After 25 years in business, Virtusales is stronger than ever with record profits and a growing customer base. What's their secret? We caught up with CEO Philip Turner to find out.

Congratulations on celebrating 25 years in business! Over the past quarter century, what would you say has been the biggest change in or challenge to your company?

The biggest change has been growing from a tiny family-run business of two living and working in a small seaside flat in Brighton, U.K., to a market-leading software company of more than 100 staff based in several countries and supporting some of the biggest names in publishing.

There have been many challenges along the way, but all have centered on staying at the leading edge of publishing systems. In technology that has meant upgrading the system multiple times, and then with so much change in the industry, we’ve needed to adapt Biblio to provide functionality that deals with modern-day publishing.

Some more specific challenges to growing the business profitably and sustainably were Covid-19 and Brexit, industry shifts including changing buyer habits, the digital revolution and its effect on proliferation of products and licensing, and the challenges of mergers and acquisitions. Over our lifetime, we've lost several independents to acquisitions by larger publishers. Fortunately, this has led to projects with their acquirers.

One of our biggest challenges came when our two largest customers of that time, Penguin UK and Random House UK, merged. This created short-term uncertainty, especially as the combined revenue was such a large share of our total income. Subsequent decisions to invest further in Biblio and merge both systems, though, made us a stronger business and created the platform to grow and thrive. Since then, revenues are up by almost four times and the number of customers has increased by three times. All of this occurred despite losing independents through acquisitions.

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In 2024, Virtusales rolled out its AI Lab, harnessing the power of AI in collaboration with their customers and industry partners to address specific challenges and enhance efficiency throughout the entire publishing workflow within a single system.

From AI-generated keyword tagging and copy editing tools for text and SEO optimization to multilingual translations, automatic image tagging, and efficient sales and marketing copy creation, each solution is meticulously designed to address specific pain points, drive productivity, and streamline processes across operations.

The AI tools operate within secure, walled gardens to prevent data leaks and safeguard publishers' sensitive information. As an ISO-accredited organization, Virtusales is committed to secure data management practices and has designed the AI functionalities to be optional and assistive with robust control and permission settings that empower publishers to maintain autonomy over their processes while leveraging AI to complement and support human expertise.

Forever at the forefront of innovation, Virtusales is already hard at work on their next AI development. BiblioSuite personal assistant is currently in the prototyping stage and will help users query titles, outline tasks, streamline marketing campaigns, and optimize production decisions. Preview the BiblioSuite personal assistant now in this brief demo video!

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Whether you're a large trade publisher or an indie house managing your own feed, preparing for ONIX 3.0 is no longer optional if you want to stay competitive in the Kindle ecosystem.

This guide details the benefits of switching from ONIX 2.1 to ONIX 3.0 and offers a practical checklist to help you navigate the transition, avoid common pitfalls, and ensure your digital titles are fully optimized for Amazon Kindle.

Why upgrade? Here are the key benefits of moving to ONIX 3.0.

Advanced Digital Product Support with more detailed descriptions of eBook versions and formats directly applicable to Kindle.

Richer Metadata Capabilities with more specific metadata structures, allowing for more comprehensive book information, improving discoverability and marketing efficiency.

Improved Rights Management allowing publishers to manage licenses and rights for content effectively on Amazon Kindle.

Enhanced Promotional Information with more sophisticated promotional details to better tailor marketing campaigns and content offers on Kindle.

Detailed Pricing Flexibility accommodating complex pricing strategies, discounts, and special offers, essential for dynamic eBook pricing on Amazon.

Multimedia Resource Inclusion supporting links to multimedia resources, such as cover images and sample chapters, enticing potential readers.

Adaptability to Market Changes ensuring publishers can quickly respond to evolving conditions and consumer preferences on platforms like Amazon.

Improved XML Schema helps ensure data integrity and facilitates smoother integration and processing across digital platforms.

Get the complete checklist now to help with your transition.

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“We are excited to embark on this journey with BiblioSuite, which will enable us to streamline our operations and drive innovation across the business,” says Matt Bennett, global chief information officer of HarperCollins.

When HarperCollins recently embarked on an ambitious journey to unify its operations, one name stood out, the one that has been providing innovative solutions to such leading publishers as Penguin Random House, Hachette, Macmillan, and Bloomsbury. The choice was a strategic move to support growth.

