Enhancing the E-book Business

Vooks also now have social networking capabilities built in that allow users to share notes and comments about a particular title via e-mail, Facebook and Twitter—"[that way], you build in app marketing; you use the product … to market itself," says Cavnar.

Right now, he continues, the company also is pushing to get book-review sections in the main media outlets for vooks and vook-like products: "[We] send out and make sure our titles are accessed by reviewers, so they can write [about them] and form a marketplace for them."

One of Vook's biggest marketing coos so far was when Anne Rice's vook, "The Master of Rampling Gate," received a mention on one of the Internet's most heavily trafficked blogs, PerezHilton.com. In a Feb. 10, 2010 post, Hilton blogged, "Anne Rice, author of 'Interview With a Vampire' and other favorite vampire tales is taking her literature to the next level: video books!"

"Perez Hilton today is like The New York Times front page," says Cavnar. "The fact that doing a vook got [Anne Rice] that kind of noise is such an asset to an author."

'Mother Vook' and the Future

While Cavnar describes Vook as being in "start-up mode"—"it's just a handful of people working night and day to create this new medium"—he also details big plans for the future. While it use to take about two months to produce one vook, now it can take as little as a day, thanks to a technology back-end created in-house that the company refers to as the "Mother Vook."

"The key is Mother Vook," he says. "We've got it down to basically a data-entry process.

"Eventually, we'll be able to have the Mother Vook terminal and software in the publisher's office, so they can create their own enhanced titles," Cavnar continues about the company's long-term plans.