PagemajikPagemajikhttps://www.pagemajik.com/en/c/blogs/find_entry?p_l_id=1162024-03-28T08:36:50Z2024-03-28T08:36:50ZChanges in PublishingSubrahmanian Seshadrihttps://www.pagemajik.com/en/c/blogs/find_entry?p_l_id=116&entryId=2489852024-03-19T10:09:34Z2024-03-18T08:24:00Z<p>The question that is being asked is whether digital technology has impacted the publishing industry. Positive impact or otherwise. It is yet to be confirmed or determined whether print books are on a decline and whether digital books are on a growth trajectory. There is no deep dived research paper on this. Having said that, it differs from market to market, meaning different countries and also the genre of publishing; K-12, Higher-Ed, Academic, Fiction, Non-fiction, and many more. It is not at a point where one size fits all.</p>
<p>More and more stakeholders in the publishing industry are looking at ways of managing this integration process, which is complex. Why is it complex? Let us look at four clear paths in the publishing ecosystem.</p>
<p><b>Writer/Author:</b> We can call them <em>creators</em>. There is traditional writing and now there is assisted writing with the help of generative AI. Surely there is a positive side and flipside to this. Moving on …</p>
<p><b>Publisher:</b> We can call them <em>curators</em>. This team puts in a lot of effort in editing, copyediting, proofreading, designing, indexing and many more such project related functions to make the content elegant and readable. I observe that many companies are wasting a lot of their time by not embracing current technology, which is available as a ready-to-buy option. My research estimates shows that what could be achieved and delivered in less than 12 hours is now a labored effort spanning 2 to 4 weeks. I have had conversations with many such companies, and have found a resistance to change; they are unwilling to give up their current inefficient systems and adopt technology.</p>
<p>The <strong>curators</strong> have to come out of their cocoons, embrace new technology and become efficient and bring in more accuracy in their publishing processes.</p>
<p>What next after this?</p>
<p>Distribution, which is the most important function in the lifecycle. This has undergone significant changes, and many are unable to understand or foresee the massive evolution taking place in the models of distribution. I began listing the avenues available for publishers and the list was so lengthy that I decided to not list them. Yes, the traditional book shop is still there lurking, but the models, platforms and opportunity have grown immensely both in physical and digital. We should no longer be talking about current systems, which has been the major reason for the disruption of supply chain in the publishing sector.</p>
<p>Finally, <strong>Monetisation</strong>. This is very complex. However, publishers must study this carefully since the new monetisation avenues are bringing the cash back to the publishers faster than the traditional approach of waiting for a period ranging from 90 to 210 days. There are many platforms that have opened this opportunity for Publishers. Medium and Large publishers can thrive and grow with this new medium but smaller publisher may have affordability issues.</p>
<p>To conclude, the Publishing industry is not about simply digitizing paper content but it is about forcing businesses to adapt their processes and products to accommodate and reach the new customer. Automation is the key.</p>
<p>There is an <strong>urgent need</strong> for publishers to examine all their systems and evolve to a more efficient way of handling their business. Evaluating a manuscript, applying technology in the editorial and production process, supply chain management, streamlining and accelerating the monetisation, and many more, can be managed by? Should I say algorithms?</p>
<p>The market is showing an up-tick in content in genres such as young adult, romance, fantasy, mystery, thriller, historical fiction, science fiction, self-help, to name a few. You have to embrace technology. Content is not regarded as data by the author and the publisher, but it is data for those who drive this via tech.</p>
<p>Human hand/intervention cannot be done away with. But there is a call to minimize it to be efficient and cost-effective, which results in better profits and more!! </p>
<p>To know more and get more knowledge around this please contact the writer.</p>
<p>Seshadri<br />
Chief Operating Officer, <em>PageMajik</em><br />
President, <em>Association of Publishers in India</em><br />
<em>sesh@pagemajik.com </em></p>Subrahmanian Seshadri2024-03-18T08:24:00ZSolving Styling ChallengesBhaskar Arumugamhttps://www.pagemajik.com/en/c/blogs/find_entry?p_l_id=116&entryId=2461602024-02-15T05:52:20Z2024-02-14T11:03:00Z<h1>Understanding the Problem</h1>
<h2>What’s the Issue?</h2>
<p>In the publishing industry, applying styles to a manuscript based on a specific design can be challenging. You need to remember where to apply each style, such as headings, text, lists in special boxes like Case Studies, and the first and last paragraphs in a list.</p>
<h2>Why is it Important?</h2>
<p>Applying the correct style is crucial for producing the right output. But it’s easy to forget all the styles for a book, and this can lead to errors. We need an efficient solution.</p>
<h1>PageMajik’s Solution</h1>
<h2>The Idea: Auto-prefixing and Auto-applying Style</h2>
<p>PageMajik’s solution is to let users apply styles as they recognize them, without having to remember all their house styles. For special boxes, users can apply the same style as they do for normal text, and then apply a group style. This removes the need to remember the style for special boxes.</p>
<h2>How it Works</h2>
<p>PageMajik’s solution identifies the first and last paragraph within any list and applies a specific style before/after a specific paragraph. This removes the manual work that would have otherwise been necessary.</p>
<h3>Example</h3>
<p>Let’s say you have a paragraph style called “Para1” and another paragraph style called “Para2”. You wish to apply a specific style to “Para2” when it is either above or below “Para1”.</p>
<p>In PageMajik, you can define this auto-style structure in the InDesign template as: <Para1>=<Para2>=<above/below>=<ReplacementStyle>.</p>
<p>When generating InDesign, PageMajik will automatically apply the “ReplacementStyle” to “Para2” when it is in the specified position relative to “Para1”. This eliminates the manual work of applying the style each time.</p>
<h2>Time Analysis</h2>
<p>With the traditional method of tagging styles, it would take approximately an additional 5 minutes per chapter. However, with PageMajik’s innovative approach of auto-prefixing and auto-applying styles, this time is now yours! Meaning - you can focus more on the content and less on the technical aspects of applying styles, and your process becomes more efficient and user-friendly.</p>
<h2>Resources Used</h2>
<p>This innovative solution was the result of a collaborative effort among several teams - XSLT scripting, InDesign automation, and Testing. The combined skills and dedication of these teams have made this significant advancement possible, further enhancing user experience and improving efficiency in the publishing process.</p>
<h2>Tools Used</h2>
<p>PageMajik uses a predefined structure within the InDesign template for the configuration of auto-styles. On the roadmap is a transition to a more user-friendly interface.</p>
<h1>Overcoming Challenges</h1>
<h2>Technical Challenges</h2>
<p>Implementing this solution was not easy, but PageMajik managed it without overloading InDesign. We used XSLT to identify/markup elements that belonged to a group and InDesign automation scripts to apply styles automatically.</p>
<h2>User Challenges</h2>
<p>While the solution takes care of remembering and applying the style, users still need to apply the correct group style and paragraph style.</p>
<h2>Usability: Simplifying the User Journey</h2>
<p>The usability of “Auto-prefixing and auto-applying style when generating InDesign” is a significant factor in its success. The system is designed with the user in mind, ensuring that the process of applying styles is as straightforward and intuitive as possible.</p>
<h1>Impact of the Solution</h1>
<h2>Who Benefits?</h2>
<p>The individuals responsible for styling the document will greatly benefit from this solution. With PageMajik’s system, they no longer have to recall all the styles. The solution prefixes and automatically applies a group style, making their task significantly easier and more efficient.</p>
<h1>Case Study</h1>
<p>In this section, we will delve into a case study that demonstrates the time it took to apply styles before and after implementing our solution. </p>
<h2>Before the Solution</h2>
<p>Before implementing our auto-prefixing and auto-applying style solution, the process of manually tagging the headings and texts for boxes, identifying list items, and applying specific tags to remove additional vertical space in the output was quite time-consuming. It took approximately four minutes to complete these tasks for each chapter.</p>
<h2>After the Solution</h2>
<p>With the introduction of PageMajik’s innovative solution, the time previously spent on manually tagging these specifics is no longer required. This time is now saved, allowing users to focus more on the content and less on the technical aspects of applying styles. This makes the process more efficient and user-friendly.</p>
<h2>Impact Assessment</h2>
<h3>Quantifying the Benefits of Our Solution</h3>
<p>Since the implementation of PageMajik’s auto-prefixing and auto-applying style solution, we’ve seen a significant increase in efficiency across the publishing industry. While it’s difficult to quantify the exact number of individuals who have benefited from this solution, the impact is evident in the time saved and the reduction in errors during the style application process.</p>
<p>Publishers, editors, and designers who previously spent considerable time manually applying styles can now focus more on the creative and content aspects of their work. This not only enhances productivity but also improves the overall quality of the published material.</p>
<p>The positive feedback we’ve received from our users further underscores the effectiveness of our solution. We’re proud to say that our innovative approach has made a significant difference in simplifying the style application process in InDesign, contributing to a more efficient and user-friendly publishing workflow.</p>
<h1>Conclusion: Looking Ahead</h1>
<p>Auto-prefixing and auto-applying style in InDesign is a powerful solution to the problem of remembering and applying style based on design. By understanding the problem and using innovative approaches, we can make the future of the publishing industry brighter.</p>
<h1>About PageMajik</h1>
<h2>PageMajik: Revolutionizing Publishing with AI and Automation</h2>
<p>PageMajik is an integrated editorial and production platform designed specifically for publishers. By harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and process automation, PageMajik is transforming the publishing landscape. Our platform significantly reduces time and operational costs, and expedites the time-to-market for published materials.</p>
<p>We invite you to experience the future of workplace management systems for publishers. With PageMajik, you’re not just keeping up with the times - you’re staying ahead.</p>
<p><i>For more information, please visit</i> <a href="http://www.pagemajik.com/">pagemajik.com</a>.</p>
<h1>About the Author</h1>
<p>Bhaskar Arumugam, “Manager – Publishing Workflow” at PageMajik, has been involved in InDesign automation since 2017. With over 19 years of experience in the publishing industry, he is actively helping to simplify user experience while achieving greater automation results.</p>
<p> </p>Bhaskar Arumugam2024-02-14T11:03:00ZHow can ChatGPT help with content creation/moderation/parsing?
