The London Book Fair (April 14 – April 16) presents an excellent opportunity to meet with book publishing software vendors and speak to their clients. [Read more…]
Software for Startup Publishers
New publishers on a shoestring budget need software for accounting, royalties, title information and editorial project management to manage their operations. With these tools in place they can focus on acquiring titles, publishing titles, marketing and sales. [Read more…]
Frankfurt Book Fair 2014 – Oct 8 thru Oct 12
The Frankfurt Book Fair is the world’s larger book fair. In 2013 this fair hosted 7,275 exhibitors from 102 nations, 631 literary agents, about 9,300 journalists, 275,342 visitors and 170,664 professional visitors.
At the Frankfurt Book Fair you can meet publishing software vendors and their clients. There is no better way to talk to the representatives of many vendors at one time.
Exhibitors
BooXtream, Hall 8 L133 – www.booxtream.com
- DRM watermarking for ebook publishers
Digimarc, Hall 8.0 L112 – www.digimarc.com
- DRM watermarking for ebook publishers
Jeux de Couleur, Ltd. (That’s Rights, Easy Royalties), Hall 4.0 J146 – www.thatsrights.com
- Royalty and rights management software for small to medium sized publishers
Klopotek & Partner GmbH, Hall 4.0 E9 – www.klopotek.com
- ERP solutions for book publishers – royalties, editorial, production management, sales, title information – for medium to very large publishers
knk Business Software AG, Hall 4.0 G7 – www.knk.com
- Microsoft Dynamics NAV solutions for book publishers for medium to large publishers
Publishing Technology, Hall 4.2 M35 – www.publishingtechnology.com
- ERP Solutions for book publishers – ecommerce, royalties, production management, sales, title information – for medium to very large publishers
Real Software Systems, Hall 4.0 C38
- Rights and royalty solutions for medium to very large publishers
Stison Ltd, Hall 8.0 A75 – www.stison.com
- ERP Solutions for book publishers
Virtusales Publishing Solutions, Hall 4.0 C31 – www.virtusales.com
- Editorial, production management, rights & royalties, title information solutions for small to very large publishers
Software Selection: Vendor Area of Expertise
An important criteria of any book publishing software purchase decision is the vendor’s area of expertise.
Publishing software solutions often focus their development in a few specific areas. While some vendor solutions excel in financial management others focus on title information management, production management, royalties & rights, sales order processing or ecommerce sales.
A vendor’s area of expertise can be identified by their software development roadmap, reading press releases to see what are the most commonly implemented modules are and viewing the vendor’s website to see what functionality receives the most emphasis.
Example 1: IBS Bookmaster is known for their sales order processing, distribution management and warehouse management along with integrated financials. Most of their clients operate have distribution and warehouse operations. A review of their website shows an emphasis on supply chain management and financial reporting.
Example 2: Klopotek is known for their production management, title information and royalty & rights management functionality. This is where most of their ongoing development has occurred.
Example 3: knkPublishing is known for their integrated Microsoft Dynamics financials. Publishers that purchased their software did so in large part because of their integration with the financial management modules provided by Microsoft Dynamics.
Example 4: Firebrand Technologies is known for their turn-key title information management.
Example 5: Easy Royalties is known for their powerful royalty solutions for small publishers.
Example 6: Publishing Technology is known for implementing ecommerce solutions for publishers and their order to cash solutions for publishers.
Example 7: Virtusales focus is title information management, production management and royalties. They do not handle sales nor offer integrated financials.
Book Expo America 2014 – May 29 to 31
Book Expo America 2014 is the place to be if you want to explore book publishing software solutions. From Thursday May 29th through Saturday May 31st, 2014 publishing software vendors will be exhibiting at the Javits Center in New York City. Here you can meet with vendors and talk to the publishers that use their software.
Exhibitors
Cyberwolf, Inc. – Stand DZ1764 – www.cyberwolf.com
CyberWolf offers a complete line of publishing supply chain technology: Business management, royalties, eCommerce, ONIX & ebook download solutions. Through technology innovation, our professional teams help publishers improve and grow operations, productivity, sales and profitability. The ACUMEN Book® business management system is the industry price/performance leader. Diversified DRM™ and the CyberWolf Download Service provide maximum flexibility for website ebook sales.
