The Influence of "Internet Publishing" on Traditional Publishing Industry

As a revolutionary productivity tool, the Internet has been fully embodied in the publishing industry. Right now, the Internet economy has made people dazzled, and the Internet and e-commerce are launching a wave of waves over traditional media and traditional economies. For many young people, the "mouse" has replaced newspapers and pens. A person in the US IT industry claimed that 20 years later, books and typography must be sent to museums. The implication is to replace books with the Internet. This does sound like a heart rate too fast.

At present, although traditional books, represented by paper media, still dominate the publishing industry today, the Internet is entering the field of book publishing with its rapid development momentum, and the editing, publishing and sales of books are supported by the Internet. The online publication has shown its good momentum of development, impacting the traditional publishing model, and the traditional publishing industry is facing unprecedented challenges.

I. The concept of online publishing

Internet publishing refers to publishing organizations that have legal publishing qualifications, and publish and sell digital publications using the Internet as a carrier and circulation channel.

Web publishing is a result of the development of Internet technology. It is a paper book (paper book, abbreviated as p-book) and is a completely different reading material than a book with a figure, a character, or a book produced by printing on paper. From abroad, Internet publishing generally refers to e-books and print-on-demand (POD).
"Print on Demand" has great advantages. It makes zero inventory, personalization and customization, and cost saving become a reality. It is also the most natural connection between traditional publications and online publications. For example, the Amazon bookstore provides digital printing services. It does not need to go through process of plate making, printing, etc. The printing quality is high, and the printing cost of a single book is fixed. In China, "print on demand" has emerged. For example, Shanghai Century Publishing Group launched the "print on demand" business this year. However, digital printing books are several times more expensive than ordinary printing books. It is estimated that the market will not be too big. Therefore, this article will not discuss "on-demand printing" and only discusses e-books.

Second, the advantages of online publishing

The overwhelming trend of online publishing on the one hand is due to the network's own advantages. More importantly, online publishing has effectively stimulated the sluggish book market. The use of online publishing can enable those who are busy working on weekdays and have no time to go to bookstores to buy books to taste books that suit their own tastes. From this perspective, the network is taking advantage of its own advantages and has achieved traditional books. Potential readers of those corners that are not reachable have been excavated and have effectively expanded the publishing market.

Compared with traditional publishing, web publishing has unparalleled advantages in many aspects, such as:

1. save resources

Paper publications consume a lot of forest resources and cause serious environmental pollution. The current online sales of books is only a mode of online publishing, but it has not departed from the traditional physical carriers, but the future of online publishing is the e-book, which will completely abandon the traditional model. Books are completely downloaded and distributed on the Internet, and paperless publishing has been completely implemented. This has revolutionized the form, circulation, and settlement of publications, saving social resources and reducing environmental pollution (saving trees, reducing paper, printing, and transportation Environmental pollution, etc.). From this perspective, online publishing will be a true green industry.

2. Publishing and distribution are synchronized

At the same time as the e-books were published on the Internet, they have already realized the issuance in the traditional sense, which makes the zero inventory in the real sense become a reality. According to professional analysis, e-book is currently the most suitable for online circulation of goods, no logistics, inventory is always sufficient and other characteristics are the e-book hottest selling point.

3. Avoids out of print

Online publishing can make publishing works with important academic value and cultural value more easily. No matter how long ago you want to read a book, you can download it from the Internet or order it online. It can be said that online publishing has made publishing a truly unpublished publication.
(Moreover, the "print on demand" new publishing model not only satisfies the readers' habit of reading paper media books, but also adds new marketing methods to publishers and bookstores.)

4. Low price

As online publishing is directly oriented to readers, it reduces the expenditures of publishers, bookstores, and other intermediate links, making the same content, the cost of viewing online or purchasing via the Internet is only equivalent to 30% to 70 percent of purchasing equivalent paper books. %. Because of its low price, it is also conducive to fighting piracy.

5. Easy to search

Through the query of keyword words, you can quickly find the desired content. You can search the catalog and full-text, making reading easier and faster. This is one of the most significant advantages of online books over paper books.

6. Read more freely

The readers do not have to be limited by time and space. No matter where in the world, e-books can be downloaded via the Internet. And with handheld readers, e-books can be read even when there is no light or in low-light environments, no matter where and when, and a reader can store hundreds or even more online publications, reducing The physical space for readers to save books is more convenient to carry.

Third, the status of Internet publishing

1. foreign

On March 14, 2000, the American best-selling fiction writer Stephen King's book “The Huddle Flight” was published on the Internet. This is the first book to be published in electronic format without printing. It is said that the first day of the publication was downloaded 400,000 times. This book created the first page of the history of online publishing, creating a new miracle for online publishing and becoming an explosive news in the Internet field. As a summary of the history of publishing, the true value of this novel lies in the fact that it has completed the experiment of e-book publication in the full sense. In the United States, it launched a massive upsurge of online publishing. Various media rushed to report on each other, which made the online publishing market appear to be in full swing.