How can it make things more consistent?AI Generatedhttps://www.pagemajik.com/en/c/blogs/find_entry?p_l_id=116&entryId=1976482023-01-18T15:22:52Z2023-01-18T15:05:00Z<p>ChatGPT is a large language model that can be used to assist with various natural language processing (NLP) tasks, including content creation, content moderation, and parsing.</p>
<h3>Creation, Moderation and Parsing of Content</h3>
<p><i>Content Creation:</i> ChatGPT can be used to generate text based on a provided prompt or topic. For example, you can provide a prompt such as "write a short story about a detective solving a murder case" and the model will generate a coherent story that follows that prompt. Additionally, ChatGPT can also be fine-tuned on a specific dataset or style of language to ensure that the generated text is consistent with the desired style.</p>
<p><i>Content Moderation</i>: ChatGPT can assist with content moderation by identifying and flagging potentially inappropriate or offensive language. By training the model on a dataset of texts that contains examples of inappropriate or offensive language, ChatGPT can learn to recognize and flag similar language in new text.</p>
<p><i>Content Parsing</i>: ChatGPT can assist with content parsing by analyzing and extracting relevant information from a block of text. For example, you can use the model to extract specific entities such as names, dates, or locations from a news article. Additionally, the model can also be fine-tuned on a specific dataset to improve its ability to understand and extract information from that particular type of text.</p>
<p>The model can be fine-tuned on specific datasets to improve its performance on those tasks. Pre-processing techniques can be applied to make the input more consistent and understandable to the model.</p>
<h3>Manual copyedit vs. AI-assisted copyedit</h3>
<p>Manual copyediting is the process of reviewing and correcting written text to ensure that it is clear, accurate, and consistent in terms of grammar, punctuation, spelling, and style. This is typically done by a human editor, who will read through the text and make any necessary changes.</p>
<p>AI-assisted copyediting, on the other hand, uses NLP and machine learning techniques to automatically check and correct text for grammar, punctuation, spelling, and style. ChatGPT can play a role in this by providing the underlying NLP capabilities that power the AI-assisted copyediting process. ChatGPT can be fine-tuned on a specific dataset of text and style, and can be used to detect and correct errors in grammar, punctuation, and style in new text. It can also be used to identify inconsistencies in the text and suggest alternative phrasing to improve the consistency of the text.</p>
<p>While AI-assisted copyediting can be a useful tool for quickly identifying and correcting errors, it is not a substitute for manual copyediting. AI-assisted copyediting can help to identify errors and inconsistencies in text, but it is not capable of understanding the nuances of meaning and style that a human editor can. </p>
<h3>Consistency in Content</h3>
<p>Consistency is important in books because it helps to create a cohesive and believable story, and it also helps to maintain the reader's engagement and understanding of the story. Inconsistencies can cause confusion and disrupt the flow of the story, making it difficult for readers to fully immerse themselves in the narrative.</p>
<p>ChatGPT can be used to maintain consistency in content by being fine-tuned on a specific dataset of the book's style and language. This can help the model to understand the author's tone, vocabulary, and sentence structure. Once fine-tuned, ChatGPT can be used to generate new text that is consistent with the style and tone of the book, or to check the consistency of existing text by comparing it to the fine-tuned model's understanding of the book's style and language. Additionally, you can use pre-processing techniques like removing irrelevant information, expanding acronyms, or converting numbers to word format, to make the input more consistent before giving it to the model.</p>
<p>While ChatGPT is an advanced model, it's worth noting that the performance of these tasks will depend on the quality and quantity of the training data, and the specific implementation of the model. Pre-processing techniques like cleaning and normalizing the input text can also help to improve the results.</p>AI Generated2023-01-18T15:05:00ZCan TECHNOLOGY assist in copyediting?Subrahmanian Seshadrihttps://www.pagemajik.com/en/c/blogs/find_entry?p_l_id=116&entryId=1956342023-01-17T14:23:43Z2023-01-16T18:52:00Z<p dir="ltr">Copyediting is the process of checking for mistakes, inconsistencies, and repetition in a manuscript before it’s published. This is an important step to ensure that the final product is polished and error-free. One of the challenges in copyediting a book is that the same errors may occur multiple times throughout the manuscript, thereby making the process time-consuming and confusing.</p>
<h3>Consistency in writing, and why it is important</h3>
<p dir="ltr">Maintaining consistency while copyediting a book can be a difficult task. A book is usually made up of multiple chapters, written by different authors, or written at different times. Each chapter may have its own style, tone, and language usage. Keeping all of these elements consistent throughout the book can be challenging. For example, if a book uses British English spelling in one chapter and American English spelling in another, it can be difficult to ensure consistency across the entire book. Similarly, if a book uses a specific terminology or phrase in one chapter and then uses a different term or phrase in another chapter, it can create confusion for the reader. Additionally, if the book has multiple characters, it’s essential to keep their characteristics, dialogue, and speech patterns consistent throughout the book.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Consistency is important in copyediting because it helps to create a sense of coherence and unity in the book. It ensures that the book’s style, tone, and language usage are consistent throughout, which makes it easier for the reader to understand and engage with the story. Inconsistencies can cause confusion for the reader, which can be detrimental to their enjoyment of the book.</p>
<p dir="ltr">For example, imagine reading a book where a character’s name is spelled differently in different chapters. In one chapter, the character’s name is spelled “Mike” and in another chapter, it’s spelled “Michael.” This inconsistency can cause confusion for the reader, making it difficult to keep track of the characters and follow the story. Similarly, if a book uses different units of measurement in different chapters, it can be confusing for the reader to understand the context of the story.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Inconsistencies can occur in any genre of writing, whether it is STEM or Humanities, and can have a negative impact on the reader’s experience. In STEM, inconsistencies in technical terms and units of measurement can be particularly confusing for readers. For example, if a scientific paper uses metric units in one section and imperial units in another, it can be difficult for readers to understand the context and make comparisons. Similarly, if a technical manual uses different terms to refer to the same component, it can cause confusion for readers trying to follow the instructions. In the Humanities, inconsistencies in style, tone, and language usage can be particularly challenging. For example, a historical fiction novel that switches between different time periods and perspectives may use different styles of language and tone, which can be confusing for readers. Similarly, if a non-fiction book on philosophy uses different terms to refer to the same concept, it can be difficult for readers to understand the author’s arguments. </p>
<p dir="ltr">It’s crucial for copyeditors to catch the inconsistencies and make sure that they are fixed, regardless of the genre. It’s a time-consuming process that requires attention to detail and a deep understanding of the book’s style and tone. <a href="https://www.pagemajik.com/" target="_blank">PageMajik</a> makes this process manageable by identifying the inconsistencies across the book and allowing the editor to fix these in a single place. By using AI, the software is able to identify all errors in the chapters and store that information in a single place. When you’re reviewing a chapter, the software will use AI to find any errors that appear across the book. These errors are displayed in a user-friendly manner, allowing you to make decisions without confusion. This means that you won’t have to solve the same errors multiple times, saving you time and effort.</p>
<h3>Why should Publishers opt for <a href="https://www.pagemajik.com/" target="_blank">PageMajik</a>?</h3>
<p dir="ltr">Publishers should consider buying a software like <a href="https://www.pagemajik.com/" target="_blank">PageMajik</a> that addresses inconsistencies for several reasons.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Firstly, it saves time and effort. <a href="https://www.pagemajik.com/" target="_blank">PageMajik</a> allows you to identify and resolve errors in a single location, rather than having to go through each chapter individually. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Secondly, it improves the quality of the final product. By identifying and resolving inconsistencies, <a href="https://www.pagemajik.com/" target="_blank">PageMajik</a> helps ensure that the final product is polished and error-free, which improves the quality of the book and increases reader satisfaction.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Thirdly, it helps save on costs. By identifying and resolving inconsistencies early in the process, <a href="https://www.pagemajik.com/" target="_blank">PageMajik</a> helps avoid costly errors and reprints.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Lastly, it can increase revenue. A well-edited book with fewer inconsistencies is more likely to be well-received by the readers and this in turn can increase the sales of the book and help the publisher build a positive reputation in the market.</p>
<h3>What are the key differentiators?</h3>
<p dir="ltr">PageMajik’s AI-based approach and the ability to review and make decisions on errors across a book in a single place make it more efficient and accurate than other competitive products in the market.</p>
<p dir="ltr">A key differentiator is that <a href="https://www.pagemajik.com/" target="_blank">PageMajik</a> is tailored to identifying and resolving inconsistencies across a book, whereas X software may not be as focused on this specific task.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.pagemajik.com/">PageMajik</a> uses AI to identify and resolve inconsistencies and is therefore more efficient and accurate.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Additionally, <a href="https://www.pagemajik.com/" target="_blank">PageMajik</a> allows you to review and make decisions on errors across a book in a single place, whereas X software may not have this capability. </p>
<p dir="ltr">In conclusion, <a href="https://www.pagemajik.com/" target="_blank">PageMajik</a> offers a unique set of features and capabilities that can be beneficial for publishers of any genre of content. It helps you save time and effort, improve the quality of the final product, save cost, and increase revenue.</p>Subrahmanian Seshadri2023-01-16T18:52:00Z6 Benefits of Digital Publishing PlatformsCharumathi Viswanathanhttps://www.pagemajik.com/en/c/blogs/find_entry?p_l_id=116&entryId=1720832022-09-02T11:46:13Z2022-08-30T12:26:00Z<p>The digital revolution has transformed the way the world transacts today. Be it communication, shopping, or watching movies, handy devices like the mobile phone or the computer enable users to access it all at the touch of a button.</p>
<p>Reading is no different. Though for the connoisseur, the traditional physical book is still an essential part of daily life, accessing books on the digital platform opens the world even wider! Yes, digital publishing platforms have transformed book publishing and reading in many ways.</p>
<p>A digital publishing platform allows content of any length to be published in a digital format for consumption by readers on their mobile, tablet, Kindle, smartphone, or laptop, and turn pages without having to. Digital publishing is different from the digitizing of books. When you digitize a book, it means scanning an existing physical book and creating a PDF of the scanned pages. It retains the look and feel of the book and readers can scroll to read.</p>
<p>But this has many limitations. It cannot be bookmarked or turned, and it may not provide a very satisfying reading experience.</p>
<p>Digital publishing, on the other hand, provides a whole new experience to the reader, empowering publishers to experiment with the format at a much lower cost. The pandemic further accelerated the shift to digital books due to closures and lockdowns. The global book publishing industry’s market size experienced an <a href="https://www.ibisworld.com/global/market-size/global-book-publishing/">annual decline of 1.1%</a> CAGR between 2016 and 2021. However, the CAGR for the global digital publishing market was 9%, with the industry growing from <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2021/05/18/2231464/28124/en/Global-Digital-Publishing-Markets-Report-2021-Major-Players-are-Thomson-Reuters-RELX-Adobe-Xerox-Apple-Verlagsgruppe-Georg-von-Holtzbrinck-Amazon-Netflix-Comcast-and-Alphabet.html">$51.06 billion in 2020 to $56.09 billion in 2021</a>.</p>
<h2>6 Reasons Why Digital Publishing Is Popular?</h2>
