Scott Abel

I'm a digitally-savvy consumer. Increasingly, so are my parents, most of my friends, and almost all of my younger relatives, peers, and co-workers. Yet, despite our differences in age, education, and technology know-how, we all share a common trait. We're continuously victimized by less-than-optimal digital experiences -- especially when it comes to ebooks.

Book publishers are an endangered species. That's right. The producers of textbooks, romance novels, and cookbooks aren't long for this world. Their likely extinction is both predictable and preventable. Even if they put up a good fight, it's unlikely they'll survive in their current form for one reason: They are slow to evolve.Case in point: Two years ago, while book publishers were busy conducting business as usual, an outsider invaded the industry and reshaped it in the publishers' image. The invading force was Apple, a fierce predator with a history of conducting well-orchestrated, highly publicized takeovers. And take over it did.

I've got a challenge for you. Take a look at the way you create, manage and deliver content. No, really. Take a close look. Conduct a systematic, fair, scientific survey of your content production lifecycle. Get professional help if you need to. Look at each and every step in your process and ask yourself, "Is this the best we can do, or is it just the way we've been doing it for so long that we believe it is the correct -- and only -- way to work?"

Let's face it. Most product support sucks. And, if yours doesn't, you're among the few organizations doing it right.What's the problem? Support has always been thought of as a necessary evil, something we must provide because it's expected, not because we value our customers and place a high value on providing exceedingly amazing experiences.

I'm really tired of being inundated with contextually irrelevant information. I don't want to know what I don't need to know. I don't. Really. And, neither does anyone else.The sheer volume of information available to me in the digital age is overwhelming. Everywhere I look, there it is. Even when I'm not looking, it's there, waiting to be found. Unfortunately, most of what is presented to me is of little use -- or is difficult, if not impossible to find -- especially on the web.

Social networks are changing the way consumers obtain information about products and services. Nearly everyone -- except for Prince, who declared the internet dead -- is getting in on the action.Consumer research indicates that members of social networks are more likely to purchase products and services referred to them by their friends, fans, and followers. In fact, 90% of consumers say they trust recommendations from people they know; 70% trust opinions of unknown users. 71% claim reviews from family members or friends exert a "great deal" or "fair amount" of influence on what they purchase, while the same number of consumers don't believe the claims made in traditional advertising messages at all.

According to a recent survey of 600 publishers across the trade, professional, and educational markets, the biggest struggle publishers face is maximizing ebook profits as the industry struggles to go digital. Part of the profit problem will be solved as publishers reduce production expenses by moving to scalable digital workflows, rather than retrofitting existing, outdated and inefficient publishing processes. While saving money by increasing productivity and reducing expenses is an important part of gaining a positive return on investment from ebooks and apps, maximizing profits also requires publishers to find innovative ways of earning revenue and turning those dollars into profit.One such strategy is to sell advertisements in ebooks and apps.Ads in books? Heresy you say! Err, not so fast.

As the old saying goes, "The world is your oyster." Today, that's certainly the case. Emerging markets in China, India, and Brazil are creating a gold mine of opportunity for organizations savvy enough to tap into the fast-growing international marketplace. Unfortunately, most organizations are woefully unprepared for such an endeavor.

If you're an investor, you should know about publishing's dirty little secret. Most book publishers are wasting your money. That's right: They're burning through your cash at an alarming rate in a desperate attempt to keep up with changing user expectations. Publishers are throwing your money at problems that can only really be fixed by changing the way the publishing process works.

I am a big fan of collaboration. Teamwork, actually. It's a common sense approach to solving many business efficiency challenges. And yet, despite the obvious benefits, it's not standard procedure. Most organizations simply have no idea what is possible when they improve the way their workers work. Take content production, for instance. The traditional process used to create, manage, and deliver all the stuff that powers business is a poorly orchestrated mess, riddled with inefficiencies, many of which can be drastically reduced—or totally eliminated—when workers work toward a common goal and collaborate together as a team using the right tools for the job.

I'm going to let you in on a secret: You're sitting on a gold mine of content that is just lying around hogging up server space. Some of it may even be hidden in physical archives, concealed in printed documents, or stored on microfiche.

As a content management strategist, I've helped clean up some pretty big content messes. And almost all of these expensive content woes could have been avoided if the organizations involved had realized one important fact: Content is a business asset worthy of being managed efficiently and effectively.

Ebooks are a hot topic right now, thanks in part to two big companies.