Some key points to keep in mind:
Read
Look around at other publications, download them and read them, see how they work and understand what you like and don’t like. Think about how your publication might be received by your ideal audiences and envision what it will take design and functionality-wise for it to be something desirable.
Choose Wisely
Choice is good but it also means you need to scope things more carefully to ensure the choice you make is the right one. Choose wisely and you will have a platform you can grow from, templates that fit vetted and deployed software, and be able to leverage existing skill sets. Choose poorly and it’s likely you might have been better off taking out a wad of bills and lighting them.
Some key elements when thinking about your digital publication venture and probable platform should be:
- Will my publication be singular or ideally presented as part of an ongoing series?
- What devices and operating systems do I want my publication viewable on?
- Will my publication be publicly or privately available?
- Will my publication be free or require payment to read?
- Do I want to pay only when I publish or update? Or do I want the ability to be continually connected to my digital publishing platform?
- Does the candidate platform leverage anything I currently use, such as a well known design software suite?
- Do I have a solid understanding of the publishing process and are there resources or people to help me with what I don’t know?
- People all over the world will be able to reach my content instantly, have I accounted for cultural or language ramifications?
Basically, build a specification and stick to it!
Budget and Plan for Quality
Any publication worth doing should be done well. Make sure you budget the time and resources to ensure that your publication goes through the correct revisions, build versioning, and device testing. Remember that in the digital world bad decisions can have an extended “echo” or accrue technical debt. You don’t want technical debt…
Edit and Improve
Keep an eye on what you release. One of the great things about the digital world is that you can go back and update things you’ve previously made, make them work better, and apply iterative enhancements.
Announce
You’ve gone to a lot of work and effort to build your publication. Plan on having a way to let people know it’s out there and how to get it!
A Digital Publication designed, developed and distributed correctly will be a great asset to your content portfolio. From traditional format-gone-digital to interactive sales kits they are an excellent way to leverage and enter the screens of all those devices you see people holding and looking at day in and day out.
