Good News for Indian Publishers, Authors and Readers: Cygnet Launching Regional Secured e-Book Portal E-Shabda
Currently, regional language Indian authors and publishers have no way of creating or distributing full-fledged e-books across the world in secure mode. Cygnet Infotech has announced the launch of e-Shabda – an end-to-end online solution for publishing e-books written in regional scripts.
Ahmedabad, India, January 26, 2014 --(PR.com)-- We live in the age of explosive technological innovations. The face of the global publishing industry has transformed during the last decade, mainly owing to the electronic books revolution. The popularity of e-readers like Kindle and mobile devices like smartphones and tablets has led to a tectonic shift in reading preferences the world over.
While most books from the US, UK and Europe are digitized and available in a proper e-book format, even popular classics written in Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Telugu, Marathi, Kannada, Oriya, etc. are not available in a standard e-book format like EPUB. While a handful of titles are available in PDF format, and these are usually illegal copies.
Up till now, there has been no way for an Indian writer and publisher to create a standard e-book from a regional language book. Also, different platforms have their own DRM techniques and rules, and there is no single platform that allows authors or publishers to sell or distribute electronic books. With the launch of e-Shabda, Cygnet Infotech aims to resolve these issues.
The pioneer of the project, Mr. Apurva Ashar elaborates, “Many of the regional fonts are not supported by e-Readers and mobile devices. This makes the tasks of creating e-books with flowable text quite challenging. We use the standard Unicode fonts to ensure universal readability. By offering a complete solution – scanning books, converting the fonts, maintaining design and layout fidelity – we enable writers and publishers to create proper e-books, not just scanned PDFs or JPEGs.”
This e-Shabda initiative also addresses another issue: digital rights management. As Apple, Android, Amazon and other channels of e-book distribution have separate DRM technologies and policies, Cygnet has also created a new platform – Indian-Ebooks dot com – to distribute books. “We have software in place that automates most tasks – so we can take the print version and create a flawless EPUB with DRM in place, without the publisher having to invest in another cycle of proofreading and removing errors from e-books. The Indian-Ebooks portal will help distribute books to all devices,” Mr. Ashar explains.
The e-Shabda project is one of its kind in India, and it is made possible by Mr. Ashar’s 24 years of experience in book design, production & publishing, plus software development. The combination of these disparate skills and the strong desire to make regional Indian books available digitally are the driving forces behind the endeavor.
The Indian-Ebooks portal and e-Shabda will be officially launched on February 1, 2014, with five major Gujarati publishers: Navjivan Trust, AMA, Gurjar Grantha, Image Publications and Saarthak Prakashan. The portal offer 300-500 Gujarati e-books and about a 100 titles will be free to download. During the initial stages, e-Shabda will focus on Gujarati books, but it plans to cater to other languages soon. The launch sessions will educate publisher and authors through a dramatized question-answer session, focusing on the nitty-gritty of e-book creation, conversion, publishing, sales, marketing and DRM. Publishers and authors will attend the launch event by pre-invitation.
Contact
You can contact e-Shabda team at info@e-shabda.com to get the invitation.
About Cygnet Infotech
Cygnet Infotech is a CMMi Level 3 software engineering company, and it has been awarded ISO 27001:2005 and ISO 9001:2008 certifications for its measurable commitment to quality and security.
The company has been involved in print book production, design and printing since many years and also offers e-Publishing and e-book conversion services for books written in English. With e-Shabda and Indian-Ebooks dot com, the company aims to extend it offerings to e-book creation, marketing and distribution for books written in regional languages.
While most books from the US, UK and Europe are digitized and available in a proper e-book format, even popular classics written in Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Telugu, Marathi, Kannada, Oriya, etc. are not available in a standard e-book format like EPUB. While a handful of titles are available in PDF format, and these are usually illegal copies.
Up till now, there has been no way for an Indian writer and publisher to create a standard e-book from a regional language book. Also, different platforms have their own DRM techniques and rules, and there is no single platform that allows authors or publishers to sell or distribute electronic books. With the launch of e-Shabda, Cygnet Infotech aims to resolve these issues.
The pioneer of the project, Mr. Apurva Ashar elaborates, “Many of the regional fonts are not supported by e-Readers and mobile devices. This makes the tasks of creating e-books with flowable text quite challenging. We use the standard Unicode fonts to ensure universal readability. By offering a complete solution – scanning books, converting the fonts, maintaining design and layout fidelity – we enable writers and publishers to create proper e-books, not just scanned PDFs or JPEGs.”
This e-Shabda initiative also addresses another issue: digital rights management. As Apple, Android, Amazon and other channels of e-book distribution have separate DRM technologies and policies, Cygnet has also created a new platform – Indian-Ebooks dot com – to distribute books. “We have software in place that automates most tasks – so we can take the print version and create a flawless EPUB with DRM in place, without the publisher having to invest in another cycle of proofreading and removing errors from e-books. The Indian-Ebooks portal will help distribute books to all devices,” Mr. Ashar explains.
The e-Shabda project is one of its kind in India, and it is made possible by Mr. Ashar’s 24 years of experience in book design, production & publishing, plus software development. The combination of these disparate skills and the strong desire to make regional Indian books available digitally are the driving forces behind the endeavor.
The Indian-Ebooks portal and e-Shabda will be officially launched on February 1, 2014, with five major Gujarati publishers: Navjivan Trust, AMA, Gurjar Grantha, Image Publications and Saarthak Prakashan. The portal offer 300-500 Gujarati e-books and about a 100 titles will be free to download. During the initial stages, e-Shabda will focus on Gujarati books, but it plans to cater to other languages soon. The launch sessions will educate publisher and authors through a dramatized question-answer session, focusing on the nitty-gritty of e-book creation, conversion, publishing, sales, marketing and DRM. Publishers and authors will attend the launch event by pre-invitation.
Contact
You can contact e-Shabda team at info@e-shabda.com to get the invitation.
About Cygnet Infotech
Cygnet Infotech is a CMMi Level 3 software engineering company, and it has been awarded ISO 27001:2005 and ISO 9001:2008 certifications for its measurable commitment to quality and security.
The company has been involved in print book production, design and printing since many years and also offers e-Publishing and e-book conversion services for books written in English. With e-Shabda and Indian-Ebooks dot com, the company aims to extend it offerings to e-book creation, marketing and distribution for books written in regional languages.
Contact
E-Shabda
Nitin Soni
91-79-30487400
e-shabda.com
Nitin Soni
91-79-30487400
e-shabda.com
Contact
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