For our publishing partners, instant samples in OverDrive Read offer highly qualified opportunities to engage readers with title and author brands. OverDrive Read samples are flexible—able to be read on modern devices of any size, embedded into webpages, and surrounded by dynamic content. Each book sample is delivered as a persistent URL, which can be shared just like any website.

OverDrive Read allows you to reach your readers on every device with targeted recommendations for what to read next. At the end of each sample, OverDrive Read is capable of presenting the reader with options to purchase the title, view similar titles, or engage more deeply with a title and/or author on websites and social media. Expect to hear more on this exciting feature in the coming months.

Later this year we will be making full titles available through OverDrive Read, allowing readers with permissions to instantly enjoy an entire book. As we approach the full release, we will share more details about the ways in which OverDrive Read can help you connect readers with the books and authors they love. Stay tuned.

We hope you’ll take a moment to browse around the OverDrive Development Portal and read our documentation. We’ve included helpful guides to get you started, examples of real-world applications for OverDrive APIs, and an overview of the design and security standards that shaped our internal development process.

We will review Developer Portal applications on a weekly basis. Approval will be based on the applicant having an existing customer relationship with OverDrive, or the applicant applying as a third-party developer agent for an OverDrive customer. For a third party (non-OverDrive customer) to be approved, the application must disclose the nature of the project and identify the specific OverDrive account(s) for which it will utilize the OverDrive APIs. All applications will be reviewed to confirm that they are within the scope and permitted uses for OverDrive APIs. Prior to gaining access to OverDrive APIs, all applicants will be required to accept the OverDrive API Terms and Conditions.

If you have further questions about OverDrive APIs or the approval process, please contact us through the OverDrive Development Portal.

Jeff Morgan is a Marketing Communications Specialist at OverDrive.

OverDrive Read
OverDrive Read is our browser-based eBook reading experience. It’s built using HTML5, which offers flexibility in both use and implementation. For publishers and retailers, OverDrive Read is a brandable platform. We can build custom menus, embed OverDrive Read in branded web pages, and deliver customized social features.

OverDrive Read also allows booksellers, authors, and publishers to embed eBook samples in any page on the web. From those samples, readers can purchase full access to the title from various independent, local and national booksellers. OverDrive Read also features comprehensive social integration, extending your catalogs to the worldwide community of readers.

As an OverDrive publishing partner, your EPUB content is already compatible with OverDrive Read. If you have questions, please contact our Publisher Partner Services team.

As an OverDrive retail partner, be sure to check back soon or get in touch with the Retail Partner Services team. We will have more information about the ways OverDrive Read can support your retail services in the near future.

Streaming Audiobooks
As part of our upcoming Next Generation Digital Library Platform, we announced last month that we would be introducing audiobook streaming as part of our mobile application, OverDrive Media Console. This exciting development will give us the opportunity to offer WMA audiobook titles across a wider range of devices.

Streaming audiobooks also provide another avenue to increase discovery. We will be integrating the streaming service into our upcoming OverDrive Media Station, giving library patrons the opportunity to sample audiobooks within the library. OverDrive Media Station features our powerful recommendation engine, displaying related titles based on a reader’s search results.

We will provide more information about our streaming audiobook service as we get closer to launch. If you’re interested in extending the reach of your audiobook catalog, contact our Publisher Partner Services team.

We were happy to hear success stories from Baker Publishing Group, which publishes a wide range of Christian fiction and nonfiction for evangelical readers. We took some time post-BEA to talk with Nathan Henrion, the company’s national sales manager, about Baker Publishing Group’s digital content offering and its growth in the library space.

OverDrive: How long have you been working with OverDrive, and what drove your initial transition into the digital marketplace?

Baker Publishing Group: Baker Publishing Group began working with Overdrive in April of 2010. We had made a start in the digital marketplace in early 2009, but it took us about a year to get our ebook inventory built and our conversion system in place.

OD: Have you been surprised by increased sales in a particular section of your catalog? For example, are mid and backlist titles selling more than you had anticipated? Is there a particular genre that is doing exceptionally well?

BPG: The most surprising aspect of the digital marketplace (and this is thinking back to the mindset of 2010) is the uptick in backlist sales. “Backlist” and “Frontlist” are industry terms, and are not consumer terms. As long as the content is relevant, and it fulfills a reader’s interest at the time they are looking for it, then an old title will perform just as well, if not better, than a new release. Now, obviously certain titles and genres age quicker than others as far as reader interest is concerned, but for us, many of our most successful titles in digital sales are those that released more than 5 years ago.

One of the interesting facts about working with OverDrive in particular is that in the past 12 months Overdrive has booked sales on 74% of the titles making up our digital trade catalog. This compares to 49% of our print catalog having library sales over the same time period.

Another great surprise has been the increase in international sales. We are getting our authors’ content into more international libraries than ever before. The hurdles for a small to mid -size publisher to execute these placements are very high in the print environment. Not so with digital. While this is no longer a revelation, I don’t believe we were expecting it back at the beginning.

