Just a few weeks ago, we celebrated our one year anniversary and took stock of how much has changed since our launch in October, 2024. Things have moved faster than we could have anticipated, and it seems like every day marks a new development.

Today, we hit another great milestone with the release of our first title for the Amazon Kindle app, Anne Rice’s The Master of Rampling Gate. It took lots of hard work and dedication from the whole team at Vook, and we could not be more excited to be working with Amazon and sharing our content on this platform.

One thing that hasn’t changed in the past year is our mission: to light up the world’s content and connect people around the stories and ideas they love. Each new distribution channel enables us to share more great stories with more people – and we are continually working to expand on to new platforms so that soon everyone will be able to share in this exciting (r)evolution of the written word.

Just over a year ago we launched our first four titles with Simon and Schuster (tip o’ the pin to Atria’s marvelous Judith Curr), an undertaking that landed us on the front page of the New York Times and smack dab on the radar of critics and visionaries in publishing and beyond. Since then, we’ve released more than 80 titles—making us one of the world’s largest enhanced publishers. Every one of those titles has been the product of resourceful and diligent negotiations with publishers, authors and agents to secure great content, figure out a smart format, and build an excellent experience.

One of the keys to our success has been our acquisitions effort. Though it’s been exciting to work out inventive deals with a small, scrappy team, the company we’re becoming requires serious resources and individuals 100% devoted to landing great opportunities. To that end, we’re expanding our New York office on the business development front and staffing our acquisitions team to meet the challenge of turning every book (or at least every book that really wants it) into a Vook.

With that mission in mind, we’re extending a big welcome to our latest addition to the team, our new Acquisitions Manager Margaret Harrison. Margaret joins us from OverDrive, where she managed publisher relations and content acquisition. In her role there, Margaret oversaw relationships with hundreds of content suppliers. She also negotiated and closed deals with Random House, Macmillan, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Penguin Group and TOKYOPOP. In her own words, Margaret “brings a particular passion for rich narrative” to our endeavor. We think she’s a star on the rise—and we’re looking for other bright spots like her who want to join forces and turn our digital publishing galaxy into an enhanced universe.

Margaret will be working under Matthew Cavnar, who will be heading up the acquisitions efforts at Vook, seeking to close large deals and build on the success of the great authors and titles we’ve secured so far.

If you’re interested in being a part of this adventure, write Matthew at Matthew@vook.com

Twelve months ago today, we launched four Vooks in partnership with Simon & Schuster. At the time, the idea of video combined with books seemed innovative but perhaps a tad crazy — even to our supporters. But just one year later, we’ve seen an explosion in enhanced books and mixed media (kudos to the Apple iPad). At Vook, all we can say is, “Wow!”  It’s been an exciting ride since that memorable date with great publishing partners, authors, agents, engineers, filmmakers, investors and so many supportive readers and users. With 100 Vooks published including 1,000 videos, more than 175,000 Vooks have been downloaded.

What we have learned:

1. How to make better Vooks. The secret sauce includes great authors, well-written text, and smartly integrated and relevant videos. Almost all of our new Vooks earn out in about two months and begin making everyone money very quickly.
2. How to  produce Vooks faster. Our first four Vooks took four months to create. In September, we created 30 new Vooks. Goodbye to the 18-month book publishing cycle.
3. Vooks have a long digital shelf life. One of the first Vooks that we created was “The 90 Second Fitness Solution” by Pete Cerqua, which continues to sell well every day. In just the last four months alone, Pete’s Vook has sold almost 1,500 copies.
4. The hottest categories. We love Business Inspiration, such as our vooks from Gary Vaynerchuk, Seth Godin, Tom Peters and Steven Covey; Health, Fitness & Sports  is very popular with our new Pilates vooks with Alycea Ungaro and The 8-Step Golf Swing with Jim McLean ; Spirituality is hot with titles from Deepak Chopra and a series on Jesus Christ; and Entertainment is rocking with our Guns N’ Roses Vook. (That Vook was not as hot as Slash, but it burned up the charts for us!)
5. How to deliver what our readers want. They love our video, they want short-form text and they love to share.

What we are still striving to figure out:

1. Rights roadblocks. It represents a deterrent to innovation. We would rather hire more engineers, filmmakers and authors and hire fewer lawyers. But the legal landmines are holding back progress for all digital publishers. We have found collaboration works much better than confrontation.
2. The standards spaghetti. We have had great success with the Apple platform. But the new readers, devices and platforms have a myriad of different standards and make it difficult for all of us to get our creations in the hands of more consumers.
3. Meeting the needs of creators. We are paving new ground with creators of all kinds and they crave new digital platforms. The demand is overwhelming and we are working night and day to serve them, but it is a little daunting at times, even with our smart, agile and tenacious team.

In the end, this is so much fun that we can hardly contain ourselves — it’s the kind of experience you’d want to make a Vook about. As our founder Brad Inman likes to say, “We are like Lewis and Clark, stuck somewhere in Missouri, trying to figure out whether to carve a path this way or that. But we will get there!”

Looking to lose weight and be more healthy but don’t want to deal with being hungry all the time? In our newest Vook, The Full Plate Diet, you will learn how you can shed pounds while eating real food and portions.

With Vook’s newly designed look, use the beautiful charts to plan filling, healthy meals for the whole family. Take evaluative quizzes and watch instructional videos that immerse you in ways to live a healthy lifestyle without having to starve yourself or eat bland foods.