Meet the New Members of the Vook Team

Vook is thrilled to welcome Peggy Garry as Legal Counsel and Tenesha Gleason as Senior Director of Business Development!

Over the last few months Peggy Garry has been a great help to us with our legal contracts and we are overjoyed that she will now be a full-time member of the company. Prior to joining Vook Peggy served as Senior Counsel for Disney where she was part of the team that started the Hyperion book division. She has also worked at Golden Books as a VP of Legal and Business Affairs, as well as at John Wiley & Sons where as a Legal Director she negotiated rights contracts and managed Wiley’s trademark portfolio. Most recently she was in private practice, counseling literary agents, book designers and authors. Additionally, Peggy has served as adjunct professor at New York University for 12 years, teaching First Amendment and Intellectual Property law. Her favorite reads are The complete works of Marcel Proust and CHRONICLES by Bob Dylan.

With a love for all things innovative, Tenesha Gleason most recently worked at Amazon.com focusing on Mechanical Turk. While working at Amazon she refined her strategic development expertise, working with several major corporations and countless tech trailblazers. Tenesha is originally from Salt Lake City, UT (cue stereotypes and typical bar jokes) but she now calls Brooklyn, NY her home. She has an unhealthy obsession with the written and spoken word and is usually reading ebooks or listening to podcasts. Speaking of obsessions, her love of technology, creation, distribution, consumption and monetization of digital media is one of the reasons she joined Vook. Prior to working at Amazon she worked at Audible as a Senior Partner of Content Acquisition. Between Audible and working at Tantor Media, she developed many friendships in the publishing industry. She is typically watching movies and/or reading books (doing both with Vooks) and secretly seeks out opportunities to show off for her 16 nieces and nephews.  Tenesha doesn’t eat pork or beef but loves hot dogs and filet mignon.

Word of the Year?

We’re cosmpolitan in our newspaper consumption (we also rely heavily on Google Alerts), so we didn’t miss this item in this morning’s Globe and Mail that demonstrated our company name (as we’ve mentioned before) is fast becoming a catch-all for every sort of enhanced book. Apparently, dictionary creators and experts often choose one “Word of the Year” and the Oxford University Press has announced theirs first: “unfriend”. But other dictionary makers and advisors are still considering their selection. David Barnhart, the past president of the Dictionary Society of North America, has been gathering a selection of words to present at the American Dialect Society’s conference in Baltimore in November. According to the article his list, “includes H1N1 or swine flu, death panel, shovel-ready, and vook (a video book).” We realize that’s not a selection of particularly pleasant words, but it only makes vook shine all the brighter. If the Society would like us to come and make the case for “vook” as the year’s best new word, we’d be more than willing to hypermile (Oxford’s 2008 word of the year) down to Baltimore and explain why “vook” beats “funemployed” any day.

Tell Us What You Thought of the Crush It! Vook

If you purchased the Vook version of Crush It!, we’re curious to hear what you thought about the experience. A vook is an entirely new way to read and we really want to get feedback from our readers so we can make an even better product. If you could take a few minutes to fill out the Crush It! vook survey, we’d appreciate it.

As a special enticement, we’re offering one randomly chosen survey responder a $100 iTunes gift card and we’re giving another ten responders each a $10 iTunes gift card.

To fill out the survey, click HERE.

Let us know what you thought of Crush It!—what you liked, what you didn’t like, what we can do better. We’ll take your feedback seriously and you might just win an iTunes gift card.

Please contact us if you have any questions at info@vook.com.

Official Rules Of VOOK Survey Sweepstakes

Below are the official rules for the Survey Sweepstakes for the Crush It! vook survey. 