OD: What factors influenced the decision to work with the library market?

BPG: Baker Publishing Group has always had a robust presence in the library market for print, so moving to participation with the digital side of the channel was just a natural step. We view it as a lateral move, and not a completely different paradigm. With publishers there is much contention on that point, but it is how we choose to see the landscape.

OD: How have sales and promotions through OverDrive affected your digital strategy?

BPG: Working with OverDrive has opened up more promotional opportunities directed to the library market. As we do not sell direct to libraries, we rely on the distributors taking promotions to market. OverDrive has offered us creative access to this process and has worked with us to offer libraries promotional opportunities that really are unparalleled in the print environment.

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To learn more about how OverDrive can help increase sales of your digital content, contact pubinfo@overdrive.com.

By offering local language titles, Nokia hopes to drive and develop interest in eReading in places where eBooks may not yet be popular or widely available. Readers that use Nokia Reading will also have access to today’s bestselling titles in English, including international hits like “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and thousands of classic titles.

For Nokia, the development of the Reading app was about capturing the way readers engage with books. As Nokia Reading lead designer Tim Geoghegan said on the Nokia Conversations blog, “We realised early on that people were more likely to ‘snack’ on a phone-based book. They’ll most likely use it for shorter periods of time: while they’re on the bus or waiting for their kids to come out of school, for example. But it should be an immersive reading experience, nonetheless.”

For OverDrive, supporting that immersive experience means seamless delivery of the world’s best content through Nokia Reading. Our experience delivering content to every corner of the globe provided the backbone necessary to support a company of Nokia’s scale.

We’re excited to support the eBook market with Nokia, but we don’t stop at eBooks. OverDrive currently handles fulfillment of all forms of digital content, including digital audiobooks, video and music to libraries, schools and booksellers in 20 countries and 52 languages. If you’re looking to find a supply channel for digital content, we want to hear from you. Contact retailpartnerservices@overdrive.com for more information.

Many publishers have entire divisions and department focused on supporting these programs. Random House, for example, has its Freshman Year Reading program and supporting materials. There are also educational organizations promulgating these programs and the addition of a digital component, including The National Resource Center for First-Year Experience and Students in Transition at the University of South Carolina and the National Orientation Directors Association.

Some universities subsidize the cost of the selected title and send out physical copies to students, while others provide the book at a discounted rate. Many colleges and universities are interested in offering eBook and/or digital audiobook versions of the selected title to supplement the physical book offerings. OverDrive can help!

Last summer, OverDrive worked with Purdue University to support its Common Reading Program by delivering the Random House title “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” in eBook formats.

OverDrive hosted a custom branded microsite where first-year students were able to enter a redemption code distributed by Purdue University. Students were then presented with a link to download their copy of “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” in eBook format. OverDrive provided FAQs and other best practices documentation for inclusion on the microsite.

We encourage publishers, colleges and universities to contact OverDrive for more information about adding digital content to First Year Reading Programs around the country. Email OverDrive’s Publisher Partner Services team to get started.

I am constantly amazed at how quickly our world seems to change. Lately it feels like modern technology is a snowball rolling down a mountain growing ever faster, challenging consumers to have the latest and greatest almost hourly. As a child of the 70’s I can honestly say I remember a simpler time when the things we bought were expected to last forever. The family car, the family TV, dad’s home video camera – it seemed like these things never changed. Today our insatiable hunger for all things new leads thousands of crazed consumers to camp out overnight yearly in front of retail stores for the newest iPad or an unheard of discount on a flat screen for Christmas. We have even reached a point where TV commercials tout wireless customers who have new and exciting information 15 seconds before others.

This obsession with new technology fuels a worldwide connected web of computers and phones (and phones that look like computers) where everyone who’s anyone feels the need to check their friends status updates every 30 seconds. It also leads us to find our favorite brands online. Just like we wear them on our clothes, the logos and “likes” of our favorite brands on our profile page is a key part of our online identity. What logos adorn our pages – who we “wear” online, is a reflection of who we are.

So for brands who work so hard to generate fans and be worn by the coolest kids at the back of the bus…I ask you:

What are you doing to reward or incentivize your fans?
What are you doing to keep them fans?

At Hip Digital we believe that offering people something in exchange for their loyalty, their engagement and their attention is a winning strategy for all involved. The ROI for brands is simple. Spend less money in promotional marketing than you see in sales lift, Facebook likes, tweets or whatever metric you feel is important. For content owners, these one to one relationships mean an entirely new channel of distribution has emerged. The model of brand supported legal downloads is growing almost as fast as the traditional brick and mortar retail channels are shrinking. And still the real winner is the consumer. Love me on Facebook, buy my products, spend your time with me – I will offer you the best music, movies, ebooks, apps, games and virtual currencies.

