Tuesday, February 12, 2008


HarperCollins Publishers Promotion to Make Select Books Available Free Online

HarperCollins Publishers today announced a variety of online promotions to allow consumers exclusive sampling of books on http://www.harpercollins.com/.

In the “Full Access” Program, a select number of titles can be seen in their entirety for a limited time; in the “Sneak Peek” Program, readers will be able to view 20% of many new titles two weeks before their on sale date; and the remaining titles in the digital warehouse are now available for 20% viewing after the on sale date in the “Browse Inside” Program.

In the “Full Access” Program, HarperCollins is working with individual authors to test how
free access affects books sales. For a one month period the following books
will be available in their entirety on http://www.harpercollins.com/:

Paulo Coelho’s The Witch of Portobello;
I Dream in Blue: Life, Death, and the New York Giants by Roger Director;
Mark Halperin’s The Undecided Voter's Guide to the Next President: Who the Candidates Are, Where They Come from, and How You Can Choose;
Mission:Cook!: My Life, My Recipes, and Making the Impossible Easy by Robert Irvine;
and Warriors: Into the Wild, the first volume of the bestselling children’s series by Erin Hunter. In addition, a Neil Gaiman title will also be included.*

After sampling online, consumers can follow a link to buy the book from any retailer.
Additional title promotions will be decided upon on a case-by-case basis
moving forward in consultation with our authors.

“We developed the ‘Browse Inside’ platform to allow us to tailor promotions to reach new audiences online and to grow our authors’ sales,”
said Jane Friedman, President and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide.
“This is analogous to removing the shrink wrap from a book.
The advantage of our digital warehouse is that we can securely, quickly and
easily change what content is available, whether it is to meet an author’s request, to preview a title before it is on sale, or to
promote backlist books. And we believe it’s the role
of the publisher to develop tools to easily allow authors to promote their
work to their communities online.”

A key component of this program is the launch of a year-long promotion of
bestselling author Paulo Coelho’s books. Each month an entire book will be available for
free. The first book, currently accessible, is The Witch of Portobello.
“I believe that online reading helps increase book sales,”
said Paulo Coelho. “I am very pleased that
HarperCollins is able to make my titles available online for my fans to read.”

Harper Collins Press Release.

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