Dear IDPF Members,

I’m writing to submit my candidacy for the IDPF’s open board member position.

I believe I’d be a valuable addition to the board because of the leadership role that I’ve played over the last few years to foster industry-wide collaboration to help build the digital book industry.   To give a few examples:

1)      EPUB letter from the AAP:  Last spring, in conversations about EPUB with many e-book service providers and retailers, it seemed that we had a real chicken and egg situation on our hands.  The retailers didn’t want to build out EPUB support unless the standard was going to be adopted; and the publishers were concerned that they’d lose sales if they delivered EPUB files that the retailers couldn’t handle.   It seemed that publishers needed to send a strong signal to retailers that they intended to embrace EPUB.  I led the AAP Digital Issues Working Group’s effort to draft an open letter to the IDPF in support of EPUB which was presented at the opening of Digital Book 2008.  Hope you all agree that this helped to advance the ball!

2)      E-book ISBNs:  Earlier this summer, I received alarmed calls from some of our colleagues about whether a book should have separate ISBNs for each of its digital formats.  There was concern that some distributors and service providers were advocating having separate ISBNs for each format but that many publishers use only a single ISBN and have been doing so for years.  I don’t claim to know the right answer but led efforts with the AAP Digital Issues Working Group to convene a meeting with representatives of the BISG and IDPF to discuss.  The issue has not yet been resolved but the meeting surfaced key points of view and identified the need for more work on this subject to get to an industry response that supports growth.

3)      Publisher Digital Repositories:  I’m currently leading the Book Industry Study Group’s (newly re-named) BookDROP Working Group which is developing an industry standard for the discovery and display of content in publisher digital repositories.   This project was initiated by HarperCollins and Random House in the AAP in 2006 out of a belief that the two publishers who already had working digital repositories should take the lead in unifying their separate web service specs and then passing it off to the BISG for wider industry input.  I was one of the co-leaders of the Subcommittee for Books Online which shepherded the first draft through the AAP and I’m now leading the BISG subcommittee which is completing a proof of concept this fall. 

In each case you’ll see that I have an earnest desire to mobilize an industry response, the capabilities and networks to action that response, and a belief that we should collaborate with whichever industry trade group is appropriate for the project at hand.

Meanwhile inside of HarperCollins, as VP of Digital Business Development, I’ve been working for many years developing our digital strategy and negotiating with Google Book Search, Microsoft, Audible, Ingram and others.   Though publisher digital repositories, Google Book Search, and Amazon’s SITB program have been operating separately from e-books up to now, we may well see a convergence of these businesses in the near term. I believe that my insights on these matters may prove highly valuable to the Board.

Finally, at a few recent conferences (including IDPF’s Digital Book 2008 and Jouve/Les Echos The Challenge of Electronic Publishing) I’ve made presentations about business models for e-books, sharing HC’s results with using free book giveaways to drive sales and help to bring new consumers to e-books.

For all these reasons, I hope you’ll consider electing me to this post.

Many thanks,
Leslie Hulse
VP, Digital Business Development
HarperCollins Publishers