<p>With the world opening up after the Covid-19 pandemic, the book publishing market is slowly picking up, but digital publishing has also gained a strong foothold. Some of the reasons for its growing popularity even among publishers include:</p>
<p><strong>1. Greater Interactivity: </strong>Book reading has been a one-way affair in the traditional world. But today, viewers can comment and interact with each other and even the author on the digital platform. This increases reader engagement and also helps publishers and authors understand their readers better.<br />
<strong>2. Shorter Time-to-Market: </strong>Digital<strong> </strong>tools shorten the book publishing lifecycle. They help to automate the manuscript submission, review, editing, and publishing processes to a large extent by aiding editors to be on top of the project with updates, alerts, collaboration, and communication tools.</p>
<p><b>3<strong>. Wider Reach: </strong></b>With high mobile phone penetration, it is easier to reach out to prospective readers without boundaries. Digital distribution allows publishers to make the books available online for anyone to access from anywhere.</p>
<p><strong>4. Lower Costs:</strong> Reaching out to a wider audience earlier meant huge costs and time delays. Today, with digital publishing platforms, there are no cost or time barriers.</p>
<p><strong>5. Insights-Driven Publishing: </strong>Book publishing has always been a matter of hit or miss. Publishers would use their gut feel to assess reader interest in topics and genres. But with digital publishing platforms, they can base their decisions on data such as sales, revenues, and even reviews and chatter. These can provide insights and reveal patterns hitherto hidden, helping with decisions on what to publish and where to distribute.</p>
<p><b>6. Targeted Campaigns: </b>Book reading is a matter of taste in the case of novels and self-help books or a matter of necessity in the case of textbooks or academic publications. While the market for niche publications may be fairly obvious, for the more generic works, a targeted marketing campaign can improve sales and expand reach.</p>
<p>Reduced physical storage space and enabling ecological conservation by reducing paper consumption are some of the other benefits of digital publishing. But for the digital publication to become popular, it should still not compromise on content, quality of design, ease of navigation, attractive cover, attractive pricing, and interactivity.</p>
<p><strong>PageMajik is a digital publishing solution provider that enables publishers and authors to collaborate more intuitively and closely to marry expertise with technology. It helps publishers produce high-quality books that are designed aesthetically while shortening the production cycle and minimizing iteration by automating mechanical tasks. This frees up editors to focus on their core areas and transcend barriers to innovation.</strong></p>Charumathi Viswanathan2022-08-30T12:26:00ZEditorial Features Made Easy in a Content Management SystemSubrahmanian Seshadrihttps://www.pagemajik.com/en/c/blogs/find_entry?p_l_id=116&entryId=1704222022-09-02T12:22:33Z2022-08-16T11:30:00Z<p>Content creators require a Content Management System (CMS) with an intuitive user interface that enables their authors, editors and designers to use inbuilt tools with ease, even without prior technical knowledge. Further, where there is integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, content management becomes simpler and easier.</p>
<p>Let’s now look at 10 important features of a good content management system that facilitates content creation, editing, and publishing.</p>
<p><b>1. An Intuitive User Interface:</b> Authors and editors, who comprise the editorial team, are there for just that – writing and editing. They need technology to be an enabler and not a hurdle they need to overcome. Therefore, a CMS should provide an easy-to-understand user interface that the content team can start using from day one, with minimum training.</p>
<p><b>2. An Editing Tool:</b> Editing involves many things – checking for spelling and punctuation, grammar, thought flow, and proper use of referencing elements such as figures, tables and references. Many of these are rule-based and standardized across the globe. A good CMS should have these rules incorporated into the tool to aid content creators and editors in the writing and editing processes. By integrating it with AI/ML, the tool should also learn and automatically recommend or suggest options than can improve and standardize language and style.</p>
<p><b>3. Search and Indexing Functionality: </b>A<b> </b>robust search and indexing facility helps with organizing and retrieving content with ease. This improves content management, reduces the chances of duplication, and increases the ability to cross-reference earlier content and verify facts based on earlier content.</p>
<p><b>4. Document Management:</b> Even an ordinary desktop or laptop allows for the creation of folders and organizing content. But document management goes beyond that. It helps to organize content better, facilitate sharing and interlinking content, and remove content that is duplicated or has outlived its utility.</p>
<p><b>5. Pre-Built Templates: </b>While designing needs freedom for creativity, it also works within a framework of standards and uniformity. By creating and using standardized wireframes, content creators, editors, and designers can work in parallel and reduce the time to publish.</p>
<p><b>6. Version Control:</b> When editing, there is a lot of back-and-forth between the author and the editor. And later, in the layout stage, it becomes three-way, with the designer also getting into the picture. This can create confusion if there are multiple versions of the file floating around. A CMS helps manage the different versions. Proper version control allows you to always access the most final version, and also provides a trail of changes so you know what has happened with a piece from the first draft of a manuscript to the final tweaks that were made.</p>
<p><b>7. Managing Workflows:</b> A good CMS facilitates smooth workflow management, whether it is editorial or production or something else. All communication can happen from within the system, and everyone concerned has access to the same information. The team members know the role they play in the process, and are notified automatically when it is their turn to work on a file.</p>
<p><b>8. Permission-Based Access:</b> When you have internal and external users working with the content, you might want to have the option of restricting access to certain pieces of the puzzle. A CMS allows you to protect your content by enabling permission-based access. This can minimize the risk of errors being introduced unwittingly by people accidentally opening files not relevant to them. Smooth and customized user management increases the security of the files and prevents breaches from internal and external sources.</p>
<p><b>9. Multilingual Capabilities:</b> For publishers catering to international audiences, there are CMS solutions that support multilingual editing and intuitive translation. Translations can take time and there can be a lag between the release of the two versions. A “publishing-aware” CMS embellished with customized production tools helps reduce this gap.</p>
<p><b>10. Reporting:</b> The CMS is a rich source of data regarding the nature of the content being published, the time taken from creation to publishing, the response to content, etc. This can be accessed through customized dashboards and reports for insights on improving processes and identifying trends that can help with content planning and sourcing.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022/08/08/2494045/0/en/At-6-5-CAGR-Global-Content-Management-Software-Market-Size-to-Hit-US-25-5-Billion-by-2028-Content-Management-Software-Industry-Trends-Share-Growth-Overview-Forecast-Report-by-Facts.html">Global Content Management Software Market</a> is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 6.5% from USD 17.5 billion in 2021 to USD 25.5 billion in 2028. This growth is being driven by an increasing need to manage digital content and facilitate editing, publishing, designing, indexing, and retrieving content.</p>
<p>PageMajik is a “one-of-a-kind” CMS that supports end-to-end editorial and production workflows, and also speeds up the content creation and production processes. Click <a href="https://www.pagemajik.com/">here</a> to know how you can improve your publishing process.</p>Subrahmanian Seshadri2022-08-16T11:30:00ZDifferentiating PageMajik’s editorial and production workplace management suite from a title management platformSteve Rutberghttps://www.pagemajik.com/en/c/blogs/find_entry?p_l_id=116&entryId=1703222022-08-17T09:04:33Z2022-08-12T09:15:00Z<p class="Body">As I speak with publishers daily about the various systems they use to manage their business, a few common recurring themes and questions continue to surface.</p>
<ol>
<li>Since I already have a title management system why do I need PageMajik and what are the overlapping functionalities?</li>
<li>Can the two-systems exchange data via an API or a lighter solution?</li>
<li>Can one of the two systems be customized to perform both functions at a high level?</li>
</ol>
<p class="Body">The PageMajik team would like to briefly address these valid questions to convey to publishers the complexity and value of each system and the numerous functions they each perform. It goes without saying that many of the following points are valid for other publishing systems as well such as ERP, royalty management, journal hosting platforms, analytics tools, etc. For the purposes of this article, we will focus on just the two systems.</p>
<h2>Since I already have a title management system, why do I need PageMajik?</h2>
<p class="Body">An integrated editorial and production management system and a title management system are unique and power specific workflow functions. There are some overlapping functionalities to consider and plan for accordingly, however, they are both necessary, and contribute to the cost of doing business in 21st Century publishing.</p>
<h2>A Comparison</h2>
<p class="Body"><b>An integrated Editorial and Production management</b> system is a SaaS-based platform where publishing teams actually perform responsibilities such as:</p>
<ul>
<li>managing manuscript submissions and exchanging files with authors via a secure portal</li>
<li>conducting peer review</li>
<li>proofreading</li>
<li>applying house copy styles (i.e., Chicago Manual Style or APA Style or custom house styles)</li>
<li>auto-checking references</li>
<li>selecting an XHTML workflow and auto-generating InDesign files and PDF proofs</li>
<li>typesetting</li>
<li>managing art permissions and art logs</li>
<li>generating final files</li>
<li>and more …</li>
</ul>
<p class="Body">This breed of system is how publishers produce the physical and final products right to the point where a final file is generated from XHTML to InDesign to PDF or EPUB for print and ebooks. We like to say, “from ideation to final file … and everything in between.”</p>
<h2>How does a system like this benefit typical editorial and production teams?</h2>
<p class="Body">PageMajik facilitates the launch of products faster with a lower cost to market, producing a higher quality product through applying Artificial Intelligence, Smart Technology, and Automation.</p>
<p class="Body">PageMajik does not replace people. It still takes an experienced editorial and production team to make judgement calls and final decisions and build relationships. Those same people, however, can produce more content at a faster rate and at higher quality.</p>
<p class="Body"><b>A title management platform</b> is a <i>broad term</i> for a publishing system that handles a variety of front and back-office functions. These include:</p>
<ul>
<li>recording the contractual details between an author and a publisher</li>
<li>capturing and distributing complete title metadata for public/retail consumption</li>
<li>generating P&Ls by product or groups of products</li>
<li>task and workflow management</li>
<li>managing vendor specifications and generating purchase orders</li>
<li>tracking rights, sub-rights, permissions</li>
<li>archiving file assets in a DAM</li>
<li>Based on the platform, options may also include calculating royalties, handling financials and ERP requirements, and customer relationship management (CRM).</li>
</ul>
<p class="Body">There are certainly more routines these systems can accomplish, but this represents the big picture.</p>
<h2>How does a system like this benefit typical editorial, production, and marketing teams?</h2>
<p class="Body">Title Management systems provide one consistent repository for all the above-mentioned data and workflows. It often serves as the master database for a publisher, then feeds partial data points out to complementary systems that are being used by the publisher, such as PageMajik. The metadata distribution to the supply chain is a critical and necessary aspect of these platforms and essential to our industry.</p>
<h2>Can the two systems exchange data via an Application Programming Interface (API) or a lighter solution?</h2>
<p class="Body">In short, yes. However, the devil is in the details. Here are some questions to ask yourself when considering “feeds” between systems.</p>
<ol>
<li>Is the data required and useful to have in both systems?
<ol>
<li>The investment can be significant to build and implement an API, so make sure you are clear on the benefits. Your technology partners can guide you on these details.</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>Is there an alternative solution to an API?
