Preview That HarperCollins Book Online Soon!

Look for electronic versions of books published by HarperCollins to appear online for free for one month. According to a story in Sunday's The New York Times, the idea is to allow prospective shoppers the opportunity to browse books like they would in a book store, only of course to do so on the Web.

This is an interesting experiment for a publisher. I purchase a lot of books online and I would love to be able to "leaf" through a book first, although nothing in the article says whether the pages will be exact reproductions of what you'll see in hard copy. I often select a few interior pages at random and read a few paragraphs to get a flavor for the writing, dialogue, characterizations, and so on, before I buy. This will make buying online a lot easier.

You might wonder if people won't be tempted to just read online instead of buy. The article says the books will be available online only for a limited time, which may make that impractical. Furthermore, the online page is a lot harder on the eyes than is the paper page. I think reading a lengthy book online will be very taxing over time. This can work!

Beginning Monday, you will be able to visit the Harper Collins Web site and peruse the following books:

• The Witch of Portobello, by Paulo Coelho
• Mission: Cook! My Life, My Recipes and Making the Impossible Easy, Mr. Irvine
• I Dream in Blue: Life, Death and the New York Giants, Roger Director
• The Undecided Voter’s Guide to the Next President: Who the Candidates Are, Where They Come from and How You Can Choose, Mark Halperin
• Warriors: Into the Wild, the (1st volume in a children’s series), Erin Hunter

Read more of the good news in HarperCollins Will Post Free Books on the Web in the Business section of The New York Times.

Neopets Gets New Line of Books in 2008

Good news for anyone like my daughter who loves Neopets! According to The Book Standard, “HarperCollins Publishers has teamed up with Neopets, an online pet site for tweens, to create a new line of books based on the company's virtual world of Neopia where users create and care for a "Neopet." According to Neopets, there are more than 40 million registered members of the Neopets website worldwide.”

Their first works will include illustrated novels, puzzle and game books, a how-to-draw book, and a field guide to Neopets, all with links back to the Neopets website. It all debuts in the fall of 2008.

I honestly didn’t think Neopets would last long, coming on the heels of the Pokemon and Digimon fads, but they continue strong today in the online world. It makes a lot of sense for them to expand beyond the Internet into traditional publishing. Neopets fans are dedicated and they spend a long time collecting their favorite Neopets and interacting in the Neopet world. This will help them extend that.