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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

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 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

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

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

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

Tom Doran, the CEO and founder of Freeload Press, a small Minnesota startup looking to challenge the way the book industry sells textbooks, wants to help college students when it comes to paying for their course texts. By generating revenue from the advertising that will be featured on the Web site and in its textbooks, Freeload is able to offer the books for free download on its Web site or as lower-priced texts with advertising. The company plans to offer 100 free titles this fall. Book Business EXTRA! -- What, in your opinion, has led us to where we’re at now where so much attention

Google showed a renewed push in its project to scan the full text of book collections throughout the world this week as the company announced a new partnership with one of the largest public university systems in the country. The University of California joined with Google in its the Google Book Search Project, to help scan millions of books, the company announced Tuesday. The support of UC and its 100 libraries across 10 campuses is expected to reinvigorate a project that has garnered much controversy since being introduced to the book industry in October 2004 at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Since December 2004, Google has worked

HarperCollins new Digital Media Cafe (harpercollins.iamplify.com) opened for business earlier this week. The new online venture charges for subscription and on-demand audio and video downloads featuring interviews and behind-the-scenes snippets of the publishing houses’ top talents. The distribution platform tools for the venture were created by iAmplify, a two-year-old publisher of digital media, who began working with Harper earlier this year. iAmplify Cofounder Jack Hidary spoke with Book Business EXTRA! about the new venture for offering premium downloads that allow publishers to go ‘beyond the book.’ Hidary said he believes this enterprise demonstrates a more sustainable business model for the book industry.

The most-used computer operating system in the world is revving up to take on the world’s most-used search engine for the right to claim title to the world’s most-used online book search. Microsoft’s game plan is to overtake Google in the book search field—by involving publishers instead of alienating them. The forthcoming release of Microsoft’s Windows Live Book Search—a search program that is scheduled for release later this year—comes on the heels of the controversy surrounding the introduction of Google Book Search, Google’s foray into book search. Google has taken a pounding since it presented its search in October 2004. Several law