Deconstructing the Editorial and Production Workflow Bill Kasdorf Vice President, Apex Content Solutions General Editor, The Columbia Guide to Digital Publishing Metadata Subgroup Lead, EPUB 3.0 & 3.0.1 WG Chair, BISG Content Structure Committee We all know what the stages of the editorial and production workflow are. Design. Copyediting. Typesetting. Artwork. Indexing. Quality Control. Ebook Creation. Ummm. . . . They’re usually done in silos. Which are hard to see into, and are starting to break down. Thinking of these stages in the traditional way leads to suboptimization. In today’s digital ecosystem we need to deconstruct them in order to optimize: Who does what? At what stage(s) of the workflow? How to best manage the process? Who Does What?
Do it in-house? Outsource it? Automate it? You can’t answer these questions properly without deconstructing the categories. And the answers differ from publisher to publisher. At What Stage(s) of the Workflow?
How do these aspects intersect? How do you avoid duplication and rework? How do you get out of “loopy QC”? Getting the right things right upstream eliminates a lot of headaches downstream. How Best to Manage the Process?
Balancing predictability and creativity: where to be strict, and where to be flexible? How can systems and standards help? Buy vs. build vs. wing it? Your systems, partners, and processes should make it easy for you to do the right work and keep you from doing the wrong work. Let’s deconstruct two key workflow stages to see what options there are for optimizing them. Copyediting
Editing in Word? Who cleans up the author’s messy MS files? Who “normalizes” the styling? Who designs those styles in the first place? Who checks all the links to figures, tables, cross references, notes? Who actually does the intellectual work? How do the files get trafficked? What about version control? Copyediting
Editing in Word? Who cleans up the author’s messy MS files? Who “normalizes” the styling? Who designs Thethose copyeditor? styles in the first place? WhoThe projectchecks orall productionthe links to editor?figures, tables, cross references, notes? Dedicated in-house file prep team? Who actually does the intellectual work? Outsourced to vendor? How do the files get trafficked? “Normalizing?What about version What’s control? that?” Copyediting
Editing in Word? Who cleans up the author’s messy MS files? Who “normalizes” the styling? Who designs those styles in the first place? Who checksThey all need the links to be to figures, tables,aligned cross with references,your XML markup notes? Whoand actually easy to does use theby theintellectual copyeditor. work? How do the files get trafficked? What about version control? Copyediting The copyeditor? An Editing editorial in assistant? Word? Who cleansThe up theeditorial author’s vendor? messy MS files? Who “normalizes”The typesetter? the styling? Who designs thoseSoftware? styles in the first place? Who checks all the links to figures, tables, cross references, notes? Who actually does the intellectual work? How do the files get trafficked? What about version control? Copyediting
Editing in Word? Who cleans up the author’s messy MS files? In-house copyeditor? Who “normalizes” the styling? Freelance copyeditor? Who designs those styles in the first place? An editorial service? Who checks all the links to figures, tables,Full-service cross references, comp vendor? notes? Who actually does the intellectual work? “CopyeditingHow do the files. . . yeah, get trafficked?I remember Whatwhen about we used version to do control? that.” Copyediting
Editing in Word? Who cleans up the author’s messy MS files? Who “normalizes” the styling? Email files, named whatever. . . . Who designs those styles in the first place? Consistent file naming, FTP, transmittals. Who checks all the links to figures, Digitaltables, Asset cross Management references, System notes? (DAM). WhoContent actually Management does the intellectual System (CMS). work? How do the files get trafficked? What about version control? Typesetting
Who determines the tags or style names? How do the editing styles translate to comp? Who does the artwork? How are figures, tables, etc. placed? Are links preserved or implemented? How do the files get trafficked? What about version control? Typesetting
Who determines the tags or style names? How do Freelancethe editing designer, styles translate ad hoc? to comp? Compositor’sWho does the own artwork? system? How arePublisher’s figures, tables, system? etc. placed? Are links preservedXML? or implemented? How do the files get trafficked? What about version control? Typesetting
Who determines the tags or style names? How do the editing styles translate to comp? Who “Theydoes the don’t.” artwork? How are“The figures, typesetter tables, does etc. it, placed? Are welinks don’t preserved know what or implemented? they do.” WordHow styles do the imported files get into trafficked? InDesign. ProgrammaticWhat about versiontransforms control? to XML. Typesetting
Who determines the tags or style names? How do the editing“The author. styles Sorta.”translate to comp? Who does the artwork? How are figures, tables, etc. placed? “Then we fix it in-house.” Are links preserved or implemented? “We send it to an art studio.” How do the files get trafficked? “The typesetter fixes it.” What about version control? “We make the author fix it.” “It depends. . . .” Typesetting
Who determines the tags or style names? How do the editing styles translate to comp? Who does the artwork? How are figures, tables, etc. placed? Are linksManually preserved based or on implemented? callouts Howmarked do the files by copyeditor. get trafficked? WhatAutomatically about version from control? XML in Typefi, 3B2. Typesetting
Who determines “Nope.”the tags or style names? How do the“The editing typesetter styles adds translate them.” to comp? “We put themWho in does when the we artwork? make the ebook.” How are“Yes, figures, they’re tables, in the XML.”etc. placed? Are links preserved or implemented? How do the files get trafficked? What about version control? Typesetting
Who determines the tags or style names? Email files, named whatever. . . . How do the editing styles translate to comp? Consistent file naming, FTP, transmittals. Who does the artwork? Digital Asset Management System (DAM). How are figures, tables, etc. placed? Content Management System (CMS). Are links preserved or implemented? How do the files get trafficked? What about version control? Sound familiar? DECONSTRUCTING CONTENT MANAGEMENT Document Management Digital Asset Management (DAM) Workflow Management Web Content Management XML Content Management XML Repository Management Enterprise Content Management All of the Above COMPONENT MANAGEMENT The more granular, the better? Don’t get carried away. There’s work required to manage all the bits. THOUGHTFUL GRANULARITY
What are the pieces you need to: SELL? RE-ARRANGE? REUSE? RENDER? FIND? THOUGHTFUL GRANULARITY
What are the pieces you need to: SELL? Typically RE-ARRANGE? maintained as separate REUSE? components. RENDER? FIND? THOUGHTFUL GRANULARITY
What are the pieces you need to: SELL? Typically RE-ARRANGE? maintained as separate Best REUSE? components. managed via RENDER? metadata and markup. FIND? Thanks!
Bill Kasdorf [email protected] +1 734 904 6252 @BillKasdorf