ISSUES IN ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING MPC 712

 

THE ECONIMICS OF ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING

Meaning of Economics

Economics is the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between given ends and scarce means which have alternative uses (Robbins1935)[1]. Alfred (1890)[2] defines economics as the study of mankind in the ordinary business of life.  The theory of economics is a method rather than a doctrine, an apparatus of mind, a technique of thinking which helps its processor to draw a correct conclusion.

Electronic publishing [3] [4]

As the name implies, it is the publishing that involves the utmost use of electronics. It can also be called digital publishing. (Jones and Cook, 2000)[5] denotes electronic publishing as an encompassing term for a variety of digitally produced materials such as bulletin boards, newsgroups, mailing lists, CD-ROM based media, and websites. This advent of publishing has made the publishing houses to braise up from the old ways of doing things and come to the easier way of making their ideas be ready at the expected time.

Economics of electronic publishing [6] [7]  

The economics of electronic publishing centers on the aspect of human (authors, publishers and readers) behaviour in relation with  electronic publishing. The response of the author to the questions or thoughts of the reader is expressed in a form (manuscript) for the publisher to organise, adjust, and present in a readable format to the users. The  author when solicited for to publish his book, looks for some advance in royalty rate which the publishing house is expected to pay out in the first six months of the publication. The issue of cash flow in the publishing house on how to manage the cost of production processes for books to be published has now been risky and causing them not to give out advances on royalty. This has brought the house to dwell on economics of production starting from the pre-press, press to the post-press stages of production.

The production processes in the conventional way is very tasking and cost consuming because there are many hands on work, and many machines and equipment to produce a book which is different to that of electronic publishing.

Now, trees are reducing in number of growth, no plantation of trees to turn into books and people are still cutting the remaining trees to build their houses and create space for themselves. The cost of paper is getting unbearable for production, and there is low reading habit of the people to books in this 24th century. People tend to read a concise or not lengthy information they can grab within some minutes and move on to doing other thing, giving less advantage for the motivation of publishing a high range of different books by an author. In retrospect, to the electronic publishing of books; it has become easier for people who could not easily carry their printed books due to some factors to consider to now read at their convenience and even at any time.

There is a clear difference in the offset processes of publishing to the digital processes of publishing a book. In offset printing, plates are used in transferring images into unto a rubber blanket , and then rolling the image unto a sheet of paper. The ink is not directly transferred into the paper and that’s why it is called offset. The digital printing do not use plates as it is in offset printing, but instead uses the ink printers like laser printers, inkjet and so on when the need for printing arises. There is no hectic processes involved in this process. Almost all the content of electronic publishing are online, including newsletters, journals, research reports brochures, company reports, marketing strategies, magazines and many other things which are still accessible regardless of proximity. The end result of the electronic publishing which is ‘books’ is accessible from a near and wide range of sourcing for information.

How digital publishers think

The question 'how do the publisher in electronic publishing make a feet?', making his gain unlike the conventional one is a must to answer for a focused profit making publisher. The cost of the electronic machines are more costly than that of the conventional ones due to advancement in civilisation and the need for readiness of books to be available to the readers. With the high cost of effective time appreciative machines, production of books are very easy and timely delivering to various sectors into a wide range and  also of benefit.

Since there is no paper involved, printers are exempted and the use of ink is equally of no regard, the cost of book will be reduced because there would be no additional cost incurred on the sale. This gives the publisher a second thought of making it through the digitalisation of publishing[8]. He calculates the sale cost of books by estimating the cost of ‘space or Airtime’ on making his work go viral through the net, so that the cost of machines bought, the requirement of experts in running them and paying them the cost of service rendered, with the royalty to pay the author of the work will not rub off his own company gain.