<ol>
<li>Often, a simple export/import via CSV file from one system to the next is a viable and a less budget sensitive option.</li>
<li>Manual input can be the most simplistic answer in cases where the amount of data needing to transfer is minimal and where applying technology is overkill.</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>In addition to building the API and paying your tech providers for the initial development, you must consider the maintenance costs for an API. Systems are often upgraded, new versions are rolled out, and guess what … stuff breaks. The API you built last year may no longer run or sync perfectly as once intended. This is no one’s fault … it’s just the nature of the business.</li>
</ol>
<h2>Can one of the two systems be customized to perform both functions at a high level?</h2>
<p class="Body">Typically, no. There are “all-in-one” systems that can provide a good deal of what you are seeking, but the truth is that one software company cannot perform the services we are discussing with a level of expertise that will provide the depth of results you are seeking.</p>
<p class="Body">If it sounds too good to be true, it is!</p>
<p class="Body"> </p>Steve Rutberg2022-08-12T09:15:00ZSelf-Publishing vs Traditional Publishing: How to ChooseAshok Girihttps://www.pagemajik.com/en/c/blogs/find_entry?p_l_id=116&entryId=1695612022-08-05T14:28:26Z2022-08-05T14:22:00Z<p>Congratulations on getting your manuscript ready.</p>
<p>But after the initial euphoria of having succeeded in this seemingly challenging task, you may be overwhelmed by the question of how to get it published.</p>
<p>Yes, often writers, particularly first-time writers, feel a little lost in the next steps involved in the publishing process. Even experienced writers may feel at sea, especially if they do not have a contract with their previous publisher. And over the last few years, the confusion has become heightened since the writers also have the option of self-publishing.</p>
<p>The indecision arises because both forms of publishing—self-publishing and traditional publishing—seem like different approaches with the same end result. It is a book or an article in a format that can be easily distributed and reached to prospective readers. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters.</p>
<p>But both have an inherently different impact on the book publishing and distribution process. Therefore, before choosing one or the other, it is important to understand the differences and make an informed decision. We at PageMajik will elucidate how the two differ, and their advantages and disadvantages. Based on your publishing goals, you can select the method that best suits your need.</p>
<h2>Likelihood of Being Published</h2>
<p>This would be your first consideration. In self-publishing, the publisher is not concerned about the potential market for your book. A self-publishing house lets you decide whether there is a demand for your content, and only assists you in the design and layout of the book. Sometimes they may offer editing services, but the decision would still be yours about whether you want it edited at all, or edited by recommended professionals or by someone of your choice. The package you sign with them may include marketing, promotion, and distribution, but again, the choice is yours to take up that offer.</p>
<p>In traditional publishing, the book’s viability will be evaluated before it is accepted for publishing. You may approach a publisher directly or through an agent. The publisher will get the book edited, designed, and printed. Distribution is also the responsibility of the publisher, and they will have access to a good network of popular physical and online book stores.</p>
<h2>Time Taken to Publish</h2>
<p>Once you submit your manuscript to a publisher, there will be a waiting period while it is first evaluated and then accepted. The risk of rejection lingers always.</p>
<p>Even after being accepted, the time to get the first copy of the book may take months depending on the number of manuscripts pending with the publisher for publishing. In the case of a research paper, it will depend on how many have been accepted and when the journal or publication is due.</p>
<p>It is a multi-step process from the time of submission to publishing involving editing, design, and printing. Each of these may require you to review, revise, and approve before it moves to the next stage. To be honest, not only the publisher, but even authors want to revise content in a desire for perfection. This iteration can be time-consuming.</p>
<p>While the self-publishing lifecycle is similar in nature, the time to accept is in your hands and therefore gives you better control over the production timelines.</p>
<h2>Cost of Publishing</h2>
<p>Clearly, in self-publishing, you are the boss. Because you bear the cost of publishing too. The publisher offers all the processes as a service that you pay for depending on your requirements.</p>
<p>In traditional publishing, you may receive a token advance from the publisher on signing the contract, and the cost of the entire production process is borne by the publisher.</p>
<p>But this difference is offset by the difference in royalties you receive from the two types of publishers. In self-publishing, royalty for Amazon paperback book copy can be 60% as against the 10-12% paid by the traditional publishers.</p>
<h2>Brand Matters</h2>
<p>Being published by a self-publishing house may not bring with it the brand recognition that a traditional publisher can. This is because of the process of acceptance, which validates your work and sets you one notch above your peers.</p>
<p>However, the risk of a good manuscript being rejected always exists. If you are confident of your content and can market it well, it can speak for itself and make you a brand!</p>
<h2>Marketing and Distribution</h2>
<p>This brings us to the point of promotions and distribution. Traditional publishers have a wide reach in all leading bookstores – online and offline - with high footfall. This makes distribution easier for the author who does not have to worry about it.</p>
<p>However, as an author, you may have to be part of the marketing efforts to spread the word, and the effort may be the same in both cases.</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>If you choose self-publishing, will that work against you when you reach out to a traditional publisher? It may not. If you succeed in establishing yourself as a popular author with a self-published book, it may arouse the interest of traditional publishers. Many popular authors too are contemplating this route for their books.</p>
<p>So which one you choose to go with will depend only on how much control you want to have and how fast you want to be published. Choose well and wish you good luck in becoming a best-seller.</p>Ashok Giri2022-08-05T14:22:00ZTrends Transforming the Publishing Industry Outlook in 2022Rosy Caesarhttps://www.pagemajik.com/en/c/blogs/find_entry?p_l_id=116&entryId=1657082022-08-02T15:58:02Z2022-08-02T15:52:00Z<p>A <a href="https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/report/book-publishers-global-market-report#:~:text=The%20global%20book%20publishers%20market,(CAGR)%20of%205.6%25.">market research company</a> estimates the global book publishers market to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.6% from $84.54 billion in 2021 to $89.25 billion in 2022. It projects the industry size as $105.27 billion in 2026, with a CAGR of 4.2%.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/books-market">two key factors</a> that have contributed to this growth include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Increased consumer spending on books</li>
<li>Innovative book formats to improve the reading experience</li>
</ul>
<p>The primary growth has come from academic publishers, which are intrinsically linked with the educational system, catering to the need of academic institutions such as schools, colleges, universities, and so on.</p>
<p>The publishing business is undergoing many changes, thanks to the digital revolution which has enabled creating more efficient workflows. The digital platforms also provide the consumers, the readers, with a wider choice of formats to choose from—traditional books, e-books, audio-books, and so on. Therefore, publishers need to be able to catch the pulse of the readers and plan their budgets based on the likely demand. Here too, digital technologies such as data analytics play a role.</p>
<p>Based on our understanding of the market, we present to you some of the leading trends in the publishing industry.</p>
<h2>Trends in the Publishing Industry</h2>
<p><b>Print-on-Demand (POD)</b>: The POD model is not new but gaining popularity fast as it empowers publishers to manage their printing and inventory costs better. The POD model involves a book being printed only after an order is confirmed. This helps publishers contain their publishing costs. An order can be executed within 2 hours of being confirmed, making it efficient too.</p>
<p><b>Catering to Reader Interests:</b> A customer-centric approach leveraging digital technologies such as analytics and AI/ML is sweeping all industries. This is so for the publishing industry as well. Digital publishers are tapping into insights regarding their reading preferences and delivering content that is more engaging and improves reading experiences.</p>
<p><b>Mobile-Ready Content: </b>Mobile<b> </b>optimization has become an integral part of the digital world. Reportedly, there are 6.64 billion smartphones in the market and half of all internet usage happens from the mobile phone. While shopping and watching videos are probably primary activities, publishers cannot ignore this trend. Creating mobile-friendly interfaces that are highly responsive and provide a better reading experience are essential for survival and growth. It will also involve using push notifications to engage the audience.</p>
<p><b>Self-Publishing on the Rise:</b> <a href="https://explodingtopics.com/blog/publishing-trends">Self-publishing</a> of books has become popular since 2010, ISBNs being assigned to self-published books increasing from around 1,53,000 to 1.6 million books by 2018. Since the pandemic, e-books have further spurred the growth of self-publishing. This empowers authors to take control of the process right from design, printing, to marketing.</p>
<p><b>Frictionless Payments: </b>Digital publishers provide the option for digital subscriptions. But the process can be intimidating and time consuming, leading to many discontinuing the registration process mid-way. This has led to publishers opting for frictionless payments that enable quick checkout make it easy for the seller and the buyer to purchase.</p>
<p><b>Digital Marketing:</b> Reaching out to the readers through digital marketing. While email marketing is more popular and produces better results, social media is also becoming a great way to engage with the readers and arouse their interest.</p>
<p><b>Automating Publishing Workflows: </b>The rapid changes in customer expectations and the availability of digital technologies have compelled publishers to reconsider their approach to publishing. Automating production workflows help publishers publish in more formats with minimum interventions. They can accelerate the speed of production, thereby publishing more books. The workflow management becomes more efficient, with most mechanical tasks being automated and freeing editors to focus on improving the quality of the content. It also helps with file management and version control. All the while, the greater efficiency is contributing to controlling costs.</p>
<p>Increasing digitization and automation of the publishing process will help publishers with a single view of all their book-related data. This will help with:</p>
<ul>
<li>Informed decision-making</li>
<li>Choosing the right content</li>
<li>Speeding up the design and printing process</li>
<li>Customizing promotions to reach the right audience with the right messaging</li>
<li>Increase sales and revenues</li>
</ul>
<p>To know more about how publishing workflow automation can make our process more time and cost-effective, contact <a href="http://www.pagemajik.com/">PageMajik</a> now.</p>Rosy Caesar2022-08-02T15:52:00Z"Five" Principles Publishers Should Follow to Thrive in the Digital EraAshok Girihttps://www.pagemajik.com/en/c/blogs/find_entry?p_l_id=116&entryId=1645302022-08-03T14:07:19Z2022-07-28T11:11:00Z<p>Digital Transformation is top of mind for everyone in the industry today. Everyone knows how to order vegetables and groceries online. Be it entertainment, education, communication, or transacting business, everything has become possible using digital tools.</p>
<p>Even reading. The printed book will always be desired by avid readers, but there is a revolution here too. E-books and websites with all kinds of content are available with paid and free content. Book publishers are now competing with content online that is wide and varied, easily available, and available in many formats. Therefore, while traditional books will continue to find readers, there is much publishers need to do to improve their content, processes, and market reach by leveraging digital technologies.</p>
<p>Four key principles that publishers will have to embrace to continue to be relevant and successful in today’s world include:</p>
<p><b>1. A Top-Down Approach to Digital Transformation</b></p>
<p>Habits die hard and old habits die harder. The publishing industry is one where veterans who are thorough with the process continue to hold sway on how a book should be published. While this continuity improves efficiency, it also can become a bottleneck to changes.</p>
<p>For any change to be effective, organizational buy-in is very important. Right from the top management to the last man selling the book, everyone must understand the value of using digital tools and platforms for publishing and distributing books. The management must create digital strategies and communicate them down the line for the transformational effort to be successful and achieve the expected results. They should be able to see the business case and articulate it to the teams so that the transformation is smooth and seamless.</p>
<p><b>2. Accelerating the Production Process</b></p>
<p>Publishers have their own criteria for accepting a manuscript for publication. The evaluation process itself can take time, and even after a book has been accepted, the production cycle may well cause the book to be released a couple of years after submission.</p>
<p>One of the reasons for this, of course, is thoroughness. That is why traditional publishers continue to be respected—for their vigilance and focus on quality. But the time taken to publish can cause authors to get restless. Sometimes, in this fast-changing world, the topic itself may become irrelevant by the time the book is released. Therefore, speed is of the essence.</p>
<p>While some processes cannot and should not be automated, a few others can be. For instance, PageMajik is a publishing tool that facilitates automating processes such as castoff, tracking manuscript progression, manuscript storage and retrieval, and so on. By automating some of the processes, the production cycle can be made more efficient and faster, speeding up the time-to-market.</p>
<p><b>3. Content Relevance</b></p>
<p>Another aspect connected to relevance, apart from currency, is the tastes and preferences of the readers. Sometimes, fantasies may be fast-moving, and sometimes, mythologies. There may be much demand for self-help books at times, and at times, it may be all about relationships.</p>
<p>Publishers need to invest in tools that can help them analyze the trends, evaluate the performance of their own publications to identify patterns, and choose the right content to cater to the requirements. This can increase sales conversions, improve revenues, and enhance brand value.</p>