Firebrand Technologies – Stand DZ2257 – www.firebrandtech.com
Firebrand Technologies provides steadfast leadership and seamless information flow throughout the publishing process. Title Management Software tracks titles from pre-acquisition through post-production, marketing and sales. Eloquence Metadata services are the fastest, most accurate and cost-effective way to implement ONIX. Content Services offers publishers the ability to manage, store, distribute and sell final eBook content. Firebrand’s eBook Architects is a premier eBook design company.
Klopotek – Stand DZ1756 – www.klopotek.com
Klopotek is the software provider trusted by over 350 publishers on four continents and is the most comprehensive, integrated standard enterprise software created for publishers. It covers all work processes in the publishing business; enables publishers to highly optimize and automate workflow in editorial, contracts, rights, royalties, production and order to cash. Publishers who use Klopotek save significant time, lower IT investment and streamline processes in every aspect of their business.
Media Services Group – Stand 1003 – www.msgl.com
Media Services Group, developers of the well-known publishing systems Elan Book and The Cat’s Pajamas, has been providing solutions to publishers since 1985. eCommerce/digital strategy; product lifecycle management; rights & royalties; CRM; inventory and warehouse; order fulfillment; subscriptions; accounting and much more. Become one of over 10,000 publishing professionals who manage their most complex business requirements with our Elan software.
MetaComet Systems – Stand 1015 – www.metacomet.com
MetaComet Systems is the creator of the acclaimed RoyaltyTracker.com as well as the recently launched AuthorPortal.com and PublisherSales.net. Cut costs, save time, reduce risk and improve author relationships with our state-of-the-art tools and expertise. We will also help you generate additional revenue with marketing tools for your authors and improved rights management.
Trilogy North America – Stand 2550 – www.trilogynorthamerica.com
Trilogy Enterprise Systems provides a full range of software and services to meet the complex demands of the publishing and related book industries. Modules include rights, royalties, production, order entry, title management, EDI, distribution and integrated WMS and Microsoft Dynamics GP (Great Plains).
Virtusales – Stand DZ1971C – www.virtusales.com
Virtusales develops Biblio3 which is used by some of the world’s leading publishers including Hachette, Random House, Penguin Books, Pearson Education, Macmillan and Harvard University Press. Biblio3 is an advanced publishing management system available in the cloud, allowing publishers to track their data from pre-acquisition to publication. It covers functional areas including ONIX & eBook feeds, production management, contracts, rights, royalties and digital asset management.
2014 Industry Forecast
The book publishing software industry is continually changing. Here is our forecast for 2014.
1. The SaaS market share will continue to grow as software vendors look for continuing income and publishers look to reduce the complexity of their IT operations. [Read more…]
London Book Fair 2014
London Book Fair 2014 is the place to be if you want to explore book publishing software solutions. From Tuesday April 8th through Thursday April 10th, 2014 publishing software vendors will be exhibiting at Earls Court in West London. Here you can meet with vendors and talk to the publishers that use their software. [Read more…]
Customer Satisfaction & Software Selection
“You can’t manage what you don’t measure. It is an old management adage that is accurate today. Unless you measure something you don’t know if it is getting better or worse. You can’t manage for improvement if you don’t measure to see what is getting better and what isn’t.”
Customer support is often the determining factor in software selection. All book publishing software vendors say they are focused on customer satisfaction. Yet, when you ask them to quantify it, many can’t. How can you manage something if you can’t measure it? [Read more…]
Book Expo America 2013 Exhibitors
BookExpo America 2013 is the place to be if you want to explore book publishing software solutions. From Thursday May 30th through Saturday June 1st, 2013 publishing software vendors will be exhibiting at the exhibit at Javits Center in mid-town New York. Here you can meet with vendors and talk to the publishers that use their software. [Read more…]
SaaS Uptime Statistics
When we evaluate Software as a Service solutions (SaaS) we look at 1) the location of the datacenters, 2) the center’s statistics and 3) their Type II SAS 70 Service Auditor’s Report.
Klopotek; one of the larger book publishing software vendors, posts their SaaS uptime statistics on their website. [Read more…]