Looking to entice travelers with convenience, reasonable price and updated information, the new e-publisher and -retailer Hadami.com offers a variety of travel titles, guides, how-to books and travelogues in electronic format.
The Hadami.com e-bookstore, which launched last November, is owned by Marco Polo Publications, a Tampa, Fla., firm that owns a network of travel-related Web sites. Hadami.com offers more than 125 titles, which customers download in Adobe Acrobat format to their hard drives. And through Hadami.com's digital library, readers can access their e-books from any computer with an Internet connection.
The site was launched by James Plouf, president and founder of Marco Polo Publications and Hadami.com, who is bullish on e-books: "Think of all the advantages—instant delivery—with e-books you can go anywhere in the world, and have your book now." He told PW he focused on travel e-books because "we wanted to do something in a niche market. We have an affiliation with over 4,000 travel writers, so we have instant content." The e-publisher solicits original, short (30 to 40 pages) works from travel writers and publishes digital versions of print books. Marco Polo owns Travelwriters.com and iTravelSyndicate.com, sites geared toward travel writers looking to sell and syndicate their work, and Travelroads.com, which locates free travel information. Hadami has four full-time and three part-time employees.
Plouf is working to build a network of retail affiliate sites. Affiliates get a 15% commission. "We need to grow our content and get our affiliate program in gear," said Plouf. "Our model is not to sell advertising, it's to sell e-books." The site cross-promotes with Travelroads.com and Marco Polo, the company's print magazine. And while many publishers worry about the ease of digital copying, Hadami offers its titles unencrypted. Plouf explained, "The industry is pretty young and still sorting itself out. But some companies are too restrictive."
Trevor Aaronson, an editor at Hadami.com, pointed out that print travel books are typically eight months to a year old when they're published. "We're trying to keep all of our information up to date. This is the advantage of the e-book." Hadami.com can publish its e-books just 24 to 48 hours after submission. Updated versions replace older ones on the site as soon as the author or publisher makes them available.
The most popular titles have sold over 200 copies so far. "We're finding that the bestsellers online are how-to books that don't necessarily have to be 200 pages, but have essential information you might not find in a regular book," said Aaronson. "At 40 pages, they can be an invaluable resource."
The site began by working directly with authors, but it is increasingly dealing with print publishers to market and sell their titles online. Traditional publishing companies are attracted by the idea of selling their books more quickly at lower costs, and readers are more attracted to books with an imprint from a known publishing company, according to Aaronson.
"We're interested in small publishers who offer 30 to 40 titles per year," said Aaronson. "They have the resources to update their titles, but don't have the resources to run their own bookstore."
Hadami.com offers digital versions of travel titles owned by CCC Publishing, On-the-Go Publishing, Phoenix Books, Passport Press and GreatestEscapes.com Publishing. The company's arrangement with GreatestEscapes.com to sell its book Literary Trips: Following in the Footsteps of Fame was the prototype for offering other publisher's titles online. According to the publisher's specifications, Hadami.com offers individual chapters of Literary Trips for $3.95 each. Hadami. com will also handle online distribution of the second volume of Literary Trips, due out this April.
Hadami.com offers 50% royalties on all sales and offers nonexclusive worldwide contracts. The company does not acquire all rights, and authors who publish online with Hadami can offer their work to a print publisher.
Authors and publishing companies set the list price. For publishing companies, Hadami.com recommends a price somewhat lower than the paperback price, since the e-bookstore assumes the costs of marketing, distribution and conversion to Adobe format.
Hadami.com receives its primary income from selling e-books, which it promotes mostly online through search engines and related virtual communities.
Costello is a freelance writer on the publishing industry. She is based in New York City.
