Building E-Publishing Capacity by E-Collaboration: An African Experience

Building E-Publishing Capacity by E-Collaboration: An African Experience

Emmanuel C. Ifeduba
Copyright: © 2022 |Pages: 15
DOI: 10.4018/IJeC.295150
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Abstract

The invention of the World Wide Web made the Internet attractive for publishing, offering Africans an opportunity to publish for the global market. Notwithstanding, their e-publishing initiatives, emerging business models and competitive e-collaboration with global distribution giants are yet to be adequately interrogated from an empirical perspective. This study, therefore, describes the progression of e-publishing from the perspective of e-collaboration. In-depth interviews, website observation and survey methods were employed in data collection; and 97 purposively selected publishing firms filled out a questionnaire offline whereas online data were collected from 82 available publishing websites. Findings indicate that publishers are building e-publishing capacity by launching websites, e-book clubs and online bookshops, collaborating with global giants for distribution, thereby increasing output significantly. This study updates the history of e-publishing, providing hitherto unavailable information on the progression of digital publishing in Africa's largest economy.
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Background: The Problem Of Wrong Perception Of E-Publishing Environment

Book publishers seem to perceive the Nigerian digital environment as an environment inhospitable to innovation adoption and e-collaboration whereas studies suggest not only that the environment is no longer as inhospitable as they think, but that a reasonable market for digital books already exists in some areas (Conford, 2011). Studies also indicate that a fairly reasonable measure of digital publishing is currently taking place (Ifeduba, 2020; Okojie, 2014). These conflicting perspectives suggest that the contemporary history of publishing in the country needs to be updated by means of empirical clarifications. This study, therefore, empirically surveys the digital environment in search of answers to the following questions:

In what ways are local publishers innovating to build capacity? What businesses are trending on publishing websites? What is the role of local innovation champions and global online distributors in the emerging business models? To what extent are local publishers outsourcing distribution to global online distributors? How are authors taking advantage of technological convergence to circumvent inhibiting factors?

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