Founded three years ago in France, Gutenberg Technology is a digital publishing company that is releasing MyEbookFactory, a new authoring tool and platform for creating interactive multimedia content. MyEbookFactory is the latest among a group of new software tools that claim the ability to create interactive books with a variety of multimedia content cheaply and quickly.
With offices in New York and Paris, Gutenberg Technology and MyBookFactory target textbook publishers. Much like such authoring tools as iBooks Author and Inkling, MyEbookFactory claims to offer publishers an easy and economical platform for converting print textbooks into digital (or create original works) and export them into any device format. The company is launching a beta version and has also been working with such companies as Pearson, Hachette, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Vista Learning to test the software.
In an interview at the PW offices, Louis Guthman, Gutenberg v-p sales, said the company had about 5% of the market after three years in business and that 50,000 French students and 40,000 French teachers were using digital titles created/converted with MyEbookFactory “You can turn print into e-books for every device,” he said, noting that the process of converting a print title into a interactive e-book takes a few hours. He also noted that MyEbookFactory does not offer distribution.
“This solution allows publishers to digitize school books by the thousands and to publish them in all existing mediums, Android, iOS, Windows 8 and the web,” said, Francois-Xavier Hussherr, CEO of Gutenberg Technology. Hussherr said the software allows publishers to digitize “up to 1,000 school books per month,” simultaneously. MyEbookFactory provides a “a set of interactive functions for the content,” Hussherr said, “You no longer need to coordinate specific development for each outlet; the publisher gains time, saves money and internalizes his digital production.”
Guthman said the process starts with a PDF uploaded to the publisher’s MyEbookFactory account where it structures the content and places it in a database that “offers the ability or reuse multimedia content an the ability to change and add content or keep old content if needed.” MyEbookFactory supports adding animation, video, audio, APIs, 3D animation and highlighting to content. “The authoring tool allows publishers to customize their titles or create original books.” Guthman said. While he did not give specific pricing, he said the price to use the software is “adjusted by volume—larger volume is cheaper—and depends on what interactive or multimedia features publishers want.” MyEbookFactory launched this week. The company has about 25 employees, Guthman said, and expects to have 30 employees by year’s end.
“The true digital revolution is that the book will only start its life when it is published,” Hussherr said, “books published by MyEbookFactory can be connected to the publisher’s own database. With these e-books, you can do exercises that are interactive and adaptive, take notes, and enrich the content.”