<p><b>4. Improved Collaboration</b></p>
<p>Communication between the author and the editors, the intervention of the author during the production cycle, and the changes during the design and proofing stage – all these can cause confusion, version variabilities, rework, and time. A collaboration tool that provides transparency and alerts and notifications can make the entire process very effective. PageMajik enables this by ensuring that the author and editors work on the correct version and receive alerts whenever they are required to review/approve/change and communicate within the system.</p>
<p><b>5. Wider Market Reach</b></p>
<p>The marketing divisions of publishing houses will also find digital marketing strategies expanding their reach and improving the effectiveness of the promotional campaigns. They can rely on advanced analytics to predict market trends, identify virgin markets, and strengthen their presence in existing markets. They can create targeted marketing, even pricing and strategies, and leverage multiple channels to maximize sales at minimal costs.</p>
<p>There are many other benefits of using digital technologies, such as printing only as per demand, minimizing errors, reducing the back-and-forth between the author and the publishing teams by unifying processes and improving time-to-market.</p>
<p>Modernizing the publishing process by leveraging digital tools can speed up the production process by lowering costs and improving efficiencies. Cloud-based tools further reduce the infrastructure costs as they work on a SaaS (software-as-a-service) model, allowing publishers to use them on a need-basis. They do not have to invest in the hardware and software, and do not have to fear their investments becoming irrelevant due to the fast-paced changes in technology. They can continue to focus on their core area and outsource their software requirements to experts such as PageMajik.</p>
<p>For more information on PageMajik, click <a href="https://www.pagemajik.com/">here</a>.</p>Ashok Giri2022-07-28T11:11:00ZCastoff and Word count: Why should your book be this long?Charumathi Viswanathanhttps://www.pagemajik.com/en/c/blogs/find_entry?p_l_id=116&entryId=1627982022-07-20T08:06:19Z2022-07-20T04:10:00Z<p>The lead times and cost of publishing are rising, impacting the cost of publishing a book. This is partly due to a <a href="https://www.piworld.com/article/2022-book-printing-market-outlook/">paper and labor shortage</a> because of factors such as the Covid-19 pandemic and extreme weather conditions that have disrupted the supply chain. This has made it difficult to get enough paper in a timely manner while increasing the cost.</p>
<p>In addition to this, the industry is also facing a shortage of skilled labor, which further impacts production cycles. Publishers are increasingly realizing the importance of <a href="https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/books-market">automation</a> to improve efficiency, reduce the dependence on manual processes, lower the cost of production, and reduce the time to publication.</p>
<p><b>Castoff for Budgeting </b></p>
<p>One of the key aspects of budgeting the book’s cost of publishing lifecycle is castoff, where page count is estimated based on:</p>
<ul>
<li>Character count</li>
<li>Trim size</li>
<li>Number of lines per page</li>
<li>Number of illustrations/figures</li>
<li>Number of tables</li>
<li>Number of boxes</li>
</ul>
<p>An experienced editor can use these factors to optimize the book size, making it appealing to the readers while determining the right number of pages to avoid wastage. Getting a fix on the number of pages will also help the editorial process, letting editors know how much should be reduced or added to maintain the right number of pages based on need.</p>
<p>The pages are counted in multiples of 8. If the content spills to 2 extra pages, 6 pages will remain blank. This will require the editors to reduce the content so that the additional 2 pages are not needed. If content covers 4 to 7 pages, content may have to be added to use the blank pages effectively.</p>
<p>Accurate castoff reduces the back and forth that would otherwise be necessary when the need for reducing or adding content becomes evident only at the time of layout to design, causing the editors to review and maybe even return to the author at this stage for addition/reduction and approval. This can delay the production process and add hidden costs.</p>
<p><b>The Need for Process Automation</b></p>
<p>Typically, castoff is done manually. A resource is required to count the number of characters in each individual chunk/file and the number of illustrations/figures and tables that will go into the book. The text area of the book, the font and trim sizes, and the size of the tables and figures will determine the page extent.</p>
<p>It is quite likely that during the initial castoff, the complete manuscript is not available and therefore some extrapolation is required. Many use tools like Excel for performing these calculations. However, this is not a fool-proof system. We must acknowledge that in these times of resource crunch, editors tend to multi-task, and there’s room for errors in calculations.</p>
<p>Using software can enable editors to improve the accuracy of the castoff. It can provide real-time estimates of the number of book page extent for the content. The castoff is generated automatically at the time of submission, providing editors with a near-accurate estimate of the final page extent and also informing them ahead of time of the approach they need to take.</p>
<p>Automated castoffs can be updated in real-time, literally every time the manuscript is revised. Just imagine – castoff can be generated at will means we can get an immediate (live) understanding of the impact of the author’s changes to proofs. Page estimates are always in sync with reality. A comparison of the planned and actual manuscript enables informed decision-making to stay within the budget.</p>
<p><b>The PageMajik Approach</b></p>
<p>PageMajik is a cloud-based content management system that helps automate the editorial and production processes in publishing from the time the author uploads files to the system until the creation of final files for print. The integrated workflow includes a castoff feature that tabulates the book elements and keeps track of the impact of every change on the length of the book. This reduces the need for manual intervention every time content is added or removed and provides a real-time view of the book size, helping publishers manage their budgets better.</p>
<p>Some of the key features of the Castoff module in PageMajik include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Granular tagging of every element including headers, notes, illustrations, poems, boxes, and extracts and allowing an exclusive, individual divisor for each element.</li>
<li>Divisors can be determined according to the trim size, and a new divisor can be defined as required.</li>
<li>The display of read-only actuals with planned value helps make informed decisions.</li>
<li>Castoff is generated from actuals and details can be added to improve planning and incorporate information about activities performed outside the PageMajik ecosystem.</li>
<li>The ecosystem allows versions to be maintained and viewed at all times.</li>
<li>The castoff information can be downloaded and shared with all stakeholders.</li>
</ul>
<p>To know more about how PageMajik can help you automate your castoff with greater accuracy, less effort, and faster, contact us now.</p>Charumathi Viswanathan2022-07-20T04:10:00ZHow Artificial Intelligence and Smart Technology
Will Change the Way Organizations Publish ContentDavid Brakehttps://www.pagemajik.com/en/c/blogs/find_entry?p_l_id=116&entryId=1475232022-06-22T14:11:07Z2022-06-22T14:09:00Z<p>In the not-too-distant future, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Smart Technology will fundamentally change the way organizations process and publish content. Some people in our industry have already welcomed it. Others find it mysterious and slightly dystopian.</p>
<p>Let's establish some common ground around definitions of AI and Smart Technology, and we'll make our way to publishing from there.</p>
<p><b>Artificial Intelligence</b></p>
<p>Experts debate the theoretical categories and classification of AI. Some argue there are two categories while others propose as many as six. From a functional, "what does it mean in our everyday lives" perspective, I favor two categories.</p>
<p>The sexiest of the two is <b>Artificial General Intelligence or AGI. </b>This is sometimes called "Strong AI," and thanks to Hollywood, it has often been given a dystopian depiction in movies like <b>The Terminator</b>, <b>The Matrix</b>, and <b>RoboCop</b>.</p>
<p>AGI is focused on machines that mimic human beings by employing reasoning, learning, and situational awareness to solve a problem. We'll leave AGI to Hollywood’s dystopian visions of the future. Most experts agree, we're a long way from having AGI integrated into our daily lives.</p>
<p>The other category of Artificial Intelligence is <b>Narrow AI, </b>and it is everywhere, weaving itself into our daily lives in ways we appreciate but don't often think about. Narrow AI functions in a limited fashion and is an approximate simulation of human intelligence, performing a single task better, faster, and more efficiently than a human being.</p>
<p>Unlike AGI, Narrow AI, with its focus on performing specific tasks, is the best real-world expression of artificial intelligence we have seen so far. Narrow AI continues to evolve as entrepreneurs and innovators find new ways to make it beneficial in our daily lives.</p>
<p><b>Some Examples of Narrow AI</b></p>
<p>If you've asked Alexa or Siri for a weather report, to play your favorite music, or what year the Gutenberg printing press was invented, you've experienced Narrow AI.</p>
<p>If you've considered a movie recommendation from Netflix or clicked on a product recommendation while shopping on Amazon, you've experienced Narrow AI.</p>
<p>Search engines, chatbots, facial recognition software, autonomous vehicles, and industrial robots are all examples of Narrow AI.</p>
<p><b>Smart Technology</b></p>
<p>Smart Technology is typically identified with the Internet of Things (IoT), and I am going to bend the definition a bit. Generally, it involves an electronic device that uses the Internet to gather and analyze data from a source (some “thing” in your home or business environment). Examples of Smart Technology include shipping container logistics tracking, inventory trackers, wearable health monitors, connected home appliances.</p>
<p>“What the Internet of Things is really about is information technology that can gather its own information. Often what it does with that information is not tell a human being something, it [just] does something.”</p>
<p>Kevin Ashton, technologist, entrepreneur, author of <b><i>How to Fly a Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery</i></b>, and creator of the term “the Internet of Things.”</p>
<p>There is an overlap between Narrow AI and Smart Technology, making it hard to tell where one begins and the other ends or how they work together. Rather than articulating the difference in a particular use-case scenario, think of them as related things with a common goal: to simplify things.</p>
<p><b>How Does It Apply to Publishing?</b></p>
<p>Over the last couple of years, my colleagues and I have asked hundreds of people in the publishing industry to tell us about the most tedious, repetitive tasks in their workflows. Some of the most tedious tasks are some of the most important ones. We’ve also asked these people how they generate and distribute project-specific information, data collected from a source at one point in a workflow that are needed by other role players downstream in that workflow. Some of the stories we’ve gathered paint a gloomy picture of current state practices.</p>
<p>What are some of the most tedious, repetitive tasks in publishing? What are the challenges of generating and distributing project-specific information? Our partial list, assembled from those conversations include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Processing proposals and peer reviews</li>
<li>Trafficking and tracking, illustrations, photographs, media and the associated metadata, including rights and permissions</li>
<li>Sending publishing agreements and contracts to authors, contributors, and organizations owning the reproduction rights for specific content.</li>
<li>Author Management, including:
<ul>
<li>Emailing guidelines and instructions</li>
<li>Setting schedules and deadlines and following up with people when those deadlines are close, or missed</li>
<li>Giving authors and writers access to related content that could be used in their original work</li>
<li>Checking author submissions to ensure that all the necessary parts and pieces are there, accounted for, and properly formatted.</li>
<li>Responding to author queries.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Finding the right versions of things that have been submitted, revised, and submitted again, and again.</li>
<li>Reading and interpreting expert, peer, and market reviews to ensure that the published product will meet standards of quality or achieve some degree of competitive advantage.</li>
<li>Preparing management reports on the status of things.</li>
</ul>
<p>The list goes on, but the big picture is clear. Everything on the list is important, and many of them can delay a publication date or compromise the quality of a finished product. Every item on the list is to some degree tedious and repetitive, something most people in our industry have accepted as normal, part of the cost of doing business.</p>
<p><b>Can Narrow AI and Smart Technology Help?</b></p>
<p>Absolutely. Most of these tasks are specific and time-sensitive. Many of them involve data collection that requires some action by others in your publishing ecosystem. A combination of Narrow AI and Smart technology that automates a human-driven process can play a big role here.</p>
<p>Let’s look at one example that book publishers face daily: Author Management.</p>
<p>Typically, a publisher emails various documents to an author. These can include project guidelines, contracts, schedules, manuscript submission requirements, peer reviews, etc. The author then acts upon that information. In a perfect world, the author follows instructions, meets the deadlines, and submits high-quality work in a format acceptable to the publisher. In the real-world, however, most authors do not operate this way. To be fair to authors, publishers require them to do a lot of “necessary” things that are outside of their comfort zone. Writing the content may be the easiest part. Handling permissions, creating art logs, tracking versions, following guidelines that can seem confusing to a non-publisher, and submitting it all on time … that’s something else.</p>
<p>Publishers compensate by sending more emails, some providing clarification, some requesting additional information or tasks, and some reminding authors of impending deadlines. At the same time, the publisher is providing critical updates to others in the workflow required to act on information from the author. That is one definition of tedious and repetitive.</p>
<p>If you imagine the roles players (including authors) in a publishing workflow as both a “source of data” and someone that “acts upon data” you’ve taken a step toward recognizing Narrow AI and Smart Technology as a solution. By automating the exchange of data and using a technology that acts upon that data on a role player’s behalf, you’ve put both feet in the water.</p>
