[LINK] enhanced ebooks

Jan Whitaker jwhit at janwhitaker.com
Wed Mar 17 10:12:17 AEDT 2010


I really like this idea. Of course I search for all the hidden stuff 
on DVDs, so I would like it.

Fwd: Publishers Lunch
>eBook Releases from Grisham and Baldacci
>Over a year after first announcing John Grisham's intention to 
>release his backlist in ebook editions, today Knopf Doubleday put on 
>sale ebook versions of all twenty-three of Grisham's titles. They 
>are available in the US and Canada. The publisher also confirmed 
>that Grisham's new book, coming this October, will be another legal thriller.
>
>Separately, when David Baldacci's new book DELIVER US FROM EVIL is 
>released on April 20, Hachette Book Group's editions will include an 
>"enriched" electronic version they're calling the Writer's Cut 
>eBook. In the release, HBG ceo David Young says, "For David 
>Baldacci's fans, this is a chance to see his creative process 
>revealed, and deepen the connection with an author they love to 
>read.  This enhanced eBook is the perfect marriage of innovation and 
>great storytelling."
>
>Baldacci tells the AP, "I want people to have a great experience and 
>give them a behind-the-scenes look at what I do, the way you would 
>have it on a DVD." Priced at $15.99, a dollar above the starting 
>list price of the regular ebook (which would go to $12.99 after 
>hitting the bestseller list), the enhancements include an alternate 
>ending to the story, deleted passages, an audio interview, video of 
>Baldacci at work, and research photos taken by the author. Thus it 
>will work on ebook platforms that handle video and color, but 
>"Hachette is still working on the enriched version and is unsure of 
>its availability" on eInk screens.
>
>Baldacci also indicates that, though he received some negative 
>online reader "reviews" last when when the ebook of FIRST FAMILY was 
>selling initially for more than $15, sales followed the general 
>increase in the market: "I just saw the royalty statements for 
>'First Family,' and sales for the e-book were up 400 percent over 
>the e-book of my previous novels. It was a very vocal minority that 
>was upset and at the end of the day it didn't have any impact."
>
>In an online interview with Charlotte Abbott on Friday, Young and 
>HBG svp of digital Maja Thomas indicated that the company is working 
>with many of their biggest authors--including Stephenie Meyer, James 
>Patterson, Michael Connelly, Brad Meltzer and others--on a variety 
>of experimental enhanced ebooks. Thomas noted "some of it is 
>platform-specific, and some of it is platform agnostic," adding, 
>"we'll have to see in the next few months how much the consumer 
>loves what we have done." Calling it "a very exiting and dynamic 
>time," Young emphasized the importance of now "having direct 
>feedback from our readers," adding that "boy, do we hear from them."
>
>In the interview, they also said that the company has digitized and 
>made available as ebooks 90 percent of the books on their list that 
>lend themselves to current electronic formats. When it come to 
>electronic rights and royalties, Young said "we certainly have one 
>or two issues around that, but it is literally a handful of authors 
>where we are still having to negotiate those rights with agents." He 
>also noted that "some of our authors do not want to appear in this 
>format, and that's absolutely their prerogative." For more quotes 
>and reflections from the interview, Mike Shatzkin writes about it on 
>his 
><http://click.publisherslunchdaily.com/cp/redirect.php?u=NTAwNnwzNDQ4OXxqd2hpdEBqYW53aGl0YWtlci5jb218NDEzMDY1fDc2MDIyMjM2fDYxMzIyOA==&id=3697291>blog. 
>
>


Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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