Transition to Digital -- A Brief BIGNY Dialogue with W.W. Norton's Sue Carlson

Sue Carlson

We recently asked Sue Carlson, Vice President and Director of Production and Design at W.W. Norton, a few questions in advance of her appearance during the Book Industry Guild of New York's (BIGNY) Tuesday, March 8th panel discussion. The topic: "Publishing Technology Update: New Digital Directions."

BIGNY: Why did Norton create their own eReader?

Carlson: There were many compelling reasons to develop our own reader, chiefly though, the ability to control the student experience as well as integration with our other digital products, campus LMSs [Learning Management Systems] and e-commerce integration. 

BIGNY: Can you give some examples of re-purposing content in order to monetize it?

Carlson:  For poetry or fiction compendiums, we repurpose the individual ebook files into a larger ebook. For our college ebooks, we build the content so that both our distribution methods can take advantage of the formatting in ways that suit the particular channel. So for example, some features will work on one reading application, but have fallbacks that will not break the other device’s reading experience. 

BIGNY: How has data from your digital products affected new book or product creation?

Carlson: Sales data for both trade and college has always guided our decision-making for mining our backlist. Certain disciplines in college are highly dependent on an e-edition, others, not so much. Also, feedback on user experience from our college sales staff informs which features to focus on or develop.

BIGNY: How has the digital workflow changed people’s jobs? (For example, do designers have to code? Do teams work more closely?)

Carlson: I can’t think of a single person’s job in production that hasn’t been affected. Production managers and art directors have to think about how design will affect the ebook. Will the thumbnail be readable on a web page? Certain colors and typefaces read better. Interior designers need to think about charts and tables, double-page spreads, notes, etc. For college, interior design thinks about modifications from print to e, and that has started to drive at least some of the design decisions. Designers also keep accessibility needs in mind and steer clear of certain colors and make sure there’s enough contrast. College production managers are now not only producing the print products, but many of the digital products as well. New editorial teams have sprung up to perform quality assurance for digital products. Ebook teams, distribution staff, and ebook designers have been hired. Production has always been schedule-driven, but with so many dependencies, those schedules have to be aligned to an entire suite of products. We’ve always been a pretty tight-knit group, but I have to say that yes, there’s a good deal more collaboration now that the universe has gotten bigger.

Visit the BIGNY website for more information and tickets for the March 8th "Publishing Technology Update: New Digital Directions" event.

BIGNYDigital -- More About Sue Carlson

Sue Carlson

Here's a brief bio of Sue Carlson, one of the panelists at the Book Industry Guild of New York's (BIGNY) Tuesday, March 8th "Publishing Technology Update: New Digital Directions" event:

Following a career in music, Sue Carlson began a transition to the publishing world by working in graphic production, and joined W. W. Norton in 1999. Beginning as the Digital Production Manager, in a period of rapid industry developments in digital workflows, she has been part of Norton¹s evolution from a traditional print publisher to both print and digital. In 2013, she was appointed the Director of Digital Production and, a year later, promoted to Vice President and Director of Production and Design, overseeing Norton¹s trade and college production, design and photo permissions groups.

W. W. Norton, founded in 1923, is an independent and employee-owned company publishing 400 trade and educational titles a year. In 2015, Norton published its first enhanced, digital version of the Norton Anthology of English Literature, one of its signature books. In 2016, Norton will release its first-ever digital version of The Norton Shakespeare.

Transition to Digital: A Brief BIGNY Dialogue with Galvanized Brands' Daniel Cohen

Daniel Cohen

We recently asked magazine and content publisher pro Daniel Cohen a few questions in advance of his appearance during the Book Industry Guild of New York's (BIGNY) Tuesday, March 8th panel discussion. The topic: "Publishing Technology Update: New Digital Directions."

Daniel Cohen is a digital product, workflow, and editorial technology strategist and team leader. Currently Digital Strategist at Galvanized Brands, he has worked with over 40 magazines and content publishers on staff or as a consultant.

BIGNY: Can you give some examples of re-purposing content in order to monetize it?

Cohen: At Galvanized, spurred by the growth of our brands Zero Belly Diet and Eat This, Not That!, we used custom scripts to export and reformat book content for use in Zero Belly: 14-Day Plan, and Eat This, Not That! The Game apps. The apps feature a reimagining of the same content found in book and on web, with interactivity fitting with the subjects and voice. In Eat This, Not That! The Game, the player learns about food choices as they race the clock to select the more healthful food “swap”—playing off a main feature of the books. The Zero Belly: 14-Day Plan thoughtfully lays out recipes and fitness routines from the book and website, into a 14-day plan featuring meal and workout tracking. The apps drive additional revenue via paid downloads, in-app ad serving, and/or links driving traffic to websites.

BIGNY: How has data from your digital products affected new book or product creation?

