Emerging opportunities from the evolving book

Volume 17, Number 7 • July/August 2000

Emerging opportunities from the evolving book — The information industry can benefit from e-book technology
by Barbara Quint

QUINT'S ONLINE column focuses on some recent developments in the electronic publishing environment. Discusses barnesandnoble.com's investment of $20 million in MightyWorks.com, a Fatbrain.com spinoff service for the program that let authors publish directly to the Web. Relates that Barnes & Noble already owns 49 percent of iUniverse, a leading "publishing portal" and print-on-demand paperback publisher. Notes that traditional textbook publishers have begun to integrate Web access with book productions, including portions of previously printed textbooks as part of the book on Web sites, and eliminating print production costs for graphics or rarely used bibliographic citations, for example. Mentions IDG Books Worldwide with their "Dummies" series, and says that a recent deal with Microsoft will let users download the Dummies books from the Web.