Criteria for Selecting the Best Digital Publishing Platform

It’s a common question faced by Publishers with the dilemma of which digital publishing platform to select for their content.

The best one would be the one which ensures the users can create and publish content easily, with ease. The platform should offer to add interactive rich media content, responsive design and deliver engaging content for the users.

The rise in Online Learning in recent times have paved the way for digital publishing and hence graphic designing, content creation, book conversion etc,.

Here are a few guidelines to select the best digital publishing platform:

a) Interface:

Platforms which offer end-to-end e-publishing services from the conversion of the manuscript to the eBooks distribution, with the facility to content creation interface in a user-friendly manner and an easy-to-use is the optimal one.

Thus, a platform which has an easy to use interface allowing smooth content creation and publishing of eBook without taking support from their technical support for every other step is the one to choose.

b) Content Layout:

Digital Content comprises either fixed or reflowable layouts. While Fixed is used when the content has quite a few no of images, reflowable is used if the content is text heavy. Depending on the type of content a choice needs to be made between the above two.

The ideal publishing platform must support both the layouts so that one can select the format as per the requirement.

c) File Formats:

The type of multiple file formats that the platform supports – ePUB, AZW, Mobi – accepted by most of the eReaders enabling publishers to reach a wider audience thus increasing the readership is recommended.

ePUB format is the widely accepted format though.

d) Compatibility:

Android, Windows and iOS are the popular operating systems used by most users. For any publisher, it is critical for the software chosen needs to work on multiple platforms, for wider distribution.

The content must be made available across all the platforms.

e) Interactivities:

eBooks are interactive in nature – supporting not just text, but images, audio, video, animations and further to the next level of simulations in the form of AR/VR.

The platform must support HTML interactive elements as flash-based elements are being discarded.

An offline reading feature to provide users with 24X7 access to eBooks on their platform is the optimal one, as interactivities make it more engaging.

f) Statistical Analysis:

Analytics is a crucial part to learn on the consumption and distribution of eBooks. Analytics provides detailed insights into the performance of the eBook along with how many users have downloaded the eBook, how many have read etc, in a comprehensive manner.

g) Data Security:

DRM is crucial for any eBook as a part of it’s security as it regulates distribution and controls user access. Data Security measures ensures users with appropriate access preventing content from unauthorized access, theft, online piracy etc,.

Hence proper licences will be in place.

h) Pricing:

Pricing is the most important after all the above mentioned features/aspects are covered. If all the best features are there along with price being high then it should be fine as investment or else it could prove worthless.

Ideally a trial version before opting a paid version over a period of time is always advisable for digital publication needs.

Conclusion:

Amazing reading experience is key for publishers who want to provide their users with the best digital publishing platform.

To digitally enrich the eBook, an eBook platform with rich features and SDK toolkit which can be utilized as plug-n-play into the existing application is desirable.

Delivering customizable reader and user experience forms the core of SDK feature kit. Using SDK to integrate interactive capabilities into the reader is a time-efficient way to provide a better reading experience.