Automatic book creation: with or without XML?
As a publisher, you want to get the most out of your content. Folio, e-books and increasingly audio books. Readers expect that books are available in all possible formats. In addition to the revenue model, this naturally also has an effect on the production process.
Marcel Van Denken
Sales Director at Crius Group
Converting to different formats costs money and so it is necessary to do this as smart as possible. Within this context, people often throw with terms such as XML, automatic typesetting and of course reusing content. But is it that simple? And is this the same for all types of books?
Reuse of content can be done in various ways
The combination of print and digital is often thought of, but there are also different variations within it. With certain types of content it can be interesting to publish parts separately. Think of recipes from a cookbook, parts from a travel guide or educational material. In these situatios, people often no longer think in books when creating the content. This is only done later when the parts are reassembled into a new book or publication.
The use of XML means that structure and design are separated from each other and that the content is stored in a content management system. This means a lot! Authors and/or editors must be familiar with this technology and software has to be available to edit this content. But this is only really useful to do when content:
- is published on different channels and in various publications;
- is suitable for semi-automatic publishing;
- is regularly updated and changes must be visible everywhere quickly.
And what about fiction books such as novels and thrillers?
Here, the story is of course much simpler. Books are, although in different formats, always published in their entirety and only rarely updated in terms of content. But to keep everything manageable, things like structured storage and the combination of qualitative design and a low page price are important. This is precisely the reason why we have developed CORE. By cleverly deploying software such as MS Word, InDesign, InCopy and Alfresco, it is possible to efficiently produce pages and generate e-books. And if there is a new trend or (digital) format in the future, due to the clear way of working, you are always ready to convert files easily, quickly and efficiently. Together with the thirty years of experience that Crius Group has as a typesetter, this ensures quality products. And you don't need any XML for this.