How a Leading Publisher Engaged Exela for End-to-End Book Production
Challenge
A leading publisher in the health sciences and medical field needed a publishing partner that could manage the full book publishing lifecycle. This included: composition, copyediting, style conversion, photo and illustration alterations and rendering, proofreading, indexing, format conversion, content accessibility, supplementary material development, and project management.
The central challenges involved were a product of the broad scope of the project, a heavy focus on the quality of the output, and a request for quick turnaround. The copyedited manuscript provided by the customer did not define styles for the respective content. Identifying and mapping the styles in the document with the appropriate styles per the InDesign style sheet was an additional challenge. Some entities in the document were not ASCII and, hence, were not recognized by InDesign.
Solution
In order to fulfill the request, Exela developed an in-house tool for image placement and applying styles. The tool was used alongside the contributions of Exela’s subject experts and editors, who provided the Alt-text for non-text components. The tool helped scale up the workflow and shorten the expected schedule, while still ensuring that the output quality remained at, or above, the agreed upon level. Exela also provided illustration services that encompassed alterations to the existing illustrations and rendering of new art.
In most cases, multiple images had to be used during the automated insertion process, in accordance with the callouts. The tool Exela built helped manage multiple image placements and images in many different formats. In the end, the work was completed in a timely fashion and the output was of exceptional quality. The tool Exela developed has since been available to assist with related projects, regardless of format, size, scope, and content.
Benefits
- Image placement was sped up from 100 images per hour to 600 images per hour, for a 500% improvement in productivity
- Word to style conversion was increased from 10 pages per hour to 27 pages per hour, for a 170% increase in productivity
- EPUB conversion automation requires minimal intervention
- Reduced time to market
- Excellent quality
- Significantly lowered cost
