175,000 First Chapter Excerpts (And Counting)

I wasn't excessively clear in my description of the Dial-a-Book model and Mr. Greenfield has rapped me on the knuckles and asked me to correct the article. Obviously, he is quite correct to ensure we understand his business model. From Stanley,

You write:

"The idea of building a business (let alone expanding as he continues to do) on the precept that he will scan and re-key the first chapter of a book so that the content can be distributed as merchandising material in this day of e-content seems anachronistic. No telling how long it will continue to go on and many (including me) have expected publishers to take this over themselves and obviate the need for Dial-a-Book. Yet, he continues to flourish."

Michael, were this the case Dial-A-Book would not exist.

Most of the major publishers do create there own excerpts which they mount on their own sites .... and send to us for reformatting and distribution.
Our value is not that we create excerpts but rather that every excerpt we distribute is automatically mounted by

Barnes & Noble, Baker & Taylor, Ingram, EBSCO, Books-in-Print,
Buy.com, OCLC .... if they handle the books

… and by more than 1,600 library OPACs (e.g. San Francisco, Cleveland,
Seattle Public Libraries) if they hold the books in their collections.

Moreover we are the exclusive excerpt providers to all of the above, with the exception of Barnes & Noble. None of the others will mount any except unless it comes from Dial-A-Book. Every excerpt in any on-line public access catalog (OPAC) in the US is a Dial-A-Book excerpt.

The reason is that we provide an AGGREGATION function.

They would rather pay our modest charges to recieve 50,000 excerpts a year, in two deliveries a month, in a consistent format, which they can algorithmically access, or enter into their systems and servers, than receive 300 Random House excepts on a Monday, 200 Harper Collins on a Tuesday, 150 Simon & Shuster on a Friday, etc, in a variety of formats..

Dial-A-Book delivers an essential service for publishers, web sites and OPACs by the aggregation function it performs. Its unique data base contains 185,000 first chapter excerpts prepared and distributed with the permission of more than 1,400 imprints/publishers.
I would greatly appreciate your rectifying this matter for the readers of Persona Non Data lest they believe the need for Dial-A-Book can be obviated.


The original post as follows:

My friend Stanley Greenfield tells me he now has an astounding 175,000 first chapter excerpts and to think I knew him when he had less than 5,000. The idea of building a business (let alone expanding as he continues to do) on the precept that he will scan and re-key the first chapter of a book so that the content can be distributed as merchandising material in this day of e-content seems anachronistic. No telling how long it will continue to go on and many (including me) have expected publishers to take this over themselves and obviate the need for Dial-a-Book. Yet, he continues to flourish.

Here is more material from Dial-a-Book:

During 2007 Dial-A-Book continued to drive book sales and library readership as it delivered more than fifty thousand new first chapter text excerpts to its partners, e-commerce sites, media, bibliographic services, library on-line public access catalogs. The Dial-A-Book data base now contains excerpts from 175,000 ISBNs. All excerpts are produced and distributed with the permission of 1,400 imprints/publishers. The DAB Chapter One program is the exclusive excerpt provider for Baker & Taylor, Ingram, Books-in-Print, OCLC, EBSCO, Buy.com, Diesel e-books, and library on-line public access catalogs. Every excerpt appearing in any US library-on-line public access catalog (OPAC) is provided by DAB. In our continuing effort to support our partners we have enhanced our systems with a new mobile platform. The platform will allow more than five millions iPhone, iTouch and Windows Mobile users to browse our 175,000 book excerpts. Software development continues to extend the use of excerpts to other devices.

The Dial-A-Book Publishes Portal™ was successfully launched in 2007. It has been promoted by the International Publishers Association (PMA), Independent Publishers Group (IPG), Midpoint Trade Books and author services companies like AuthorHouse, Lulu.com and Infinity Publishing. Publishers Portal guarantees the display of book first chapters by the web sites and library on-line public access catalogs for which Dial-A-Book is the exclusive excerpt provider, if they handle the books or hold them in their collections. Our thanks to all our partners whose cooperation made this progress possible. Text excerpts are being increasingly displayed. This is testimony that CONTENT SELLS. We invite inquiries about how you can derive the greatest benefit from participation in Publishers Portal and Chapter One.

To learn more about Dial-a-Book contact Stanley Greenfield at 718 432 0014 or email:
srg@dialabook.net