In May 2000, the US bookface company launched a new e-commerce model that allows readers to freely browse the contents of various magazines, books, records, and even movies on the Internet, and websites, publishers, and authors are inserted in front of the text. Advertising to earn income. If the reader wants to purchase this book, the website can connect it to Amazon and Barnes & Noble online bookstores for a certain commission. When the reader is browsing, the screen only displays the current page, and no content is saved on the hard disk, so that the work will not be illegally circulated.

The United States Time Warner Corporation, the establishment of the electronic publishing department iPublish.com, under the editorial department, marketing department, as the traditional publishing house, like the composition. E-books are available for readers to download at a lower price than paper hardcover books. iPublish.com has 3 modules: iRead, iWrite, and iLearn, which are responsible for downloading books, manuscript processing, and author writing consulting.

Later, Microsoft announced that 15 "Star Trek" series of TV novels with Simon Schuster's company will be available online at the Barnese Online Bookstore in a Microsoft reading software format on a portable computer for readers to download for free. At the same time, Microsoft also signed a contract with Random House to make Random House's best-selling "Timeline" into Microsoft's reading software format on the Internet at the Barnes & Noble online bookstore. Time Warner will also use Microsoft Reader to publish its works on its iPublish.com website. At one time, Microsoft, the world's software giant, with its reader technology, easily became a major player in the publishing of e-books.

In July, Stephen King ceased to cooperate with Simon Schuster Publishing Company after successfully launching his e-book "Rideshot Flight" and published his serialized e-book novella "Botany", making himself a famous writer. Develop to new self publishers.

At the same time, Lockstream has made great progress in digital product copyright protection software to ensure that network publishing is secure and reliable. Versaware, which is principally engaged in electronic publishing, has made great progress in making electronic books for publishers.

In Japan, in October 1998, more than 130 publishing companies in Japan, including major publishers, formed the Japanese e-book association JEC. There are about 4,500 publishers in Japan, of which 1,000 have their own websites and are preparing or are going to publish them online.

At the Frankfurt International Book Fair in October 2000, e-books have once again become the focus of the book fair, especially the establishment and selection of the first Frankfurt e-book Award, which has aroused the industry and the media. The widespread concern.

In Europe and the United States, the development of e-books is gradually becoming standardized. In terms of unified e-book standards, although there is currently no unified format, e-book formats such as PDF, OEB, and HTML have corresponding markets. However, the establishment of OEB provides the possibility of unified formats. OEB is an "industry standard" introduced by more than a dozen companies such as the US Department of Commerce and the Institute of Standards and Technology in order to unify the file format and standardize the e-book market. Its members include Bertelsmann and Pearson Group. Pearson), McGraw-Hill, Thomson, Houghton Mifflin, Holtzbrinck, and Harperkings Companies (HarperCollins), Adobe, Microsoft, Palm Lnc, Barnes & Noble Lnc, Librivs, Nokia, U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Institute of Standards and Technology and other companies and institutions, the establishment of OEB will contribute to the formation and promotion of e-book standards, web publishing Although its appearance is only a matter of recent years, its development rate is quite alarming from a worldwide perspective. In the United States, where internet publishing was the earliest development, 79% of publishers now have their own websites. Although not all websites are now published on the Internet, this figure is much higher than the proportion of US companies using the website to sell or promote products online. This shows that in countries with relatively mature network technologies, the speed of network and publishing integration is much higher than that of other industries.

2. domestic

The start of foreign online publishing is obviously preceded by domestic ones. How can we learn from foreign experience and avoid the detours they take? In Europe and the United States, from the end of 1998 to the beginning of 1999, the focus of the industry on e-books was mainly on handheld readers. Hardware manufacturers hoped to promote e-book content and the development of the entire industry through the popularity of readers. In the meantime, readers hope to read a lot of e-book content on the Internet before they are likely to purchase more expensive (200-300 US dollars) readers, so the two sides have entered a stalemate that has hindered e- The further development of the book. After all, this is the question of "chicken-egg" or "egg chicken". From the middle of 1999, the concept of PC-based e-book (PC-based e-book) has been widely accepted, and PCs and laptops have gradually spread to families and individuals, providing the basis for the development of PC-based e-books. condition.

Therefore, for the development of domestic e-books, we must avoid detours and truly solve the “chicken and egg” problem. We should use e-book content as the core element in the development of the entire industry so that readers can participate in the industry widely. Can really mobilize the core strength of the e-book industry.

The traditional publishing industry has a unique advantage in providing e-book content. But in China, online publishing has just begun