Byron Preiss Visual Publications will launch a new imprint in September that will focus on books with content appropriate for marketing on the Internet. The imprint, ibooks, will be done in cooperation with Pocket Books, which will serve as ibooks' distributor.
Free chapters of all the books appearing under the imprint will be available over the Internet at ibooksinc.com, and in some cases the complete book will be sold through the site. "We believe this is a good way to use the Internet to market books," BPVP president Byron Preiss said. "We think people still want to read books on paper." Although BPVP will release occasional ibooks in hardcover, most titles will be published in trade paper.
Preiss estimated that approximately two-thirds of ibooks' list will be drawn from backlist titles. According to Preiss, the imprint is actively looking for authors' backlists as well as original works than can benefit from the relationship between print and the Internet.
The company will publish two titles per month between September and next March and is planning on doing four each month starting in April. The first titles to be released will be The Deceivers and the first volume in Arthur C. Clarke's Venus Prime series. The imprint will emphasize titles in science, history, science fiction and mystery.
