Arthur is the co-founder and director of Electric Book Works, which develops new and better ways to publish in emerging markets. He is also the founder of Paperight, an award-winning network of print-on-demand bookstores; co-founder of Bettercare, which publishes innovative course books for nurses and midwives; co-founder of Book Dash, which creates children’s books anyone can freely translate, print and distribute; and co-founder of the Digital Minds Network, a think-tank of digital-publishing experts working in developing countries. He is a Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow. Arthur is the author of Designing for Digital, the EBW Knowledge Base, Encyclopaedia Britannica‘s ‘ebook‘ entry, and Killing Time, poetry written for his MA in Creative Writing at the University of Cape Town. He worked in educational and scholarly publishing for two multinational publishers before starting EBW in 2006. He has presented at conferences in South Africa, India, Europe and the US, and was runner-up for the British Council’s International Young Publishing Entrepreneur award in 2009.

1. I once had a sportscar.
Then I decided
to start a business.

2. Hogsback Library, valkyrieh116, Flickr (CC–BY–NC–SA)

3. Hogsback Library hours, valkyrieh116, Flickr (CC–BY–NC–SA)

4. Local publishing in 2012
English: R156 m
Afrikaans: R156 m
African languages: R1.7m (0.005%)

5. Local fiction publishing in 2012
English: R19.5 m
Afrikaans: R48.7 m
African languages: R17K (0.0002%)

6. Traditional publishing process
1. Develop product (write, edit, design)
2. Central manufacturing
3. Warehousing
4. Shipping
5. Retail (display and sales)
6. Ship and/or destroy unsold copies

7. A failure is any open-ended task
that you’re not still doing.

9. Soundtrack
Online
ebook help
Ebook
reading tips
EBWebookedition
‘A technicolour, jazzy rollercoaster ride
into a dazzling hell. Like A Clockwork Orange,
it has the makings of a cult success.’
André Brink
Soundtrack
01 tone deaf JunkieS | fred iS dead
02 Mr Gelatine | unknown Quantity
03 taxi Violence | QueStion x
04 Jacob iSrael | for old tiMeS Sake
05 PriMaudiol | old School
06 nine | ePiSode
07 laGoS diSco Machine | blue oranGe Sky lake
08 Mix n blend | beautiful
09 daMn riGht | kreature
10 Mr Gelatine | frank
11 the real eState aGentS | SuPer eVil (PizzaS Mix)
12 kruShed Sorted | kinG of the SwinGerS (aniMal chin reMix)
13 Jacob iSrael | Pretty thinGS
14 dank | loSinG faith
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Soundtrack
Online
ebook help
Ebook
reading tips
kendra
It’s nothing.An injectable.A prick.No hospital involved.
Like a booster shot with added boost. Just keep telling
yourself.
The corporate line shushes through the tunnels on
a skin of seawater, overflow from the tide drives put
to practical use in the clanking watery bowels of Cape
Town – like all the effluent in this city. Like me. Art
school dropout reinvented as shiny brand ambassador.
Sponsor baby. Ghost girl.
I could get used to this, seats unmarked by the pocked
craters of cigarette burns, no blaring adboards, no
gangsters checking you out. But elevated status is not
8

11. Child
HealthcareA guide to common
paediatric disorders
Prof Dave Woods
ChildHealthcare
e
ems
e in
n be
ce
ProfDaveWoods
Treating important
clinical problems
Teach
yourself
“A cheap and practical way to reach health workers who may not be able to attend
the traditional teaching courses.” – World Health Organization IMCI report 2007

12. Most solutions need an
INTERMEDIATE
TECHNOLOGY
—EF Schumacher, ‘Small is Beautiful’

13. Clockwise from top left: Esthr, South Africa (CC–BY–NC); subcomandanta, Kenya; Victor de la Fuente, Gambia; Kalense Kid, Kenya (CC–BY–NC–SA)

14. Anyone can use paperight.com to print books on any printer

15. What textbook prices pay for
Retailer
± 40%
Bookshop rent,
booksellers, mar-
keting, admin,
tech, and profit
Publisher
± 30%
Authors, editors,
designers, admin,
marketing, tech,
and profit
Printing
± 15%
Technicians, ma-
terials, marketing,
admin and profit
Logistics
± 15%
Warehousing, ship-
ping, wastage, cus-
tomer service, tech,
admin and profit
Created by Paperight: www.paperight.com.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

16. Village, Eastern Cape, by blackwych, Flickr (CC–BY–NC–ND)

18. @arthurattwell