Developing an Ebook Production Workflow: Challenges and Learning at Talonbooks

Talonbooks, a Canadian literary publisher established in 1967, initiated ebook production in 2012 and began to develop a feasible workflow. Talonbooks first attempted to produce universally functional “reflowable” ebooks intended for consumption on any of many popular devices. Different but similarly popular formats necessitated the emergence of a two-pronged approach: EPUB files were produced, duplicated, optimized for Kindle devices, and converted to Mobipocket. This workflow was still in use at Talonbooks as of December 2013. As Talonbooks tackles the electronic (re)production of its sizeable backlist, and as technology and the economics of book publishing change, the workflow will be developed further. The latter half of this report identifies challenges and opportunities – improving metadata; establishing indexing practices; experimenting with emerging digital-publishing platforms/tools; and employing outside contractors selectively in order to complete backlist ebook conversion – and analyzes them within the context of digital book publishing as it was from approximately 2009 to 2013.