Cohen: At Galvanized, one example comes from our use of engagement data from eatthis.com to inform ideas about new products, many of which are created in short order, to deliver to those trends. In 2015 we found high traffic on several of our posts about the role of tea in weight loss, and this led directly to the creation of The 7-Day Flat-Belly Tea Cleanse and The 17-Day Green Tea Diet ebooks.

BIGNY: How has the digital workflow changed people’s jobs? (For example, do designers have to code? Do teams work more closely?)

Cohen: At many organizations, Designers and Production staff from print have gotten directly involved in the creation process of digital products and have expanded their skills sets to include HTML, UI, UX, and Adobe tools for Digital Content publishing. All staff have found new and creative ways of streamlining existing processes in order to make room for the new product demands, including automation scripting and ongoing process improvement. Teams have also learned and incorporated new production paradigms geared towards “version”-oriented rollouts, such as agile development and task-based projects.

Visit the BIGNY website for more information and tickets for the March 8th "Publishing Technology Update: New Digital Directions" event.

BIGNYDigital -- More About Katherine McCahill

Katherine McCahill

Here's a brief bio of Katherine McCahill, one of the panelists at the Book Industry Guild of New York's (BIGNY) Tuesday, March 8th "Publishing Technology Update: New Digital Directions" event:

Katherine McCahill is the Senior Director of the Apps Channel at Penguin Random House. In this role Katherine works across all divisions to identify and develop new mobile apps and effectively bring them to market and maximize their potential.

Prior to this she was a Product Manager in Wiley’s Global Education division, Assistant Director of Digital Products at Penguin Publishing (a division of Penguin Random House), and worked on marketing campaigns for eBook originals and audiobooks at HarperCollins Publishers.  She started her career in managing editorial and editorial positions at St. Martin’s Press.

For more information about the March 8th event, please visit the BIGNY website.

BIGNYDigital -- More About Daniel Cohen

Daniel Cohen

Here's a brief bio of Daniel Cohen, one of the panelists at the Book Industry Guild of New York's (BIGNY) Tuesday, March 8th panel discussion "Publishing Technology Update -- New Digital Directions":

Daniel Cohen is a digital product, workflow and editorial technology strategist and team leader. Currently Digital Strategist at Galvanized Brands, he has worked with over 40 magazines and content publishers on staff or as a consultant.

He spent the first part of his career supporting, integrating or managing production workflow and publishing tools, and leading technology training. As Senior Technical Specialist at Hearst and later Technical Director and Deputy Head of Production at The New Yorker, Daniel helped to launch and manage development and roadmaps of magazine digital editions, ebooks, native mobile apps, and web products; and extended editorial workflows and teams to support digital output. Daniel continues this work at Galvanized and additionally supports web operations, email marketing, and technology and data approaches to audience development.

Daniel studied History at the University of Pennsylvania, plays guitar, and really wants to make the world a better place. 

BIGNYDigital -- More About Cynthia Clark

Cynthia Clark

Here's a brief bio of Cynthia Clark, one of the panelists at the Book Industry Guild of New York's (BIGNY) March 8, 2016 panel discussion on "Publishing Technology Update: New Digital Directions":

While Slavic languages were her first love, Cynthia Clark soon fell head over heels in love with the special language of book publishing and spent her early career shepherding manuscripts to their tangible printed book form. This satisfying experience evolved into a career in journal publishing, where Cynthia has witnessed first-hand the rapid and exciting changes of the digital era. And now, continuing this career at Elsevier in digital publishing, Cynthia gets to stay on the front lines and help steer the ship.

Originally from New Jersey, Cynthia now calls Park Slope, Brooklyn home, where she lives with her family and dog, Owen. With two adult sons, the family dynamic keeps changing as they come and go, figuring out their own next adventures in life.

First job: Working in a local bakery.

Interests: Her children and her dog, quilting, triathlon training, movies, books.

BIGNYDigital -- More About Peter Milburn

Peter Milburn

Here's a brief bio of Peter Millburn, one of the panelists at the Book Industry Guild of New York's (BIGNY) March 8th panel discussion on "Publishing Technology Update: New Digital Directions":

Peter Milburn is Associate Director, Digital Product Marketing at John Wiley & Sons, Inc. where he oversees marketing for Wiley Efficient Learning, Wiley’s online test prep unit. In five years at Wiley, Peter helped build EfficientLearning.com into a key source of growth for the company in the area of global direct-sold digital learning. Prior to joining Wiley, Peter was founder and owner of RE:DIRECT, a direct response creative agency that handled promotion and interactive assignments for most of the country's major magazine publishers including Condé Nast, Hearst, Time Inc. and others. Peter began his career at Time Inc.'s Consumer Marketing Division in 1994, spending six years involved in acquisition and retention marketing for its stable of mass-market consumer magazines. He is a past member of the board of the Direct Marketing Club of New York.