Free webcast - Digital Textbooks: Innovations from the Academic Business Model

I wanted to share with you an update I received on an interesting free webcast entitled Digital Textbooks: Innovations From the Academic Business Model that will take place next Tuesday. It is presented by Digital Book World and Publishers Weekly and sponsored by Aptara. You can register here.

Here are the details:

In the trade, the digital transition has upended the marketplace, changing the entire publishing process. In academic publishing, the challenges of digital are no less seismic. Factors like piracy, a growing secondary market, and an environment that demands greater customization and speed to market present real tests to academic publishers. There are also great opportunities: ebooks, enhanced and otherwise, offer academic publishers a chance to make textbooks more relevant to students and potentially increase adoption rates. In this free WEBcast, Digital Textbooks: Innovations From the Academic Business Model, academic and trade publishers can learn from the lessons of big and small innovators at the forefront of digital.

We'll talk to start-ups and large publishers to find out how digital innovation has reshaped the academic marketplace.

Join us on Tuesday, August 9th at 1PM ET / 10 AM PT for this free WEBcast presented in partnership with Publishers Weekly and sponsored by Aptara.

AGENDA

• New business models for selling content to educators and students by the chapter and by the format.
• What "open textbooks," or free online versions of course material, have done to curb attrition rates of textbook purchases by semester.
• How academic enhanced ebooks have added video, audio, and interactive features that go beyond bells-and-whistles publishing and improve the learning experience.

This WEBcast will primarily appeal to publishers in both academic and trade who are interested in new ways of selling and delivering content.

ABOUT THE PANELISTS

Matt MacInnis
Raised in rural Nova Scotia, Matt attended Harvard University where he earned a degree in Computer Engineering and Chinese Language. He moved to California and pursued an eight-year career at Apple where he managed the company's international expansion into international education markets. During that time, Matt saw a lot of misuse of technology in the classroom, and in 2009 his frustration drove him to start Inkling. With a vision for reinventing the textbook, Matt has led Inkling into partnerships with the world's largest publishers, building engaging, interactive learning content from the ground up for iPad. Both Matt and Inkling are based in San Francisco, CA.

Eric Frank
Eric brings an 11 year track record of success in higher education publishing to Flat World Knowledge, an eTextbook customization firm. He has held positions in sales, editorial, and marketing at Thomson and Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. Recently, Eric was Director of Marketing for Prentice Hall Business Publishing, a division with annual sales in the hundreds of millions. There, he managed a team of marketing managers and marketing communications staff, and had overall responsibility for strategy, budget, staffing and execution. Eric's group had dotted line responsibility for training and supporting over 160 sales representatives.

Sponsor
Apatra provides digital publishing solutions that deliver significant gains in quality, time-to-market and production costs for eBook publishers. Having converted tens of millions of pages to eBook formats for the world's leading publishers, Aptara offers end-to-end solutions across all content source types and delivery media, including the Amazon Kindle, Apple iPhone, Sony Reader, and Blackberry devices. With partnerships that span the entire production and distribution supply-chain, including relationships with mobile channel partners, Aptara helps publishers stay ahead in this rapidly changing market space.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant one tree for every book your read!