Web Development

Get Your Multimedia House in Order
November 1, 2006

Following typical protocol, Ayun Halliday went on tour to promote her latest title, “Dirty Sugar Cookies.” Only, it wasn’t a 30-city tour, it was a 30-blog tour. These days, blog tours are all the rage thanks to the high-speed, seemingly infinite cyberspace connections they create. After interviewing with bloggers who either posted Halliday’s comments online or recorded her on a downloadable audio podcast file, the author’s “appearance” was suddenly linked to other blogs, which linked to more blogs, ad infinitum. Buzz like this is priceless and, interestingly, Halliday’s publisher, Seal Press—an imprint of Avalon Publishing, New York—didn’t have to make too many adjustments

The Ongoing Challenges of Transitioning to Multimedia
November 1, 2006

It’s been a whirlwind of an autumn. Between traveling to the Frankfurt Book Fair, heading out to Chicago for our annual Gold Ink Awards and Hall of Fame Banquet, and relaunching our Web site, there’s been a lot going on. A highlight for me, however, was Book Business’ first-ever live webcast, called “Expand Your Brand: Webinars for Publishers.” We broadcast on Oct. 19, and had a great panel of speakers lined up. The potential for webcasts seems to be enormous for both book and magazine publishers, and the experience of holding a webcast of our own shed a whole new light on the process for

Execs from HarperCollins and Revell Books Share Insights on Webcasts
October 13, 2006

As the publishing industry continues to move into an age of multimedia publishing and marketing, many book publishers are exploring ways to maximize the benefits of webcasts on their sales and marketing efforts. On Thursday, Oct. 19 at 2 p.m., Book Business magazine will present a webcast on how webcasts can be an effective sales and marketing tool for book publishers. Speakers at this live event include: - Jeff Yamaguchi, online marketing manager, HarperCollins - Suzie Cross, assistant marketing manager, Revell Books - Twila Bennett, director of marketing, Revell/Baker Publishing Group - Noelle Skodzinski, editor in chief, Book Business - Sharon Linsenbach, director of e-learning, North American Publishing Company

Google Subpoenas Rivals on Book Scanning
October 13, 2006

Another chapter in the battle for book search dominance was written last week as Google issued additional subpoenas to other major book search players in a bid for information the company believes could be used in its future legal battles. According to published reports this week by Bloomberg, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company filed paper on Oct. 5 in U.S. District Court to seek information from Amazon.com, Microsoft and Yahoo about each of the rival book searches for future use in several lawsuits Google faces. The world’s largest online retailer (Amazon), largest software producer (Microsoft) and most-popular U.S. Web site (Yahoo) have all announced or

From Garage Publisher to Google Prominence
October 1, 2006

Evan-Moor Educational Publishers Inc. hasn’t always been a major player in the education market. In fact, the company got its modest start more than 25 years ago in a garage, with a staff consisting of three people and an entrepreneurial spirit. Today, Evan-Moor is home to 65 employees and is housed in a 20,000-square-foot facility churning out 60 titles a year in 35 countries. The company provides a compelling example of a publisher who has succeeded in areas other publishers have failed—generating online revenue, profiting from e-books and building an effective search engine strategy. Turning on a Dime It’s funny how a

Children’s Book Publishers Think ‘Outside the Book’
October 1, 2006

Children’s books may be about finding the kid in all of us, but everyone in the children’s publishing business agrees that they have to grow up when it comes to taking advantage of profitable opportunities. The Internet is clearly not going away, yet with the need to protect children from cyberspace predators, publishers have to go through parents to get through to their young audiences. Once you reach them, however, it can’t hurt to be as multidimensional as possible. Jason Wells, publicity and marketing director for New York-based Harry N. Abrams Inc., says kids are looking for books that are not just self-contained

Global Publishers Unite For Control of Web Searches
September 29, 2006

Several international print publishers announced plans last week to launch a new system they say will protect the copyright of published material on the Web and guarantee them the ability to control their electronic content. In an orchestrated effort to halt search engines from pulling up their content without permission, the World Association of Newspapers, the European Publishers Council, the International Publishers Association and the European Newspaper Association released a statement promising that a new service would be tested by the end of the year. The service is expected to prevent the unwanted dissemination of their published content by using software tags to alert search

Google Adds Spain to Book Search Partners
September 29, 2006

The company behind the most-used search engine in the world continued its endeavor to scan library collections from around the word by expanding its book-scanning project to Spain this week. Google announced Tuesday its new partnership with the University Complutense of Madrid in its Google Books Library Project, an effort to digitize hundreds of thousands of book in the university’s library collection, the largest library in that country. The Spanish institution joins Harvard, New York Public Library, Oxford, Stanford, University of Michigan and University of California in the project the company started two years ago. “Out-of-copyright books previously only available to people with access to Madrid’s

Book Business EXTRA! Q&A -- World Books’ Paul Kobasa talks about the changing landscape of encyclopedias
September 29, 2006

Paul Kobasa, World Book vice president, editorial and editor in chief, chats with Book Business EXTRA! about World Book Kids, the new interactive Web-based tool aimed at younger students and their educators that the company recently released. Book Business EXTRA! -- With the vast array of information available online, what has kept a reference publisher, such as World Book, relevant to computer-savvy children and young adults in recent years? Paul Kobasa -- There is a massive amount of content on the Web--so much so that it can be difficult for students to find the discrete information they need. That’s a leading reason why students continue