"This strength will surprise those people who think publishers might feel threatened by the Net," says Mary Westheimer, president of BookZone, Inc., which conducted the survey. "But it makes inherent sense: the Web is another medium, but it's still publishing."

"Too, book publishers have 'got the goods,' " points out Westheimer, whose company has served more than 1,100 publishing-related companies since 1994 with Web hosting, development and promotion. "While most things online change rapidly, it's a long-accepted fact that content is king on the Web, and publishers have that content."

Robert Adjemian, publisher of Vedanta Press, which features 400 philosophy and religion titles on its site at www.vedanta.com, agrees. "The Internet is the best thing that every happened to book publishing," he says. "Getting new customers is the most important thing we can do. At least 50 percent of our online sales are to new customers. That's amazing."

Vedanta Press launched its site in 1996, and it wasn't alone. According to the BookZone Publishing and the World Wide Web Survey, more than a third (36.1 percent) of publishers have had sites for three or more years. That's notable on the Net, which was only opened to commercial use in 1991, a modest beginning to a revolution that began when the World Wide Web was launched just two years later.

According to the survey, most publishers are using have sites for sales and promotion, with promotion leading the way slightly. More than three-fourths (76.5 percent) report they use their site for promoting their books, while nearly that many (73.7 percent) use their sites for sales (respondents could select multiple answers). Another prominent use is international exposure -- 40.3 percent are using their sites for that purpose. The larger the publisher, the more interested they are in promotion than sales.

More than half of respondents (52.2 percent) said that promotion is also where their greatest success lies. Also corrolating with purpose, the next best results are in book sales, with 45.9 percent. Nearly a third (31 percent) reported good results in international exposure. Other reported uses include sales of information and other products and services.

"The publishing industry has definitely made its mark online," observes Westheimer. "With this study as a benchmark, we'll be able to track the future of our industry as it further leverages this new technology." Adds Adjemian: "Any publisher that is not on the Web is making a big mistake."

For more information on the complete study, contact Westheimer at 800-536-6162 (480-481-9737) or mary@bookzone.com or Kristen Lowe at 888-55-TWIST.

Sidebar:

ADDITIONAL INSIGHTS FROM THE PUBLISHING AND THE WORLD WIDE WEB SURVEY:

• Although fewer than 17 percent of respondents used them, newsgroups and mail lists proved to be the most successful way to market a site
• Second most successful marketing tool: online advertising
• Offline marketing of sites - direct mail, trade shows, etc. -- did not deliver desired results
• More than half of the respondents paid less than $1000 to build their sites, and most of these sites were built by inhouse staff
• Just under half pay $50 or less monthly hosting Read the report's highlights at http://www.bookzone.com/surveyhighlights.html

NOTE: The statistic that 56 percent of U.S. companies will sell their products online by 2000 (up from 24 percent in 1998) comes from NUA Internet Surveys at www.nua.ie

For more information, contact:

Mary Westheimer
BookZone, Inc.
800-536-6162
mary@bookzone.com
http://www.bookzone.com/