Hi gang, Good news from our Publisher Liaison! I received this from her today: ---- Simon & Schuster has signed our agreement, granting us world rights. They have 5,200 titles in EPUB format which they will be uploading shortly with an additional 800 backlist files in conversion. We expect to receive 100 titles a month ongoing. S&S, founded in 1924, is a division of CBS Corporation and is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin, and HarperCollins. It publishes over 2,000 titles annually under 35 different imprints, including Pocket Books, Scribner, Free Press, Atria, Fireside, Touchstone, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Little Simon, Simon Spotlight, and Simon Spotlight Entertainment. S&S has won 54 Pulitzer Prizes and been the recipient of numerous National Book Awards, National Book Critics Circle Awards, Grammy Awards, and Newbery and Caldecott Medals. The New York Times Book Review's "10 Best Books of 2009" list included Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls; A Short History of Women by Kate Walbert; and Raymond Carver by Carol Sklenicka. S&S authors include Stephen King, Mary Higgins Clark, Bob Woodward, David McCullough, Jackie Collins, Hillary Clinton, and Michael Moore. They publish 27 dramatic works, including The Miracle Worker by William Gibson. Simon and Schuster.net offers resources for K-12 and higher ed educators and librarians such as classroom activities, reading and curriculum guides, reading lists by state of award-winning titles, and suggested titles for course adoption. They publish the Folger Shakespeare Library with full explanatory notes, The Ernest Hemingway Library, and the Scott Fitzgerald Library. The “Enriched Classics Books” series consists of annotated editions of over 80 classic works of literature and nonfiction. S&S has 1500 employees and distributes its titles in more than 100 countries and territories around the world. It has publishing and distribution capabilities in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, as well as an international sales presence in every major market.--- Carrie again. The answer to your first question is no, we don't know when they will be sending us the books. And no, we don't know which books they will send us. Believe me, if we knew, we'd tell you! So now HarperCollins, Random House, and Simon&Schuster are giving us their books in digital format free. Wahoo! Usually the books that publishing houses digitize first are their most recent books, and then they work backwards in time. No idea if they will digitize ALL of the books that they have ever published, or if they will stop at some point. So should you scan a book from one of these publishers? If it's an old book, sure, you bet, please scan it. If it's a more recent book, I dunno. Please be warned that the more recent the book, the greater the likelihood that we will be getting the book from the publisher. No idea WHEN the book will appear, but chances are high that it will be soon. I am especially excited to put the play, The Miracle Worker, into the collection. I have had a LOT of requests for it. And it's certainly appropriate for Bookshare! Hope everyone is having a wonderful day! Carrie