<p>The PageMajik Editorial system operates based on workflows and role players. It allows the publisher to set up a workflow, assign and monitor role player tasks, and automatically process information from a data source into something that is essential downstream. For an author this means having a portal where all relevant project information is available to act upon. “Smart” emails remind them of deadlines and are configured to respond to author actions. Content can be submitted, checked for completeness, and automatically meta-tagged. The system handles approximately 70% of the work typically performed by a human.</p>
<p>Our motivation in asking people what tasks they found tedious and repetitive and what information needed to be gathered and acted upon was to see if Narrow AI and Smart Technology (as we have now defined it) could make a difference. With almost 5,000 authors and contributors having used our system to-date, we have evidence of what happens to publication cycles, P&Ls, product quality, and team morale when people can leave the tedious, repetitive stuff to technology. It all improves.</p>
<p>Will there come a day when AGI, the sexier of the two AI categories, can introduce a RoboAuthor or RoboEditor to the workforce. Probably, but most people reading this will have long retired before that kind of AI becomes as commonplace as a weather report from Siri.</p>David Brake2022-06-22T14:09:00ZLondon Book Fair 2022PageMajik Teamhttps://www.pagemajik.com/en/c/blogs/find_entry?p_l_id=116&entryId=1029682022-05-16T13:55:27Z2022-05-16T13:43:00Z<p>Busy morning today at <a data-attribute-index="0" data-entity-hovercard-id="urn:li:fs_miniCompany:10889294" data-entity-type="MINI_COMPANY" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/londonbookfair/">The London Book Fair</a>. Back-to-back appointments and met a lot of interesting people. Can’t wait to be back again next year.</p>PageMajik Team2022-05-16T13:43:00ZAI and PublishingAnuradha Shttps://www.pagemajik.com/en/c/blogs/find_entry?p_l_id=116&entryId=871122022-05-11T17:29:17Z2020-03-21T19:44:00Z<p>Last year, <em>The Economist</em> organised the Open Future international essay competition on the subject of Climate Change. Nearly 2,400 youths from over 110 countries entered the contest to answer the question, “How to respond to climate change?”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b49f">Intelligence enthusiasts at the British weekly got thinking. They wanted to know how artificial intelligence (AI) would respond to the same question. They decided to find out. They fed the essay question and a 58-word description through GPT-2, the natural-language processing (NLP) algorithm that has taken the world of AI by storm ever since its partial release in February 2019 by Open AI, the Elon Musk-funded research organization in the US.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8639">Judges were asked to evaluate the AI-written essay using the same standards they used with hundreds of competing essays, but without telling them it was the handiwork of machine or artificial intelligence, and not the human brain. The essay began by asking: “Do we want to go through the same process we have been through for decades with no changes? Is there a way to build a sustainable energy system that is both affordable and environmentally responsible?” To think, these accusatory responses come from a machine, and not the human brain!</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="029b">The fact? GPT-2 is <em>damn good</em> at writing essays. The ultra-sophisticated text-generator, which was deemed “too dangerous to release,” can write full, coherent sentences and paragraphs; in fact, an entire fake news article in a matter of seconds. Feed a word or a sentence to the <a href="https://talktotransformer.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">neural network </a>and it will do the rest for you, things you always wanted to write about but never did because you could not guess your own thoughts. It is that freaking incredible!</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="3554">The story of English-speaking unicorns is now stuff that legends are made of. Here’s the sample text, pure that took internet by storm:</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8b1c"><em>Human prompt:</em> In a shocking finding, scientist discovered a herd of unicorns living in a remote, previously unexplored valley, in the Andes Mountains. Even more surprising to the researchers was the fact that the unicorns spoke perfect English.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="36bb"><em>Text generated by the GPT-2 algorithm:</em> The scientist named the population, after their distinctive horn, Ovid’s Unicorn. These four-horned, silver-white unicorns were previously unknown to science. Now, after almost two centuries, the mystery of what sparked this odd phenomenon is finally solved. Dr. Jorge Pérez, an evolutionary biologist from the University of La Paz, and several companions, were exploring the Andes Mountains when they found a small valley with no other animals or humans. Pérez noticed that the valley had what appeared to be a natural fountain, surrounded by two peaks of rock and silver snow. Pérez and the others then ventured further into the valley. “By the time we reached the top of one peak, the water looked blue, with some crystals on top,” said Pérez.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="223e">Little wonder that GPT-2 is billed as “<a href="https://blog.floydhub.com/gpt2/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">humanity’s greatest text generator</a>.”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="f6d2">With high levels of sophistication in deep learning, the publishing industry is surely headed for interesting times. As it is, technological advancements, especially in the field of artificial intelligence, have taken great strides in the business of publishing, breathing into the sector much-needed fresh air. Technology-enabled tools and analytics have come in handy at all stages of publishing.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="135d">If you are a news publisher, an intelligent machine can replace an army of journalists used in covering routine events, with greater speed and accuracy. Automated journalism is already a reality.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e4c0">If automated text analysis helps detect plagiarised passages, AI-enabled programs allow writers and editors to self-edit their work, thus reducing editorial workload. From management of contacts, rights and royalties and image recognition to auto text tagging and automated formatting, AI has solutions to all kinds of publishing needs. Particularly for new writers and self-publishers, AI is hugely empowering.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="38d8">“Al-enabled analytics can identify and adapt to consumer search trends and predict the ‘next big thing’ with more accuracy than traditional market research methods,” Max Kalmykov, VP, Media & Entertainment at DataArt, <a href="https://hackernoon.com/8-ways-artificial-intelligence-takes-publishing-to-the-next-level-rvnk3z3m" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">wrote</a> on hackernoon.com.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ddf7">While creativity was never traditionally associated with artificial intelligence, neural networks have done <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/5/15/18623134/openai-language-ai-gpt2-poetry-try-it" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">poetry</a> and even novels. The first machine-written novel, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/10/automated-on-the-road/571345/?utm_source=feed" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank"><em>1 the Road</em></a>, came out in 2018. It was a literary travel fiction, à la Jac Kerouac, written by Ross Goodwin’s computer after a cross-country drive. A former ghost-writer of the Obama administration, Goodwin got his algorithms to convert CIA torture reports into a novel in 2014. He uses his neural networks to generate poetry and screenplays too.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4f22">Author <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/8/30/20840194/ai-art-fiction-writing-language-gpt-2" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Sigal Samuel</a> is using GPT-2 to help her write her novel by “knocking my imagination off-kilter a bit, nudging it in more surprising and playful directions.”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="c037">The judges at <em>The Economist</em> were asked to rate the essays as “yes, maybe or no”. Only two of the six judges marked them “maybe”. Interestingly, none of them marked them “yes”. The AI-written essay was okay enough to make sense, but did not make the cut. The key perhaps lies with emotional intelligence, the unique human trait that distinguishes man from animals and machines. Writing is a creative process that is fuelled by human emotions. An intelligent machine <em>generates</em> text, an emotionally intelligent human brain <em>creates</em>, it writes. It takes into consideration not just raw data but various tangible and intangible inputs that the human brain is able to process. Machine learning can come out with text — word by word, sentence by sentence and chapter by chapter — that resembles the work of the human brain. But that’s only on the surface; since it cannot emulate emotional intelligence, the writing is devoid of human logic or empathy.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8945">However, machines are trying to get there too; emotional intelligence is said to be the next frontier for AI. Some machine learning experts actually believe AI can get as emotionally intelligent as humans, if not more. What that would mean for the publishing industry is hard to visualize given that intelligent automation is totally redefining the rules already. Let’s hope that at least the end reader or content consumer is still the king, and a human being.</p>Anuradha S2020-03-21T19:44:00ZYour data is not safe…Sundeep Piduguhttps://www.pagemajik.com/en/c/blogs/find_entry?p_l_id=116&entryId=870892022-06-29T04:40:03Z2020-03-05T19:42:00Z<p>We have all been using passwords to access our personal accounts for various websites, and some of us use the same password for every online account as a way of getting out of keeping track of multiple passwords for the various websites accessed on a day-to-day basis. This could be the most irresponsible mistake one can make in this internet era.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8c4a">Most software companies use passwords as the only way to authenticate their employees or users but there are other login methods such as Fingerprint, IRIS scanner, and token or smart card(MFA) to validate user accounts. Many companies these days even have 2-factor authentications such as sending messages to a mobile phone to authenticate, which again is not a very secure practice as many spoofing techniques can be introduced to get complete access to user messages. Google recently released a 2-factor authentication technique that sends a notification as well as a unique number selection to your primary smartphone for authenticating your google account sign in. This is the best approach for google as a majority of people use android phones and they leveraged on using their own android services to provide secure authentication for user accounts. Companies should also rely on integrating fingerprints, IRIS, and token or smart card (MFA) as they are the most secure ways of protecting user accounts from any security attacks and the process of storing and authenticating is done on the user’s local machine/system. If a unique identifier in the form of a fingerprint or IRIS is compromised it will be impossible for the user to change it. Passwords, however, can always be changed by the user when compromised to secure their account so it is always advisable to have an alternative implementation of authentication to overcome such situations.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="f883">Passwords are easy to crack as they can be brute-forced, and when the same or a similar password is used for many accounts, the vulnerability of being discovered by anyone on the internet increases if even one password gets compromised. It’s always advisable to use a simple long password (for sure more than 8 characters) that one can remember rather than a short password of special characters, which is hard to remember.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="37cf">All major companies have collaborated and come up with a standard way to resolve this problem using <a href="https://fidoalliance.org/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">FIDO Alliance — Open Authentication Standards More Secure than Passwords</a></p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="94f0">Here is a list of Leading organizations around the world who have deployed FIDO.</p>
<figure>
<p><img alt="" height="496" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*zOosL-EYm2Dy8jXQbRy2wg.png" width="700" /></p>
</figure>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="6172">It’s estimated that on average, an employee working in a multinational software company calls the service desk team 6 times a year as they have to manually verify users for a password change and it takes around $50 each time to employ and serve the user by the service desk team for the company. Research shows that recovering from an average security breach costs a company around 8 million dollars and there are severe situations where companies could get shut down. So companies too are looking at alternative ways to resolve their issues in a more effective way and to implementing other security features that don’t compromise the systems and are much better than traditional passwords.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="0c93">So it’s always advisable to use a long password (for sure more than 8 characters and preferably a mix of phrases) which is simple to remember rather than using a short password with all the special characters which itself is hard to remember and always making sure to enable and use multifactor authentication if the website provides. Companies should make sure end users are safe and secure by inculcating multifactor authentication (MFA) for their online services as a normal security protocol.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="635e">Stay secure as the internet is not always the safest place to be in.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://medium.com/tag/passwords" rel="noopener">Passwords</a></li>
<li><a href="https://medium.com/tag/hacking" rel="noopener">Hacking</a></li>
<li><a href="https://medium.com/tag/security" rel="noopener">Security</a></li>
</ul>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b180">Learn more about PageMajik- <a href="http://bit.ly/3aWTALL" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/3aWTALL</a></p>Sundeep Pidugu2020-03-05T19:42:00ZSubtracting the Obvious and Adding the MeaningfulMaria Ramya Caesarhttps://www.pagemajik.com/en/c/blogs/find_entry?p_l_id=116&entryId=870662022-05-11T17:26:27Z2020-02-03T19:39:00Z<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="c673">We see kids using a phone with great ease — navigating the menus and applications — this is not because they have become smarter but because the product manufacturer has been thorough and receptive to user experience (and yes, user groups including 2-year-olds).</p>
<h1>Tap, Click, Proof equates a Book</h1>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="7c85">To someone who has never worked in Publishing before, seeing a manuscript transform into a book can seem almost magical.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="cc3f">In reality, the process is fairly straightforward and involves multiple functional groups to work together to efficiently handle a process that would otherwise take anywhere between a minimum of 3 months to a year.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5d4a">With </p>
