Case Study: Gibbs Smith Moves to Digital Publishing in Record Time

Gibbs Smith Education a publisher specializing secondary school social studies textbooks, needed to find a way to move to digital publishing quickly to meet the requirements of school districts, while ensuring they met the curriculum standards set by each state.

“We needed to meet the needs of schools who want the option of print or digital,” said education sales and marketing director Corine Sayler. “We knew schools were not buying as many printed texts as they used to.”

As a company that prides itself on Pulitzer nominated authors and meticulous attention to grade level-appropriate content, Gibbs Smith wanted to move to digital publishing in a way that preserved the levels of quality editorial and graphic design that had been so successful in print. Gibbs Smith also recognized that selling material in a digital format would open up new sales opportunities and revenue models, and was determined that any digital effort should be carried out on their own terms and to their own standards, to maintain control over their content and audience relationships.

But with a thinly stretched staff, the risk of developing ebook publishing software in house was too high so they began a search for a digital publishing platform partner. Tizra was the platform of choice based on factors including:

Tizra’s ability to achieve the digital transition quickly
Gibbs Smith’s ability to maintain direct control over development, both before and after launch
Tizra’s proven track record of successful deployments

“Tizra helped us transition to digital content in a timeframe others said was ludicrous,” stated Sayler. “Tizra never said no, they were flexible, adaptable and responded positively to our needs.”

In a matter of months, Gibbs Smith went from a print-centered company to one with a vital and growing new digital product line, which is every bit as much a part of their identity and mission as the books they’ve been publishing for 40 years.

To learn more, read the entire Gibbs Smith case study here.

Are you looking to move to digital publishing? Let us show you how Tizra can help.

Comments

Tizra Upgrade Provides a Crisper, More Interactive E-Reading Experience

In the print world, when you think about a reader’s user experience, you consider factors like the size and weight of a book, paper quality, typeface, layout and design. Moving to digital, some of these factors still hold true, but others are replaced with concerns such as speed, intuitive controls, cross-platform compatibility, plus as with any human interface, a host of intangibles. We’re always working to make the Tizra reading experience crisper, easier, and less distracting, because happier readers mean happier publishers. Tizra reader upgrade makes it easy to enhance content with interactive lightbox effects. The update builds on Tizra’s ability to provide usability and compatibility across all the most popular web browsers and viewing devices, and is now available to all Tizra customers. Enhancements include: Speed -- e-reading should be as crisp, fast and simple as turning a page. Your readers are not going to tolerate delays waiting for cont...

See Tizra at the Frankfurt Book Fair

Guten Tag! If you are attending the Frankfurt Book Fair and thinking about your digital publishing strategy, we’d like to meet with you to tell you about all the great things happening at Tizra including: Our recent partnership with HighWire to power their Folio ebook platform (see below) How Goodheart-Willcox uses Tizra to create digital first content Exciting new features such as an improved e-reading experience , new mobile responsive design templates , and new APIs for faster uploading and better design integration Plus, some big news we can't tell you about until the show! Find Tizra at: The American Collective Stand Hall 8.0 S31 or email us at carlos.martinez@tizra.com to arrange a meeting. Please join us in congratulating HighWire on the launch of Folio! Built on the HighWire Open Platform and leveraging Tizra for ebook integration, Folio is a flexible, scalable, ebook solution, providing a user-friendly, intuitive reading experience t...

The Secret to Online Ebook Discovery

We have talked about three of the 10 Factors to Consider when Developing your Digital Publishing Strategy , including audience , selling direct , and monetization . Today, we tackle discovery. The way readers discover new books and content is changing and this is happening not just in the consumer trade publishing business. Discovery is moving from bookstores and face-to-face conversations to online discovery and referrals through social networks, and, as a recent study from Bowker Market Research shows, this is true even of ebooks. In fact, O'Reilly Tools of Change published findings in 2013 to show that 39 percent of their sample discovered books online, 27 percent through an online publication, and 14 percent through social media. So what does this mean for publishers? It means rethinking your marketing strategy to focus more on online discovery. Here are 5 Strategies for Improving your Online Ebook Discovery: 1. Search Engine Optimization - a tric...

Tizra Blog

Search This Blog