It’s common practice in many industries to let customers try before they buy, but as a book publisher how do you do that whilst retaining control over the content that’s being released online. Pan Macmillan asked us to help.
Digital formats
Publishers, like the rest of us, live in an increasingly digital world and whilst new titles are released in digital formats they’re also digitising their back-catalogue. This provides an enormous opportunity and although EPUB isn’t a file that works natively in a web browser it’s a format which we can work with. Using our Sitesuma Framework we designed then developed a web-based platform through which Pan Macmillan can securely import then parse existing EPUB files, generating an extract for publication online. They have control over what to import, the extract that’s used and when to publish. We paired the back-end system with a responsive front-end reader allowing book lovers control over the size and style of type, the opportunity to share on social networks and links to buy from key retail partners.
Built for growth
It’s expected that the system will grow to contain over 4,000 titles, allowing book lovers to discover new titles and ultimately leading to an increase in sales.
