Innovation surrounding books, and particularly e-books, continues. An interesting twist on this innovation comes from an article in this week’s Wall Street Journal. On Tuesday, HarperCollins introduced their first video book for download and plans to introduce more if consumers show interest. The video book is Jeff Jarvis’ “What Would Google Do?” and features the author, speaking about concepts from the book. The video is available through Amazon’s digital store for download to computers and mobile devices. Brian Murray, Chief Executive of HarperCollins explained the initiative, "We’re looking to create new revenue streams. There is a tremendous amount of search and discovery of video on the Web. Some consumers won't spend the money or invest hours in reading a book, but they will watch a 23-minute video." Jeff Jarvis is a scheduled speaker at next week’s TOC conference, where we expect he will talk more about this experiment in video books.
On a semi-related note, HarperStudio, a newer division of HarperCollins that experiments with new publishing models and technology, recently launched a new website and has moved their 26th Story blog over to the site.
