,000-plus digital magazines and books of interest to college students through web portal. Options available for college stores across U.S. who wish to share in revenue.
NEW YORK and OBERLIN, Ohio, July 12 /PRNewswire/ — Zinio, the world’s leader in digital publishing, technology, distribution, and services, and NACS Media Solutions (NMS), a subsidiary of the National Association of College Stores (NACS), today announced a partnership to develop the first all-digital online newsstand directed specifically at the college market. Featuring 3,000-plus magazines and books suitable for reading through Zinio’s UNITY™ platform, which enables on-line or offline access on any PC, iPhone, iPad, and upcoming supported devices, the newsstand will break new ground by taking the world of reading to the platforms most popular with the Digital Generation.
The new collegiate digital newsstand, which will carry “Powered by Zinio” branding, will include a revenue-sharing arrangement for NACS members who wish to promote the site to their local college students. At a future point, Zinio and NMS anticipate developing private-label versions for NACS members who decide to deploy and promote their own digital newsstands.
Some advice for authors on self-publishing and ebooks — from teleread.com
and
New vanity publishing? — from publishingguru.blogspot.com
It’s a pretty good system for everyone involved in the making of a best-seller. Efficiency, ease of promotion, a pre-determined outcome, and everyone gets paid, even though about half of those hardcovers will eventually be composted, too. If you can publish a best-seller, you’d be crazy to publish anything else.
If you are at the bottom end of the mid-list scale, you’d be crazy to give your book license away at current industry standards. Let’s examine the three publisher advantages in light of the modern digital/print-on-demand landscape.
Inscribe Digital launches ebook wholesale delivery platform for publishers — from teleread.com
From the press release:
Isolation Network, Inc., parent company to INgrooves (a leading provider of digital distribution, marketing and promotion services to the global music & video community via its ONE Digital platform), officially announced the name of their new digital publishing division, INscribe Digital. INscribe Digital has inked deals with all major domestic eBook retailers and is now set up to deliver digital eBook content worldwide for a number of independent publishing companies and authors via its ONE Digital platform. The announcement was made today by Founder & CEO, Robb McDaniels.
INscribe Digital provides global digital distribution, content conversion and optimization services to large and small publishers. INscribe Digital’s retail network is quickly expanding; they are an approved delivery partner of Apple and have deals with Amazon, Sony, Barnes & Noble and Kobo. Content deals have also been consummated with several independent publishers and authors such as Gaby Press, Postgraduate Medicine, 80/20 Publishing and RLR Associates. Currently, the INscribe Digital catalog covers multiple genres including education, children’s, thriller, fiction, nonfiction, memoir and young adult.
The future of publishing(?) — from InsideHigherEd.com by G. Rendell
One of the little things I like about the National Research Council’s recent report on the future of agriculture is the way it’s published and priced. You not only get what you pay for, you pay for what you get.
Want a bound copy plus a PDF? That’s $76.50.
Just the bound copy is $58.50 if you order it on the web.
Just the PDF? $50.00.
A PDF of a single chapter? Download it for $4.10.
…
What is an eBook?
An eBook is a print book that has been converted to an electronic format and made available for reading on your computer.
What is the difference between an eBook and a CaféScribe Digital Textbook?
The CaféScribe digital textbook is an eBook with multiple features, supporting multiple functionality that other eBooks do not have. For example, annotating and note sharing are two of the features found in CaféScribe digital textbooks but are not part of other eBooks.
— from http://support.cafescribe.com/Content/etextbook/etextbook_faq.htm
See also:
http://campustechnology.com/articles/2010/05/17/cafescribe-expands-social-networking-features.aspx
Follett has released an enhanced search and social networking update to its CaféScribe digital textbook platform.
CaféScribe is a Web-based system for finding and purchasing textbooks in digital format. After creating an account, the user can browse titles by various criteria, purchase selections through the online store or participating campus bookstore, and organize texts with provided thumbnail and listing tools. The latest version includes expanded search options for people or groups, plus support for sharing of notes, ideas, and documents between students, instructors, and the CaféScribe community.
