eBook discovery, or the ability to browse and find a title based on basic keyword searches at online booksellers, is one of the greatest obstacles for authors or publishers selling content. Academic publishing is no different. Although the audience for more scholarly works might be smaller and have unique needs, that same discovery issue hinders academic ebook discovery.
“HighWire provides an advanced digital publishing platform to help industry-leading scholarly publishers innovate and thrive,” said Tom Rump, Managing Director of HighWire, in a press release today. “We considered many alternatives before selecting Tizra, but concluded that their nimble ebook tools best complemented the HighWire Open Platform, helping us expand our focus on discoverability and creating the most intuitive user experience.”
HighWire, which was founded in 1995 and is a part of the Stanford University library system, partners with a variety of sources like universities, publishers, and professional organizations to publish scholarly journals, ebooks, and more, while Tizra’s web-based platform makes book discovery and book selling a more streamlined process. Under this collaboration, academic publishers and institutions will hopefully be able to more effectively market their titles.
“Discovery in the ebook environment goes beyond search – it is the end to end path that a reader takes in finding, assessing, and making a decision to invest in a book, whether that investment is time or money,” continued Tara Robenalt, Director of Product Management at HighWire. “With the addition of Tizra’s ebook reader features, HighWire publishers can blend books alongside their e-journals, offering an integrated cross-content solution that falls into the reader’s natural workflow.”
Tizra’s ebook development capabilities, coupled with HighWire’s e-journal options, will now offer features like social media sharing options by page, more flexible chapter navigation, increasingly focused search engine optimization, greater support for mobile device reading, and more.
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.