2:00 a.m. May 7, 2002 PDT


Looking for the 'E' at BEA
By M.J. Rose

NEW YORK -- Among the 2,000 exhibitors at last weekend's Book Expo America, there were only a few dozen from the e-space. But those few got more attention, from the announcement of the "Open an E-Book" campaign to demonstrations of Bookstream's interactive book jackets.

It's a wrap: On Saturday, Philippe Petit walked on a tightrope above the crowds in the grand concourse of the Javits Center. A few minutes later, visitors to the Bookstream booth watched an online, multi-media book jacket of Petit talking about his high-wire acts for his upcoming book with Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

The buzz is that these interactive book-jackets -- featuring video and audio author interviews, reviews, synopsis and biographies -- are taking book marketing out of the box.

Readers are often hungry for information about authors, but there are few venues other than morning or evening talk shows in which fans get to see and hear the writers. "Bookwraps gives every author a chance to communicate with readers, and not just the top-tier authors," said Carol Fitzgerald, co-founder of The Bookreport Network.

Copyright © 1994-2002 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved.