As this is the first of the month, I bore you with blog stats. In January we had 73059 visits, compared with 9036 in January 2006 (when we'd only just started) and 60,400 visits in the previous month (December 2006). This brings the total number of visits to 473,006.

I got into trouble yesterday for mentioning the deadline on the go-live date for BookStore ahead of its implementation. 'Supposing we'd had to delay - how embarrassing.' Quite. The best way to ensure compliance in Britain is not to threaten violence or offer bribes, it is to wave the possibility of embarrassment. In any event it worked and here is a relieved piece from MPSTechnologies commercial director, David Sommer. I should, however, add that, as with all babies, this is not the finished article. We are already working on improving speed, enhancing functionality, developing new formats and business models. It took over 500 years for the printed book industry to reach its present status. Let us have at least a few weeks to establish the e-book industry!

'Well - it has happened. MPS Technologies launched BookStore yesterday - on time.  Macmillan Science and Macmillan New Writing are the first two publishers to go live with over 30 eBooks in a variety of formats.  See their sites at: http://www.macmillansciencebookstore.com and http://www.macmillannewwritingbookstore.com

BookStore provides publishers with a customizable platform to better serve the needs of their readers and authors and enabling them to:

• Market, sell and deliver eBooks in the 3 main downloadable eBook formats as well as read online access 
• Remain in control of their content and protect authors’ copyright
• Build a direct relationship with readers and reach new readers
• Experiment with flexible business models to slice and dice access to content in new ways

Both sites allow users to browse inside the books’ content, without compromising the control that Macmillan has over its digital content.

Authors at both imprints are enthusiastic about their work becoming available digitally and giving many more people the chance to search, sample and purchase these critically acclaimed books in a flexible, future-proof and eco-friendly way. 

This is a major milestone for Macmillan’s digital book strategy, but is just the start of the journey.  There is a long way to go in terms of enhancing BookStore, adding functionality and meeting the needs of our publishing clients.  We really would welcome your feedback on the sites please send comments (good or bad!) to: ValuableBookStoreFeedback@mpstechnologies.com

For more information, contact Lisa Hayden at Macmillan Science (l.hayden@macmillan.co.uk), Sophie Portas at Macmillan New Writing (s.portas@macmillan.co.uk) or Rupert Bacon at MPS Bookstore (r.bacon@mpstechnologies.com).