The 65-year-old publication house of excellence improves reach and reader experience by going digital. With the help of TABiT Books, they plan to make over 5000 titles available globally on desktops, mobile phones, and tablets.
For over six decades, the Rajkamal Prakashan Group has been synonymous with fine literary distinction in Hindi language publishing. With time and rich experience, the group expanded by including Radhakrishna Prakashan and Lokbharti Prakashan publishing houses under its umbrella. It also diversified into English language publications with Banyan Tree Books.
Publishing over 400 books every year, the group is now stepping up and targeting the digital space. Mr. Alind Maheshwari, Director — Marketing and Copyright at Rajkamal Prakashan Group said, “eBooks provide greater access and flexibility to readers. We look forward to reaching out to more readers globally.”
Expanding Reach
“We were looking out for a dependable service provider because we know that technical difficulties and the wide range of our titles can be impediments to providing a full eBook service. Clavis Technologies gave us a modern solution that allows us to reach readers across the globe,” said Blind.
To extend the reach of books beyond their traditional print distribution network, Rajkamal is making all titles available in PDF and ePUB online at www.rajkamalprakashan.com. This gives customers the comfort of purchasing and reading digital books using the eReader on desktops and laptops.
User Experience (UX)
The most important aspect of any service or product is the overall experience. Abdul Kidwai — Director at Clavis Technologies said, “It takes a lot of technological effort, usability testing and iterations of rework to make a product intuitive for users. We believed in starting with the user experience and that is how we went forward to create TABiT Books for Rajkamal Prakashan.”
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The solution gives readers the ability to search for their favorite books and categories. They can look up the price, read reviews, add comments, provide feedback and share on social media. Alind said, “Our readers are our priority. We wanted a solution that gives them the flexibility to access our books on all platforms online and offline, plus one that involves them in a community to share their views.”
Dependable and secure technology
“The solution we used had to handle our current volume of titles, multiple languages and be scalable so as to handle sufficient online traffic,” said Alind. “The website and eStore had to be responsive. This lets customers access the website on mobile phones with easy readability, even if they have not downloaded our app.”
Supporting both file formats — PDF and ePUB — gives preference to readers on phones and tablets. Wrapped in a secure Digital Rights Manager (DRM), the technology gives multi-tier security to the system that helps restrict unauthorized distribution. Behind the scene is a robust control panel that allows the Rajkamal team to upload new eBooks, view reports and give authors access to their book sales.
Alind said, “Authors get a three-fold benefit with our system — wider reach to more customers, a DRM protection that helps reduce piracy, and transparent access to sales information from anywhere.”
Looking at the future
Speaking on the future of book publishing and reading, Alind said, “eBooks are the future. We expect a sea change over the next few years in India.
The youth today is reading online. An increasing number of smartphones and tablets in the local market shows a huge opportunity ahead. We’re ready for the eReading market today. As and when our customers go digital, we can readily cater to their requirements.”