BiblioSuite was clearly the candidate best positioned to deliver a comprehensive solution to replace all their various in-house developed software applications while also providing the scalability and future-proofing needed for sustained growth.

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Industry leaders from Oxford University Press, Elsevier, and Edinburgh University Press joined Virtusales to discuss how technological advancements, economic pressures, and evolving educational demands are reshaping the way academic publishers operate, connect, and deliver content.

The publishers share invaluable insights and key takeaways on how their strategies are adapting to succeed amid rapid industry change and what the future holds.

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When Boydell & Brewer sought to update the keywords associated with their backlist titles, they turned to BiblioSuite's powerful AI Keyword Solution. The goal was to enhance online discoverability and ultimately drive sales.

The plan worked. To date, Boydell & Brewer has updated a total of 4,173 keywords across 256 editions. According to data manager Alison Coles, the technology refreshed hundreds of legacy titles, sparking renewed interest and boosting discoverability.

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The increasing demand for content, and for it to be delivered through multiple channels, often tailored to specific retailers or consumers, is driving the need for digital asset management (DAM) systems.

This white paper by Virtusales explains how a fully integrated system is highly beneficial for publishers' productivity, facilitating the creation of content, improving collaboration, reducing production costs, increasing operational efficiency, and improving rights management and compliance.

Read the free white paper now to learn how your company can benefit from integrated DAM software.

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Revolutionize your digital workflows with the latest innovation to join the BiblioSuite family: BiblioFlow.

These powerful workflow tools make updating metadata, managing approvals, generating sales materials, and sharing metadata and files a lot quicker and easier. Seamlessly integrated into the Biblio dashboard, BiblioFlow centralizes asset management, optimizes discoverability, and boosts efficiency all while maintaining secure and controlled access.

See how it all flows in this short video.

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And Virtusales isn't done yet.

Forever at the forefront of publishing technology, Virtusales continues to innovate, enhance systems, and deliver solutions to streamline workflows, empower teams, and drive digital transformation.

With an established track record of partnering with the world's leading publishers—Penguin Random House, Disney Worldwide Publishing, Macmillan, and The MIT Press, to name a few—Virtusales is heading the charge in transforming the way the industry does business.

Take a look at the company's tremendous growth over 25 years.

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“BiblioSuite was the obvious choice for McGill-Queen’s University Press. Being able to consolidate our complex workflows and manage our extensive, diverse catalog in one system will fortify and streamline our operations, saving our teams time and empowering the press to better serve our authors, partners, and readers worldwide.”

- Lara de Beaupré, associate director, finance & operations, McGill-Queen’s University Press

“BiblioSuite's AI Keyword Tool has significantly enhanced our online visibility, providing a cost-efficient and reliable method for rejuvenating our backlist. The tool is more efficient than any external AI tool I’ve tried.”

- Alison Coles, data manager, Boydell & Brewer

“In 40 years at Elsevier, the Biblio implementation has been one of the smoothest projects I’ve ever worked on.”

- BiblioSuite subject matter expert

“We are very excited to roll out new Biblio. I am particularly impressed that Virtusales has managed to keep the depth of functionality that we need to support the complexities of publishing, and that has been developed over the past 20 years, in a modern system using the latest, cutting-edge technology.”

- Hillary Scarbrough, VP of business systems, Macmillan Publishers USA

“We were challenged to find a solution for our global business. We needed a product that would be multi-language, multi-currency, SAAS-based, and internationally supported. One that could handle the intricacies of rights management and the complexity of our digital businesses, as well as local and geographic variations in marketing, promotion, and production. Our initial implementations at Pan have proven this out, and we are excited to continue with the partnership we have formed with Virtusales.”

- Fritz Foy, executive VP, Macmillan Publishers

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Virtusales is a trusted partner in publishing technology, renowned for its industry-leading BiblioSuite software. Our solutions transform workflows and optimize business processes for respected publishers, including HarperCollins, Disney Publishing, Elsevier, Sage, Macmillan Publishers, Bloomsbury, and Capstone.

Our online software supports the entire publishing process, from acquisitions, contracts, title database, ONIX feeds, and sales analytics to rights selling, 3rd party rights tracking, digital asset workflows, royalty processing, and author portals. What sets us apart is our continuous upgrades, provided as part of the service, rolling out new features to keep pace with industry.

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