Social rewards are a key component to engaging your fans in social media. Hip Digital licenses the most desirable content available including:

• Millions of MP3 tracks from all the majors and key indie labels
• A partnership with OverDrive that supplies us with nearly 200,000 eBooks and more than 40,000 audiobooks from the top publishers in the world
• Thousands of mobile apps, games, ringtones, wallpapers and assorted other mobile goods
• Every type of virtual currency including Facebook Credits, Zynga, Playstation, XboX and Wii

You have probably seen our work 100 times but didn’t know it was Hip Digital because we create white labeled solutions like:

Madonna/Smirnoff: Smirnoff Vodka and Madonna teamed up to offer Madonna fans an exclusive “Nightlife Edition” of her new album MDNA. With 4 remixes that can’t be found anywhere else Smirnoff is a brand who knows how to engage and reward their fans.

Starburst: Starburst offers more than 3,000,000 fans a free MP3 download with a purchase of specially marked packages. By leveraging the entire Hip Digital music catalog users get to choose from millions of tracks from every label in every genre.

McCain: Canadian customers can experience Pizza and a Movie with specially marked McCain Rising Crust Pizzas. With 25 films from Warner Brothers to choose from including: Oceans 11, Troy, Happy Feet, I am Legend and The Matrix, consumers can stream one of Hollywood’s biggest hits to their PC or MAC unlimited for 48 hours.

Having run more than 3,000 promotions in our 7-year history we have solutions for every sized brand. Our team can integrate social rewards into any website or Facebook page.

Our customers know that differentiating their products from the others on the shelf is as easy as 1-2-3:

1. Contact Hip Digital and we will design a customized and turnkey solution for your brand
2. Choose the content that is right for your audience and budget
3. Enjoy increased sales and customer engagement

When you are ready to supercharge your online marketing we would love to hear from you.

Through this retail store, Audiobooks Online prides itself on offering “a wide range of formats to suit your individual needs.” Indeed, their thousands of customers can purchase favorite audiobook titles as CD ROMs, preloaded MP3 Players, USB Cards, and now audiobook downloads provided through OverDrive.

Audiobooks Online describes their customers as people who “love books, but don’t have the time to read.” The addition of audiobooks from OverDrive will speed up delivery for those busy customers by allowing them to purchase, download and listen to their title, all within minutes.

We would like to congratulate our publisher partners who have 104 titles nominated for an Audie!

AudioGO/BBC Audio has 6 titles nominated in 6 categories
Blackstone Audio has 11 titles nominated in 7 categories
Brilliance Audio has 6 titles nominated in 5 categories
eChristian has 5 titles nominated in 2 categories
Hachette Audio has 9 titles nominated in 6 categories
HarperAudio has 11 titles nominated in 8 categories
HighBridge has 2 titles nominated in 2 categories
Hyperion Audio has 1 title nominated in 1 category
L.A. Theatre Works has 3 titles nominated in 2 categories
Listen & Live Audio has 3 titles nominated in 3 categories
Live Oak Media has 3 titles nominated in 1 category
Macmillan Audio has 9 titles nominated in 8 categories
Oasis Audio has 4 titles nominated in 3 categories
Penguin Audio has 1 title nominated in 1 category
Random House Audio/Books on Tape/Listening Library has 9 titles nominated in 8 categories
Recorded Books has 3 titles nominated in 2 categories
Scholastic Audio has 2 titles nominated in 2 categories
Simon & Schuster Audio has 1 title nominated in 1 category
Symphony Space has 1 title nominated in 1 category
Tantor Audio has 16 titles nominated in 11 categories
Weston Woods has 1 title nominated in 1 category
Zondervan has 2 titles nominated in 2 categories

Visit www.theaudies.com or the APA website for more information about the 2012 Audies competition and about the titles nominated. Congratulations to the publishers, authors, narrators and production staff for all the wonderful material!

The sun is out in Ohio, giving us a chance to see first-hand the progress being made on our new Blue Sky Campus. We’re near feverish with excitement about getting into the new building and equally excited about the ways it will support the eBook industry.

From the press release:

“OverDrive’s new tech campus will help accelerate the adoption of eBooks, audiobooks, music and video currently served through our 18,000 school, library and retail channel partners,” said Lori Soukup, OverDrive’s Chief Operating Officer, who is leading the campus development project. “We are proud to enable the world’s leading authors, publishers and studios to reach hundreds of millions of readers in 27 countries.”

The Blue Sky Campus will include a 95,000-square-foot facility on 12 acres of land, complete with outdoor meeting space, a small pond and a 0.3-mile walking path. The LEED-certified headquarters will include two indoor basketball courts, a fitness and wellness area, and digital test labs and training centers for the school and library training sessions we host year-round.

OverDrive is proud to continue its investment in Northeast Ohio. Not only is this the place CEO Steve Potash founded OverDrive in 1986, it’s also full of talented professionals and home to some of the most renowned libraries in the country, including the Cuyahoga County Public Library and Cleveland Public Library.

Jeff Morgan is a Marketing Communications Specialist at OverDrive.