Blending the Old with the New: Backlist Titles in Ebook Format
Posted by Mariko Fujinaka in Bookselling E-books publishing on October 21, 2009
Some big-name publishers are banking on digital publishing. Jane Friedman, who has worked in the publishing industry for some 40 years, most recently as president and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide, now has a new company, Open Road Integrated Media, that will concentrate on epublishing. Friedman’s cofounder is award-winning movie producer Jeffrey Sharp. Not only will Open Road digitally publish new titles but it will also reissue in ebook format backlist titles from prominent authors, including Joseph Heller, Pat Conroy, and William Styron.
Open Road plans to release and market nearly 1,000 titles its first year of operation. These will include new books and backlist titles. The company will also create videos to support the titles; documentaries that introduce authors and their works will be offered.
The epublication of backlist titles will be supported by aggressive online marketing campaigns. With the traditional publishing model, republication of older titles was done more as a matter of course, with very little marketing. Open Road plans to market the reissued titles using social networking sites and other online channels, such as blogs and Twitter.
For the full story on Open Road, see this article in the New York Times.
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