Industry members have one more day to sign up for the Publishers Weekly/ Digital Book World free Webcast Tuesday, "Digital Textbooks: Innovations From the Academic Business Model." Sponsored by Aptara, the Webcast will examine how factors like piracy, a growing secondary market, and an environment that demands greater customization and speed to market present real tests to academic publishers. It will also look at the new opportunities that exist--e-books, enhanced and otherwise, offer academic publishers a chance to make textbooks more relevant to students and—potentially—increase adoption rates.
The panelists are Brett Sandusky, director of product innovation for Kaplan Publishing where he focuses on digital product development, e-book strategy, usability, mobile applications, and content integration across platforms for Kaplan. He joins Eric Frank, co-founder, Flat World Knowledge, and Matt MacInnis, CEO, Inkling and the panel which will be moderated by DBW's Matt Mullin. Topics to be addressed are: 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; and how academic enhanced e-books have added video, audio, and interactive features that go beyond bells-and-whistles publishing and improve the learning experience.
To register for the free Webcast, set for 1 p.m. EDT, click here.
