First Enhanced eBooks/Apps Venture for Movies

enkHouse, a new digital division under Brown Books Publishing Group, has launched its joint venture with KiwiTech, the world's leading enhanced eBook/app developer. Together they are taking the lead in the exploding market of enhanced eBooks and film-based apps. This launch comes within days of Penguin Publishing and Starz Entertainment releasing their first "amplified eBook", Ken Follett's "Pillars of the Earth".

Rakesh Gupta, CEO and Founder of KiwiTech, also founded and led Aptara Corporation, the largest eBook publishing services company in the world. "This alignment gives us tremendous opportunities to enter new markets, especially the film-to-enhanced-eBook market," says Gupta. "Our companies are a good team, sharing entrepreneurial spirits and decades of innovative work across the media spectrum."

EnkHouse is led by David Marlett, a film industry consultant, screenwriter and producer, who is himself an author. (His first novel will be published by Brown in the fall.) He comes to enkHouse as Transmedia Producer, a new designation of the Producers Guild of America. "The three keys to a successful enhanced eBook are content, content, content," says Marlett. Having been represented by William Morris Endeavor, he has over twenty years of experience writing and consulting on screenplays and productions for studios and producers such as DreamWorks, Arnold Kopelson and Michael Ovitz.

"This is an exciting time for writers, publishers, producers and developers alike," says Milli Brown, CEO of Brown Books, a publisher with fifteen years of growth in the traditional print industry, with thousands of books published. "We complement the digital team with a rich tradition of distinctive print books."

"Besides bringing print books alive in ways almost never before seen," says Marlett. "enkHouse and KiwiTech are uniquely positioned to provide film and television producers with fresh marketing and new distribution opportunities for content they already own. Similar to how interactive DVDs and 3D technology revolutionized storytelling in cinema, enhanced eBooks will revolutionize how we read a book and hear about upcoming movies."

"You'll not only read your favorite book on your ereader," adds Marlett, "but you will interact with it by bringing up images, music and videos—transforming the written story into a multi-dimensional experience." In addition, ereaders will get updates and news about film adaptations and more pushed right to their smart phones or tablet computers. "Basically, if a movie and a book hooked up, their love child would be an enhanced eBook," he says with a wry smile.

enkHouse (http://www.enkhouse.com/) is a transmedia company based in Los Angeles, CA and Dallas, TX.