<p><a href="https://medium.com/u/4edffbce53ca?source=post_page-----145bc644c6a9--------------------------------" rel="noopener" target="_blank">PageMajik</a></p>
<p>, the publishing process is reduced considerably, and the User Experience feels like <em>Magic</em>. There’s tap, click and proof, and it’s DONE.</p>
<blockquote>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1226"><em>How did we do it? </em>Removed<em> the obvious, and f</em>ocused<em> on the important.</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="60ca">So, how should we simplify the user’s experience?</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="fb1b">Removing enough elements until everything falls into place, thereby creating an experience that feels easy, and works easy. But let me tell you that that’s not exactly the solution — you are stuck in a giant loophole. In reality, ‘Simple’ is a complicated task.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="628d">Any book or web content to explain this concept has three main areas that might be executed in 3 steps, or maybe in 10. All of these can be applied in design, but three of these are essential when it comes to simplifying user interaction.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e048">They are:</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a0e5">1. Reduce</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4d9a">2. Organise</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="d906">3. Prioritise</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="3dc8">Elaborating on the above,</p>
<h1><em>Reduce</em></h1>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5652">Reduction is fundamental to improving ease-of-use, and a UX designer (and/or a UI designer) must keep a check on this at all times by closely scrutinising the need for every element that is added to the design. This can be implemented in two ways:-</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="aac3"><em>1.</em> <em>Remove Elements</em></p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="6ff0">When it comes to design, words, colours and layouts might distract the user and may even become overwhelming at times. As human beings, we have less processing memory and the challenge is to not veer to either extremes and ensure that nothing gets lost in translation.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="d228">How to overcome? — REMOVE and PRIORITISE</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4eb8">How to implement?</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2715">1. Start from Scratch</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="54e0">2. Reduce the Clicks/Taps</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="9ae8"><em>2.</em> <em>Reduce Choice</em></p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8a76">We all love choices, in fact, we are spoiled by the number of choices we have. The number of choices in a product may tend to affect user experience in a positive or negative manner. Balancing the choices the right way can allow them to make a sound decision and improve their satisfaction level.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="acdd">In an application/product, we reduce the number of elements per screen to simplify the experience by following a set of rules.</p>
<figure>
<p><img alt="" height="263" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*Pqt4gSGp1pO3eFDm6J9iVw.png" width="700" /></p>
</figure>
<h1>Organise</h1>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="3402">A cluttered application can dissuade the user from proceeding further. Organising has three main phases to it.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8137"><em>1. Using Colour and Typography to communicate the hierarchy to the user.</em></p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ea53">The right way to reflect product branding is by using colour and typography to make it recognisable, attractive, and memorable.</p>
<figure>
<p><img alt="" height="209" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*Ixup6fKcWPzT3VHQyvqB3g.png" width="700" /></p>
</figure>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8f6f"><em>2. Group Content</em></p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2665">Simplify a complex page by grouping elements. At any point, users can deal with a small number of groups, rather than a lot of elements. These can be grouped based on similarity, continuity and connectivity.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="3e60"><em>3. Break huge tasks into smaller steps</em></p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a96e">This specifically applies to Form design — different kinds of forms are available in most products as this is the way to capture the user’s information.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="f00c">In certain cases, even after pruning the elements, the forms can still be unwieldy — a major deterrent for the user. Breaking this form into a series of smaller subtasks would give the user a sense of achievement on completing each subtask.</p>
<figure>
<p><img alt="" height="263" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*trslKmPOVOCV9En-Il_aXg.png" width="700" /></p>
</figure>
<h1>Prioritise</h1>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="800c">A user’s journey through the application is to achieve goals. At every stage, elements and pages must be relevant to the progress and the goal(s). Find those key areas and draw the user’s attention to these.</p>
<figure>
<p><img alt="" height="263" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*wqZpSoOCrNQsarziWQobYA.png" width="700" /></p>
</figure>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="de72">As seen above, achieving simplicity is a complex process relying heavily on cognitive skills and has been relevant throughout history in design and communication.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1e1b">Going into the future, with consistent decrease in attention span, user experience design will benefit a great deal from the Laws of Simplicity that guide communication and help solve visual problems.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="dbae">Learn more about </p>
<p><a href="https://medium.com/u/4edffbce53ca?source=post_page-----145bc644c6a9--------------------------------" rel="noopener" target="_blank">PageMajik</a></p>
<p>- <a href="http://bit.ly/3aWTALL" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/3aWTALL</a></p>Maria Ramya Caesar2020-02-03T19:39:00ZThe future isn’t calling — it’s already here!Suresh Lhttps://www.pagemajik.com/en/c/blogs/find_entry?p_l_id=116&entryId=867712022-05-11T17:09:59Z2019-11-24T18:36:00Z<p><em>“Nothing ever happens like you imagine it will… but then again, if you don’t imagine, nothing ever happens at all.”</em></p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ac40"><strong>― John Green, Paper Towns</strong></p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a2bb">After about an hour of trying to predict the future of publishing, I arrived at the following conclusions:</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="0321">1. Predict what you want, but don’t publish it. As the famous quote goes, a lawyer’s mistakes are hung, a doctor’s mistakes are buried, but a writer’s mistakes are published.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b8b2">2. When you go wrong with publishing, you can blame technology. No such luck for predictions!</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1178">3. You don’t need a time machine to get your publishing right (<a href="https://www.pagemajik.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">We</a> can help you with it.).</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2589">4. Publishing is as different from predictions as a thesis is from a hypothesis.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e296">5. Publishing can get hazardous, especially when you get it wrong (That’s where you get the ‘don’t try this at home — or your workplace’ disclaimer).</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8fd7">6. If you can’t write the future, then you sure can’t publish it.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="296c">However, there are times when reason deserts us and we try to stare into a crystal ball, however hazy it might be, and try to prognosticate the future. If we had it our way, we would even try to influence it, but thankfully, a rapidly approaching deadline or a rapidly receding opportunity rushes us back to reality and we get back to regular work at our regular desk.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e40e">This is one of those rare times when I disregarded all the fires around me and proceeded to venture where no man had ever gone before — into the future of publishing. Here are my findings.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="7eef"><strong>1. Everything will be published under one roof</strong></p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="3355">Not literally. But figuratively speaking, yes. The entire process of publishing will be integrated by a software that will manage it all and at the press of a button, deliver the published content at the desired destination. No running after individual resources or trying to bring together different members of a team. Technology will do it. Resources could be located across the globe, but they will all work seamlessly on one project. Again, technology will make it happen.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4e50">Wait a minute! Isn’t this already happening? Sort of, yes, but one can see a future where this will be the norm. There will be no Tom n Jerry shows in the publishing industry, with the Editor chasing someone to get a project completed. Nor will there be a roadrunner show, where one would need to spring a trap and wait for someone. Effective networking and easy availability of resources would mean zero waiting — and zero baiting!</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="c17e"><strong>2. End-to-end publishing will be the name of the game</strong></p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8e59">That’s right. Publishing will not end with the completion of the product, be it in print or in digital. On one end, publishing will span the spectrum of diagnostics, in-depth analysis of content before it gets published and even contract validation and management. On the other, it will see the published content through the stages of marketing, sampling, author liaison, reviews, feedback and updates in subsequent editions.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="d717">So a publisher/author is not left on his/her own after content has been published. He/She is guided/aided at every stage of the content cycle and well into the next content cycle, when it’s time for updates and reprints. You can add author interactions, market interactions and interactions with subject experts to this large basket of offerings.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a59a"><strong>3. Media-independent publishing will prevail</strong></p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5cde">We are already familiar with different mediums for publishing, some traditional and the rest, technology-based. Be it print or electronic or digital or social-media related, content can be effortlessly repurposed or reused for any medium. With minimal to zero effort. In absolutely no time at all. No reworking the content. No duplication of the publishing process (or parts of it). No overlaps in the stages involved. The publishing platform will do it for you. Once you choose your mode of output, you can sit back and relax.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="353e">It goes without saying that the quality and consistency you expect will be delivered. And of course, the uniqueness of each media will be preserved, so output in one form doesn’t look like an imitation of the output in another medium.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1f25"><strong>4. Technology will be the hero, more than ever!</strong></p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5803">Content Management Systems. CSS. Workflow Management Systems. Artificial Intelligence. In-built workflow engines. Machine Learning. Cloud-based technologies. Virtual assistants. Chances are, this list isn’t even skimming the surface of what technology will be like and the role that it will play in publishing in the near future. The question is, as a publisher or an editor, how ready are you for it?</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="9f1f">Welcome to a future where everyone and everything is online, so distance, time and bottlenecks are taken out of the equation. With technology comes the concern of security — this has been well taken care of, with secure access, and role-based permissions along the workflow, so only the authorized personnel get access to relevant stages of the project.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4232">The other big question is that of open access, which has been touted as the way all publishing will go, especially in academics, science and technology. How prepared are publishing houses and editorial departments for this new paradigm shift?</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="187a"><strong>5. Publishing for all (anyone can become a publisher)</strong></p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8112">One of the positive outcomes of open access is not that content is open to all readers, but also that the engine room of publishing is opened out for anyone to become a publisher. Write, design, collaborate, share and market content without having to be dependent on larger publishing firms or existing publishing protocols. Create your own rules just as you create your own content.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1c9f">That day is not too far away.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="d72b"><em>Truth be told, you don’t have to wait for years to witness the future of publishing. In fact, it’s right here. </em><a href="https://www.pagemajik.com/contact-us#enquiry" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank"><em>Contact us</em></a><em> for a </em><a href="https://www.pagemajik.com/contact-us#request_panel" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank"><em>demo</em></a><em> — that will give you a window to what publishing will be like globally, and what it is like today, at </em><a href="https://www.pagemajik.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank"><em>PageMajik</em></a><em>!</em></p>Suresh L2019-11-24T18:36:00ZHow would you describe your publishing process — in one word?Suresh Lhttps://www.pagemajik.com/en/c/blogs/find_entry?p_l_id=116&entryId=867652022-05-11T17:11:09Z2019-09-12T18:36:00Z<p>It was a regular Friday morning meeting at PageMajik. As Billy Joel correctly predicted decades ago, the regular crowd shuffled in. Before we all sat down and got comfortable, someone popped a question.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="c59d">“If you were to describe a publishing process in just one word, how would you say it?” We stared at him. “Go on, what would that magic word be?”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8e58">“Whose publishing process?” someone else shot back.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="f59f">“It could be a client’s publishing cycle. Or it could be your definition of what a good publishing process should be.”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="aa0c">We began in a clockwise order. “Simple.” “Easy.” “Convenient?” “Efficient.” “Quick.”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="9f49">“But shouldn’t a publishing process be all of these?”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5e97">“What about smart?”