  • No Purchase Necessary to Enter or Win. Void where prohibited.
  • Eligibility: Open only to legal residents of the District of Columbia and the fifty United States who are 18 years of age or older. This Sweepstakes is subject to all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations. Void where prohibited or restricted.
  • To Enter:  You (”Entrant”) may enter this Sweepstakes by filling out all required sections and successfully transmitting to Sponsor the online survey. Each Entrant who meets all eligibility requirements will be automatically entered in the Sweepstakes.  Alternate E-Mail Entry:  To enter without filling out the online survey, Entrant may send an email with the words “VOOK SWEEPSTAKES ENTRY” in the Subject Line and your complete name, address, home telephone number, and e-mail address to info@vook.com.  Limit one entry per person and/or email address. Incomplete entries are void and will be disqualified.  Sponsor is not responsible for malfunctions of electronic or telephone equipment, computer hardware, software, malfunctions of Entrant’s email provider or ISP, late, lost, incomplete misdirected entries or entries not received in time for the drawing.  Use of a street address is required and cannot include a PO Box, PMB, AP/FPO or similar address.
  • Entries as well as answers to the online survey become the property of Sponsor and will not be returned.  Proof of mailing or transmission does not constitute proof of delivery.  Online entries will be deemed to have been submitted by the Entrant utilizing the e-mail address on file with Sponsor. The Sweepstakes begins October 5, 2009 and ends October 7, 2009. Only those entries submitted and received during the aforementioned dates are eligible to win.  In case of a dispute as to the identity of the Entrant using the Internet, the authorized account holder of the email address used to enter the Sweepstakes at the time of entry will be considered the entrant.
  • Prizes and Timing : Grand Prize: One (1) Grand Prize Winner will receive a $100 iTunes® gift card.  Ten (10) Second Place Winners will receive a $10 iTunes® gift card.  Approximate Value: TOTAL PRIZE VALUE is $200.00.  Approximate retail value (ARV) of prizes is $200.00.  Odds of receiving a prize depend on the number of entries. One winner of the Grand Prize and ten Second Place Winners will be selected by random drawing from all eligible entries received.  To be eligible, entry must comply with these Official Rules and be received by 11:59 p.m. ET on October 7, 2009.  The drawing will be held on or about October 8, 2009. Winner will be notified by email and/or telephone.
  • Miscellaneous: All federal, state and local taxes, and all income and any other taxes, fees and surcharges will be the sole responsibility of the winner.  No substitution, assignment or transfer of prize is permitted except by Sponsor due to unavailability, in which case a similar prize of equal or greater value will be provided. Sponsor is not responsible or liable for the acts of third parties.  Sponsor will not replace any lost or stolen items.  Only stated prizes will be awarded and prizes have no cash value.  The Sweepstakes is governed by the laws of the State of California, with venue and jurisdiction in San Francisco, California, and all claims must be resolved in the courts of San Francisco, California. By entering, Entrant agrees: (1) to release Sponsor from all liability, loss or damage arising out of his/her participation in the Sweepstakes and with respect to his/her acceptance and use/misuse of the prize; (2) to be bound by these Official Rules; and (3) that the decisions of the judges are final and binding on all matters relating to the Sweepstakes. In the event the Sweepstakes is compromised by a non-authorized human intervention or other causes beyond the control of Sponsor which, in the opinion of Sponsor, corrupt or impair the administration, security, fairness or proper play, or if the Sweepstakes cannot be operated, conducted or completed as planned, for any reason, Sponsor reserves the right in its sole discretion to suspend, cancel, modify or terminate the Sweepstakes. Should the Sweepstakes be terminated prior to the stated expiration, notice will be posted at http://www.vook.com/blog.  Winners List: To receive a list of winners after October 8, 2009, mail a self-addressed stamped envelope to:  VOOK LLC, Attention: VOOK Survey SWEEPSTAKES, 1100 Marina Village Parkway, Ste. 102, Alameda, CA  94501. Please write info@vook.com for a copy of the official rules. © 2009.  VOOK LLC.  All Rights Reserved.
  • Sponsor:  VOOK LLC, 1100 Marina Village Parkway, Ste. 102, Alameda, CA  94501.

Vook releases The Breakaway Japanese Kitchen

We’ve launched a string of great vooks over the past month, and now we’re pleased to announce our latest title: The Breakaway Japanese Kitchen. Breakaway is our first “cookvook”—a vook that lets you read inspiring recipes and watch author Eric Gower make the dishes right in front of you. Eric prepares meals such as roasted hamachi with a miso-apricot glaze, udon with herby pesto and smoked salmon salad with edamame.

“The Breakaway Japanese Kitchen” is available in both of our  standard formats—as a browser based vook and as an app for your iPhone or iPod Touch. We’ve also included a free preview mode of the vook so that you can try it before you buy it. This premier cookvook features recipes and professionally shot videos so you can easily learn how to prepare Eric’s contemporary Japanese dishes.

Having lived in Japan for more than fifteen years, Eric has developed an appreciation for minimalist cooking that achieves singular bold flavors. A cooking teacher and private chef, Eric is also the author of three cookbooks. “The Breakaway Japanese Kitchen” cookvook features more than a dozen videos of Eric preparing dishes, shopping for ingredients and guiding readers through his approach to bold, Japanese-inspired dishes.

“When Vook approached me about doing the first cookvook, the epiphany was immediate,” said Eric Gower. “Integrating written recipes and stories with in-the-kitchen visuals is such a no-brainer way to connect with home cooks everywhere. It’s the perfect medium to make hesitant cooks feel more comfortable, because you can SEE how simple the breakaway approach really is, yet still have the written instructions to guide you.”

Vook CEO Brad Inman summed up the appeal of The Breakaway Japanese Kitchen, saying, “A cookvook is able to take written recipes and complement them with an engaging visual component. It’s like having a personal chef to guide the home cook in the kitchen, step-by-step.”

Try the Breakaway Japanese Kitchen in the free preview mode or get the complete vook and start cooking today!

Vook Pricing

Pricing has been a very hot topic in the book world, and particularly with eBooks. In May, Motoko Rich had a New York Times article about readers revolting against pricing the Kindle version of David Baldacci’s latest novel at $15. She described the chilling implications a standardized $9.99 price could have on the publishing industry. And according to conventional wisdom, $9.99 is rapidly becoming the price that consumers expect, even demand. Just yesterday John Grisham appeared on the Today Show and talked with Matt Lauer about the recent hardcover “price wars” playing out between Amazon.com, Walmart.com and others.

To date Vook has priced individual titles at different price points and already we are beginning to see some interesting results. A recent post at iReader Review highlighted some key findings about iPhone App pricing for books. The author notes that the data suggests that “Even within the Books Category,  only 10 of the Top 100 Book Apps are actual books priced $5 or higher.” Furthermore, “Only 10 out of the Top 100 best-selling book related apps are anything resembling a $10 book.”

We’ve been delighted to see that according to the iReader review list #3 is the 90 Second Fitness Solution vook – priced at $4.99 –  and at #7 is Gary Vaynerchuk’s Crush It! vook – which sells for $11.99.

This data may suggest, unsurprisingly, that price does play a role in consumer decision-making. However, to have Crush It! so highly ranked indicates that readers on the iPhone see the value of a vook and are willing to pay a premium for it. A digital price point more than $9.99 is not scaring people away. As our readers have found, the integrated videos in the vook don’t just augment the text, they bring entirely new value to the reader, providing even more tips and insight into following Gary V.’s approach on how to succeed.

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