New to electronic publishing? Then you might want to stop by The Electronic Publishing Channel to see if there are some things that you can pick up on. As you glance though the ‘what is’ stuff, you will find that this resource quickly jumps right into the mechanics and other relevant content you need to get started in this field.

What is Electronic Publishing?

Electronic publishing refers to the distribution of information, art, or software in any eletronic form, usually on some type of physical medium such as CD-ROM, floppy disk, or magnetic tape, or across a computer network, such as the Internet or a publicly accessible dial-up bulletin board or online service. The material must be distributed outside of the organization which is providing it. Art in this case includes works of fiction as well as graphical or musical compositions. Multimedia productions may be classified as information, art, or software.

Internet publishing is a form of electronic publishing. Publishing materials on the Internet usually occurs through Web sites, FTP sites, or distribution of files or articles to mailing lists or news groups. A distinction is usually made between the creation of material for public consumption and participating in online discussion fora in that the former type of electronic publication provides no direct means of rebuttal or refutation, whereas discussion groups and mailing lists facilitate the free exchange of information through direct communication (followups to messages posted to the forum).

Electronic distribution of information, art, or software through the World Wide Web or FTP sites or, in some cases, through mailing lists or news groups is divided into commercial and non-commercial distributions or publishing. Commercial publishing is any form of distribution intended to generate a revenue or return above cost of transmission or production. Non-commercial distribution mail entail fees or other revenues intended to recoup the cost of transmission or production but no more than that. Non-commercial distribution also includes free distributions for which no fees or no revenues are involved.