Major Book Publishers Unveil Their E-Book Offerings
Meanwhile, Random House and Simon & Schuster, along with Microsoft, gave away copies of Michael Crichton's new novel Timeline, as well as some "Star Trek" series novels, all downloadable onto Microsoft's new e-book Reader software.
In June, CBS News and Simon & Schuster, both owned by Viacom, co-published an exclusive e-book based on the news organization's four-year project Class of 2000: A Definitive Survey of the New Generation. The release was in conjunction with a special edition of TV show "48 Hours: The Class of 2000" on CBS. The project was developed by CBS News as a way of presenting a portrait of America's problems and promise as seen through the eyes of high school students who graduated in 2000. The text ran about 35,000 words, which would have filled 125 traditional paper-and-ink pages.