April 2007

Google in London

Visit us at the London Book Fair
(April 16-18)

Meet members of the Google Book Search Team and drop off books you'd like to have included in the program.

We'll be at stand P100.

In This Issue:

New features: Google Book Search meets Google Maps, Add Book Search results to your site
Partner Spotlight: Lightbulb Press enhances B2B sales efforts, increases site traffic
Upcoming events: Where we'll be in the coming months

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New Features

Books, Mapped: Google Book Search meets Google Maps

We recently launched a feature that's fast becoming a big hit with our users: a Google Maps integration with Google Book Search. We call it "Places mentioned in this book," and you'll find this module on the "About this Book" page of certain books. Not every title in Google Book Search has this function enabled; we display a map when our automatic techniques determine that there are a good number of quality locations in a book. These maps animate the information in books by organizing a sampling of locations from them on an interactive Google Map, with snippets of text from the book, and links to the actual pages where the locations are mentioned.

Take a look at the maps extracted from this New York City Rough Guide or this iUniverse title about a cross-country bike ride. Providing a better experience for Google Book Search users means more visibility for the product, and in turn, more people finding your books. Of course, we're working to add more features to the program, both for end users and for you, our partners. Don't hesitate to drop us a line at books-support@google.com if you have any suggestions for how to improve your experience with Google Book Search in any way.

Add Book Search results to your site

Here's a new way to promote your books online: a simple widget that adds a dynamic "book bar" to your web page. Just enter information about your books, and we'll generate the code you need to add a bookshelf of titles. Visitors to your site can then click on the book images to see previews of your books through Google Book Search.

Adding the Book Bar to your page is a snap. Once you customize how your book bar should be displayed, the Book Bar Wizard will generate the code for you. If you want to showcase specific titles, simply input their ISBNs. Or, try using a search operator like "inpublisher:YOURNAME" to limit the books that are displayed to just those that you've published. Currently, the AJAX Book Search API is available in all languages supported by Book Search. The developer documentation, however, is available only in US-English.

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Partner Spotlight

Lightbulb Press enhances B2B sales efforts, increases site traffic

Lightbulb Press, founded in 1990, is a highly regarded creator and publisher of financial educational content, both in print and online. Since Lightbulb generates 95 percent of its revenue via corporate sales, and the B2B book sales process is typically more lengthy and high-touch than its retail counterpart, the company devotes extensive resources to sales efforts. Lightbulb's biggest challenge is to get its books in front of more potential corporate clients using its existing resources.

The company joined the Google Books Partner Program in early 2006. "Google Book Search has helped our sales team to quickly and effectively share information about our products with potential clients," says Kowlessar. "We're now able to direct prospects to the online version of a book they're interested in, rather than having to mail a printed copy or email a PDF."

Lightbulb Press is also enjoying increased online traffic as a result of including its books on Google Book Search. "Since we added our titles to Book Search, we've noticed a 15 to 20 percent increase in traffic," says Kowlessar. "And we've seen an increase in email and voice inquiries about our products and services, which opens new lines of communication for our sales team."

To read more about Lightbulb's experience with Google Book Search, as well as stories from other publishers, please visit: http://books.google.com/googlebooks/success.html

Have a success story of your own to share? Drop us a line.

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Upcoming Events

We've got quite a travel schedule over the next few months! Please drop by if you'll be at any of the following events:
Dates
April 16 - 19 London Book Fair
April 16 - 19 Feria internacional del libro de Buenos Aires
April 23 - 25 Feria internacional del libro de Bogota

As always, you're welcome to drop off books you'd like to add to the Partner Program – we'll take care of the shipping. We hope to see you there.

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Interested in submitting more books to the program? Get in touch with us today! Just reply to this message and we'll be happy to assist you.

I'll give to u Orinkola, u really get around. But what about folks (like me! ) who can't even to manage to get their books published? Any thing for us?,

Aww, shucks, i'm sorry man!

I'll give to u Orinkola

,
Don't worry, i got it right now, "Orikinla".

Kay, if you are turned down by publishing houses, there are alternatives like iuniverse. Explore other areas, dont give up on your dreams.

Cheers.