Web Development

Lance Fensterman, event director of BookExpo America (BEA), has immersed himself in many areas of technology in order to promote BEA and gain valuable feedback from industry professionals. One of the ways he has done so is through his blog, BookExpo-Lance.BlogSpot.com, where he claims to blog from his travels around the world via his Blackberry. Prior to his current position, he was an independent bookseller for several years, and he says he draws on that experience frequently. Book Business Extra spoke with Fensterman to discuss the theme of BEA 2007, its online community, his blog and more. EXTRA: BEA 2007 had the overall theme

As a writer, I have been a member of MySpace.com for several years and have been taking advantage of the social networking opportunities that exist. When I joined, the site had around 70 million members; today it has surpassed 183.7 million members. Many in publishing are realizing the value of making a connection via social networking. At this year’s Book Expo America, authors and publishing executives shared social networking tips at a session titled “MySpace for Authors and Publishers: Everything You Need to Know to Make it Payoff.” The panel included Richard Nash, publisher of Soft Skull Press; Barry Lyga, author; Josh Kilmer-Purcell, author;

The Association of American University Presses (AAUP)—an organization of nonprofit publishers whose members strive to advance scholarship through their offerings—believes that the university press segment’s fundamental mission has not changed since America’s oldest university press, The Johns Hopkins University Press, was founded in 1878. However, the landscape in which its members operate has changed greatly, and the forecast calls for additional change in the future. As throughout the rest of the publishing industry, driving this change are advances in digital technologies. A varying segment According to Steve Maikowski, director of NYU Press, the university press world is divided into four major sales groups

Amazon.com has officially launched its Amazon Podcasts network, an original podcast series offering customers four unique channels of free content—Amazon BookClips, Music You Should Hear, Significant Seven and Amazon Wire—available at Amazon.com. The company is planning on offering several additional channels in the coming months to reach what it calls its customers’ increasing demand for rich content related to the products they shop for every day on Amazon.com. Amazon BookClips is a weekly podcast offering customers a free sneak preview at some of what the company considers the most popular soon-to-be released audio books. Significant Seven is a monthly podcast where editors

HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide, one of the five largest book publishers in the world and a subsidiary of News Corp., is strategically focused on a digital evolution that will shape the company’s goals and mission in the future. The foundation of this evolution can be traced back 10 years to when Jane Friedman was hired as the company’s president and CEO. According to Friedman, in the past 10 years HarperCollins has increased profits by more than 1,000 percent and its total revenue went from $600 million to $1.3 billion in 2006. The company publishes an average of 4,300 titles globally per year, with 3,100 employees

Freeload Press, a Minnesota-based publisher and distributor, made headlines last year upon publishing college textbooks featuring advertising for everything from study guides to credit card companies. The company offers these books to students at significantly reduced prices in print or PDF format, and many for free download on its Web site. The goal is to offset the constantly increasing price of required course-reading materials for college students. Freeload now has almost 250 student versions available for download. An academic panel helps with ad placement in the PDF e-textbooks, and the “StudyBreak Ads” are placed in natural breaks in the printed books. Freeload Press Founder

O’Reilly Media, Inc. and CMP Technology, the co-producers of the annual Web 2.0 Summit and Expo, recently announced a new conference and trade-show that is aimed at bringing together top leaders and technologists who are building and driving the European Web economy. The Web 2.0 Expo Berlin is scheduled for Nov. 6–8, 2007, and will take place at the Fairground Berlin, Germany. “Web 2.0 Expo is a global phenomenon. Network effects don’t have national boundaries. But the collective intelligence harvested by the most interesting and innovative Web 2.0 applications often has a local flavor,” said Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media. “We’re

When it comes to incorporating multimedia—such as blogs, webcasts, e-newsletters, social networking, video, among others—into the business model, Christian publisher Baker Publishing Group is well ahead of the curve. Book Business Extra spoke with two executives from Baker’s different divisions: Jim Hart, the Internet marketing manager at Baker’s Bethany House Publishers, and Twila Bennett, the senior director of marketing at its Revell, Baker Books and Chosen divisions. In this exclusive interview, Hart and Bennett share their insights behind the company’s innovative marketing tactics. EXTRA: From a marketing and sales perspective, describe some of the innovative ways you are using blogs to increase your

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, an independent, London-based publishing house known for literary novels, children’s and reference book publishing, has collaborated with LibreDigital, a division of NewsStand Inc., on the new Bloomsbury ‘Look Inside’ online service. The service reportedly allows readers to search and preview the company’s book content on the Internet in a format that replicates the look of a printed book. Bloomsbury is currently digitizing a number of its books for the service, which will be utilized on a number of Bloomsbury divisions’ Web sites, including Bloomsbury USA, Walker & Company, A&C Black and Berlin Verlag. The new service will be available to booksellers

The book industry is writing a new chapter, as Moka LLC, a “personal mobile knowledge assistant provider,” announces Moka mBooks—which delivers a selection of writings from best-selling books directly to cell phones or e-mail via Short Message Service (SMS) text-message and e-mail technology. SMS is available on most digital mobile phones and a steadily increasing range of other devices (including Pocket PC, desktop computers and some fixed phones) that permit the sending of short text messages between these devices. It is now offering text from 76 introductory titles from authors including Sylvia Browne, Dan Millman, and Wayne Dyer. “We are proud to be bringing