Producing eBooks for World’s Largest Online Retailer

The world’s largest online retailer entered the eBook market at full throttle two years ago when it launched a popular mobile eBook reading device that featured a paper-like reading display, a wide range of content and vast storage capacity. To drive sales, the retailer recognized that it also needed to stock its electronic bookshelves with enough best-selling, general interest and classic titles to drive sales of the device.

Challenge Race to Stock Electronic Bookshelves

After years of unfulfilled potential, in 2008 the market for eBooks was rapidly gaining momentum as a number of leading online book retailers and consumer electronics companies rolled-out eBook reading devices aimed at first adopters and book buyers. Mobile reading devices were changing the way readers consumed content by giving them the flexibility to read digital content anytime, anywhere. Some devices even offered the ability to download books wirelessly.

eBook device manufacturers were in a race to build a critical mass of available content in the emerging eBook market. The device manufacturer that could bring the most titles to market the fastest would own a powerful advantage over its competitors.

While the world’s largest online retailer already had a deep repository of content in the form of PDFs and other file formats, it needed to convert the files to their own eBook format. At the same time, it continued to execute deals with publishers to maintain a steady stream of new titles; these also needed to be produced in eBook form.

How could it ramp-up quickly and bring the new eReader device to market while simultaneously and cost-effectively getting tens of thousands of books ready for consumption as eBooks.

Solution Partner with Aptara, the eBook Production Company with Proven Methodology

Doing the work in-house was not an option. While the online retailer had worked with other digital conversion companies in the past, it wanted to find an eBook production company as committed as it is to quality, speed, and affordability.

Aptara was referred to the retailer by one of the big six Trade publishers and impressed the online giant with samples of its work from previous eBook production projects. Aptara’s eBook production platform, since rebranded as eGen™, also convinced the retailer that Aptara could handle the hundreds of thousands of pages that needed prepared in the ePUB format. 

Aptara’s eBook production platform employs a digital-first production workflow and established multi-channel publishing process for simultaneous output to print, online and mobile devices, including eBook readers and smart phones, delivers significant time-to-market gains and cost savings.

Results Rapid, High-Quality Turnaround for Hundreds of Thousands of eBook Pages

Aptara and the retailer worked closely together to define the specifications for the production process, which included determining how best to process color graphics so that they would be displayed as high quality black and white images and how to incorporate rich-media applications that take full advantage of the interactive capability inherent in eBooks.

Receiving source file inputs as varied as PDF, application files such as InDesign and Quark, and Microsoft Word, Aptara’s production teams created final outputs in the specific eBook format for the retailer’s new reader, preparing hundreds of thousands of pages for tens of thousands of titles. They also met the retailer’s tight schedules, which included turnarounds as rapid as three days for some best-selling titles.

Added Value Successful Delivery Drives Massive eBook Sales Growth

By producing a critical mass of market-leading titles from some of the world’s largest educational and trade publishers, Aptara helped the online giant meet its ambitious eBook production goals and deliver service levels and value consistent with the retailer’s industryleading standards for excellence. While the retailer continues to ship titles directly to Aptara, publishers seeking to make titles available through the retailer’s eReader are also using Aptara to ready their eBook titles. Overall volumes are growing exponentially, matching the explosive growth currently underway in the eBook market.