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This Chapter Is Cut Out For You

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By Hardy Green

This Chapter Is Cut Out For You

The latest buzzword in publishing? “Chunking,” slicing up books to sell the pieces. Chunking was a hot issue at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October, as nonfiction publishers joined everybody else in trying to turn digitization into dollars. Hay House, which puts out self-help and spiritual books, is using some of its content to produce calendars and cards. McGraw-Hill Professional (which, like BusinessWeek, is part of The McGraw-Hill Companies) now sells chapters of such technical books as Perry’s Chemical Engineers’ Handbook ($199 for the newest edition). And via its Web site and Amazon.com, Harvard Business Publishing offers digital chapters from 120 of its books. Each costs $6.95, the same as Harvard Business Review has been charging for its articles. Will chunking eat into book sales? McGraw-Hill Professional President Philip Ruppel says people interested in just a chapter or two “would probably not buy the whole book if that was their only choice.”