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ea64">“Sure, but that’s more technology-oriented, don’t you think?”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="c094">“Profitable?”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="6b69">“That covers the business angle, but what else?”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b26a">“Classy?”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b78d">“That is descriptive of the end-product…”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="c799">“Stress-free?”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="fdc8">“I like it. It is customer focused…”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="05e2">“How about ‘friendly’?”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="dec0">“Hmm…”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1f8a">“Or secure?”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="db23">“Isn’t that just one aspect of what one would want a publishing process to be?”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="938f">“Also, aren’t some these words interconnected? For instance, your publishing can be friendly only if it’s simple and stress-free…”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="cd10">“Likewise, it can be efficient only if it’s both convenient and quick.”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b970">“Agreed, so where are we with our magic word?”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2472">“From PageMajik’s perspective, I would say complete.”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="46d4">“Why would you say that?”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a182">“Take a look at the publishing processes used by most small and mid-sized publishers. They have to outsource many of their intermediate steps.”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="d578">“Another thing to remember is that they don’t have the bandwidth for say, pre-contract validation or gauging user experience. PageMajik can help them with not just these, but also with contract management, audience assessment, market assessment, proposal reviews…”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="f8d3">“In that case, what the one word you’d associate it with?”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2b31">“Complete, I would say…”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ac33">“How about ‘end-to-end’?”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="be0e">“That’s quite ‘comprehensive’, too…”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="6dce">“Sure, our tool suite ensures that the publishing process is complete, but what does it mean to the publisher?”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="49cf">“Since it brings all the bits n pieces of the process under one umbrella, it offers him something very important.”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="16c2">“Which is…?”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a586">“Control.”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="0175">“He’s now well and truly in charge of his publishing. With PageMajik, all the pieces fall into place and the publisher is in complete control.”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b407">“You mean the publishing is complete and the publisher is in control.”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ff14">“Have it your way.”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="67d1">“But you just can’t talk about end-to-end publishing or how it offers control to the publisher. You’ll have to show how PageMajik makes it possible.”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="72a3">“Absolutely. We have the perfect platform for this at the Frankfurt Book Fair.”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b92e">“Great, we’re going to be at Hall 4.2, Stand M86. And we’ll be looking forward to take them through a quick demo of how PageMajik makes their publishing complete.”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1691">As a publisher, how would you describe your publishing process?</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8a3e">And if you were to do that in a word, how would you say it?</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="3e0e"><strong><em>Visit us at the PageMajik stall and share your views on this. Remember, we’re at Hall 4.2, Stand M86.</em></strong></p>Suresh L2019-09-12T18:36:00ZTrust, but verifyAshok Girihttps://www.pagemajik.com/en/c/blogs/find_entry?p_l_id=116&entryId=866132022-05-11T13:44:49Z2019-05-31T17:56:00Z<p>One popular conception of science stresses the need to always question, to always remain skeptical. However, given that scientific work requires the coordination of a massive number of people scattered across the world and across disciplines, it is the ability to trust the work others are doing that allows scientists to build on with their own. The obvious question then is why do people trust each other?</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="6006">In his book <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3626633.html" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank"><em>A Social History of Truth</em></a>, the historian and sociologist of science Steven Shapin offers a surprising answer to how this trust initially came about. Science until the mid-19th century was primarily the pursuit of gentlemen. Birth, wealth, and behaviour were used to judge who was and wasn’t reliable. If a man was wealthy (and it was almost always a man), it was assumed that he had nothing to gain and plenty to lose in lying about results, since he was financially independent and was embedded in a culture of honour. Gentlemen trusted each other not because they naively believed good science was inevitable but because of non-scientific facts about their mutual social status.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="9917">Of course as time passed, this gatekeeping of science ended and anyone (in principle at least) could pursue science. In this context, why trust anyone else? Of course, most scientists are committed to truth-finding, and the repercussions of being found out serves as a strong deterrent to anyone tempted. But in our era of publish-or-perish, short term cheating and sloppiness might still be tempting to many. In fact, there is already a prominent case of this happening.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="f233">In December 2014, then UCLA political science graduate student Michael LaCour and Columbia University political science professor Donald Green published a paper in <em>Science </em>titled “<a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/346/6215/1366.abstract" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">When contact changes minds: An experiment on transmission of support for gay equality</a>.” According to this, door-to-door canvassers who were gay were better than their straight counterparts in convincing voters to support same-sex marriage in the long-term. The study was picked up and touted in several major media outlets including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/12/health/gay-marriage-canvassing-study-science.html" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank"><em>The New York Times</em></a><em>, </em><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/12/11/one-conversation-can-change-minds-on-same-sex-marriage-study-finds/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank"><em>The Washington Post</em></a>, and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/gay-marriage-how-to-change-minds-1424882037" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank"><em>The Wall Street Journal</em></a>. By chance, two grad students at UC Berkley, David Broockman and Joshua Kalla, were trying to carry out a similar study and during their attempt to replicate LaCour and Green’s result, realised that the original paper had fabricated its data. They published their expose “<a href="http://stanford.edu/~dbroock/broockman_kalla_aronow_lg_irregularities.pdf" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Irregularities in LaCour</a>,” and the paper was <a href="http://retractionwatch.com/2015/05/28/science-retracts-troubled-gay-canvassing-study-against-lacours-objections/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">retracted</a>.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="3f15">This episode itself is fascinating, but what I would like to draw attention to is how such an error had occurred. Green, although the senior researcher, had never even seen the data which LaCour had fabricated and had instead taken it on faith. When later asked why, Green <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/26/science/maligned-study-on-gay-marriage-is-shaking-trust.html" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">said</a> “<em>It’s a very delicate situation when a senior scholar makes a move to look at a junior scholar’s data set. This is his career, and if I reach in and grab it, it may seem like I’m boxing him out</em>.” In response, Ivan Oransky, aco-founder of <em>Retraction Watch</em> said, “<em>At the end of the day he decided to trust LaCour, which was, in his own words, a mistake.</em>” <em>The New York Times</em> article where both of them were quoted summarized with “<em>The scientific community’s system for vetting new findings, built on trust, is poorly equipped to detect deliberate misrepresentations.</em>”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="31f9">What this episode reveals is that our procedures are, for the most part, still based on trust, making it vulnerable. Reflecting on the LaCour retraction, C. K. Gunsalus, Director of the National Center for Professional and Research Ethics, <a href="http://retractionwatch.com/2015/06/18/if-you-think-its-rude-to-ask-to-look-at-your-co-authors-data-youre-not-doing-science-guest-post/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">advocated</a> for greater openness, even titling the piece “<em>If you think it’s rude to ask to look at your co-authors’ data, you’re not doing science</em>.” This really is a fantastic piece, but the one place I’d like to disagree is that many of the suggestions place all the responsibility on authors themselves to institute good practices. I think a better idea is to try to build a culture of responsibility institutionally rather than on individual choice. If collaborators feel uncomfortable asking each other for data or their sources of funding, then the only way around this is to mandate that they do so.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5a02">Of course, even this won’t stop all fraud. Multiple authors can still fabricate results together, and can be too lazy and lie about verifying colleague’s work. And this would probably feel too top-down for some academics, who might feel having to fill-in institutionally mandated information at every significant stage of their work tiresome. But if we want a culture of robust checks and balances, we need to start working towards such a framework.</p>Ashok Giri2019-05-31T17:56:00ZThe art of saving your businessSuresh Lhttps://www.pagemajik.com/en/c/blogs/find_entry?p_l_id=116&entryId=867592022-05-11T17:12:14Z2019-05-21T18:35:00Z<p>I look forward to Sunday mornings at the beach. It’s when my mobile gets into sleep mode and my senses awaken — to experience the cool air, the sound of the waves crashing against the shores and the teasingly slow sunrise.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="bcbd">I saw him jog past me. He seemed familiar. ‘Was it…?’ “Jonathan?” I called out. He turned around. It was indeed him. “Hey,” I reached out to him enthusiastically. Jonathan and I graduated together, but our interests took us along different directions.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b6f3">“How about a coffee?” I asked as I led him to the nearby café. He seemed to be in two minds, but decided to follow me. A blast of nostalgia hit me as I reminisced the good old days, the funny incidents and the not-so-funny exam results that would hit us at the end of each semester. He nodded absent-mindedly from time to time, with a vacant expression on his face. The conversation would simply not get going, despite my best attempts.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="bbcb">I stopped.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="9b87">“Listen, are you running late for something? Or is there a problem?”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="df03">He sat silently for a while and then opened up.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="72d9">Jonathan was a third generation publisher, having inherited the press from his family. Business was dwindling, with increasing competition from the big names and leading online distributors muscling out smaller players like him.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="413b">“I can’t match their infrastructure,” he lamented. “Technology has brought in so many advances, but what do I do with my existing processes? Besides, everything costs… I can’t afford a large team. And I’ve tried outsourcing specific parts of the process, but either they can’t match our requisite quality or they can’t keep up with the timelines or they’re too expensive… And trying to coordinate with all of them is so stressful that…” He shook his head and lapsed into silence.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5a5d">Apparently things had gone from bad to worse in the past few weeks. “At this rate, we might have to shut shop soon,” he sighed. “Who knows, we might be working on our last title.”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="64c7">Before I could respond, his mobile rang. It was from his office. “On a Sunday morning? Jonathan, what’s going on?” I asked. He motioned for me to stay silent, listened for a few seconds and got up abruptly. “A publishing consultant is waiting to see me,” he said grimly. “I’ll catch you later.” “Hey, wait…” I couldn’t complete my sentence. He was gone.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1a96">Work kept me busy for a while and I didn’t get to see Jonathan for over a month. It was on a Sunday morning when we bumped into each other again. “Ah, that’s smile is back,” I commented. “Good to see you go back to your old self. How’re things? How’s work?”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="21b5">“Couldn’t be better,” he grinned. “You know that publishing consultant I met last month? He recommended a content services platform that explained how it could take care of all my publishing needs.”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e549">It was my turn to smile. “You know…” He wouldn’t let me finish. “They had the entire range of products that I could use for my publishing. You know what the best part is? I didn’t have to change my existing systems either. They made sure that their publishing solution worked around my existing process. That was a relief.”</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="7c26">“Look, I know…” He was still not done. “I had been toying around with a new idea of adding AR to my digital titles for training programmes. But when one’s fighting for survival, where’s the time to innovate? Hey, you know what? They made it possible for me. This has got me new clients and I have enough work to last me for a couple of years more… at least.” He laughed.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="608f">“So all’s well?” I asked him. “Aaahsome,” he said in his typical style and for a brief moment, I was transported back to college.</p>
<p data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2f61">“I’m happy for you,” I told him. I felt pretty good too. There are few things in life better than sitting face to face with a customer and listen to him gushing about your <a href="http://www.pagemajik.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">product</a>.</p>Suresh L2019-05-21T18:35:00Z