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20-400: Microsoft Home produced software for all different home uses and environments. The products are divided into five categories: Reference & Exploration, Entertainment, Kids, Home Productivity and Sounds, and Sights & Gear. The category in which the product was divided is identifiable by the packaging. Generally, Reference & Exploration products have a purple base color, Entertainment has

40-448: A black base color, Kids has a yellow base color, Home Productivity has a green color and Sounds, Sights & Gear products have a grey or red base color. Note that many applications were developed in conjunction with other reputable software and reference companies. For example, Microsoft Musical Instruments was developed with Dorling Kindersley . Microsoft Home Reference products brought information to Multimedia Personal Computers - it

60-402: A book-packaging company. Once the book-packaging company has produced the book, they then sell it to the final publishing company . In this arrangement, the book-packaging company acts as a liaison between a publishing company and the writers, researchers, editors, and printers that design and produce the book. Book packagers thus blend the roles of agent, editor, and publisher. Book-packaging

80-416: A ghostwriter's novel becomes a bestseller, the writer will not receive additional payment. Often, writers or creators working for book-packagers work anonymously as ghostwriters, under the book-packaging company name ("by our staff writers"), or under a pen name . In some cases, a writer's work will be credited to someone else's name, such as a celebrity , who is paid to be listed as the credited author as

100-514: A purple-skinned character named McZee who wears wacky attire and leads children through the fictional town of Imaginopolis, where each building or room is a unique interface to a different part of the software. He is accompanied by a different partner in each software title. Tying in with the TV series, Microsoft Scholastic's The Magic School Bus was a highly successful series that continued to be sold after Microsoft Home's kids range of software turned into

120-643: A subsidiary called Microsoft Kids . Dorling Kindersley Dorling Kindersley Limited (branded as DK ) is a British multinational publishing company specialising in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 63 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House , a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann . Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including DK Eyewitness Travel ), history, geography, science, space, nature, sports, gardening, cookery, parenting and many others. The worldwide CEO of DK

140-491: A very marketable name as the credited author, while using a professional ghostwriter to do most of the writing, researching, and editing. Book-packaging is a common strategy between smaller publishers in different territorial markets where the company that first buys the intellectual property rights, sells a package to other publishers and gains an immediate return on capital invested. The first publisher will often print sufficient copies for all territories and thereby obtain

160-563: A wholly owned subsidiary of Bertelsmann. In 2019, Prima Games was sold to Asteri Holdings. DK publishes a range of titles internationally for adults and children. Most of the company's books are produced by teams of editors, designers and cartographers who work with freelance writers and illustrators. Some are endorsed by "imprimaturs": such as the British Medical Association , the Royal Horticultural Society and

180-533: Is Paul Kelly. DK has offices in New York, Melbourne, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto, Madrid, Beijing, and Jiangmen. DK works with licensing partners such as Disney , LEGO , DC Comics , the Royal Horticultural Society , MasterChef , and the Smithsonian Institution . DK has commissioned authors such as Mary Berry , Monty Don , Robert Winston , Huw Richards, and Steve Mould for a range of books. DK

200-500: Is common in the genre fiction market, particularly for books aimed at preteens and teenagers, and in the illustrated non-fiction co-edition market. Publishing companies use the services of book-packaging companies in cases where the publishing company does not have the in-house resources to handle a project. There are two main reasons that publishing houses hire a book-packaging company: labor-intensive books (books with many illustrations or photographs, books which require coordinating

220-773: The British Red Cross . BradyGames was a publishing company in the United States operating as a DK imprint , which specializes in video game strategy guides , covering multiple video game platforms . It published its first strategy guide in November 1993 as a division of MacMillan Computer Publishing . In 1998, Simon & Schuster (which acquired Macmillan in 1994) divested BradyGames as part of its educational division to Pearson plc . BradyGames has grown to publish roughly 90-100 guides per year. On 1 June 2015, BradyGames merged with Prima Games , and future strategy guides made by

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240-511: The computer gamers of the time to migrate from MS-DOS to Microsoft Windows. This transition permitted better use of computer graphics, revolutionized game programming and resulted in a more realistic gaming experience, compared to DOS gaming. For example, Microsoft Windows Entertainment Pack Games have remained a classic for computer gamers, ever since their development in the early 1990s. The Microsoft Kids division produced educational software aimed at children in 1993. Their products feature

260-645: The DK Ink imprint, but Grolier sued the trio. DK and Grolier settled the lawsuit. In 1999, DK overestimated the market for Star Wars books and was left with millions of unsold copies, resulting in crippling debt. As a direct result, DK was taken over the following year by the Pearson plc media company and made part of Penguin Group , which also owned the Penguin Books label. DK has continued to sell Star Wars books after

280-466: The input of several authors, or 'novelty' books, such as gardening books that contain seed packages) and series books (e.g., Nancy Drew , Sweet Valley High , Goosebumps , and the For Dummies series). In many cases, the book is first conceived as a marketing concept, and a writer is then hired to write the book on a work for hire basis. In some cases, book packaging companies use a celebrity with

300-493: The maximum quantity discounts on the print run for all. While the book-packaging sector is little-known outside the publishing world, it provides employment to many freelance authors and illustrators, particularly for those willing to work as ghostwriters , without credit in the book. Most book packaging companies pay a flat rate for manuscripts ranging from several thousand dollars to $ 1 per word. However, most book packaging companies do not pay royalties , which means that even if

320-537: The publishing company were published under the Prima Games label, which was sold to Asteri Holdings in 2019. DK commenced publishing books aimed at teens with the release of Heads Up Psychology in 2014. Book packaging Book packaging (or book producing) is a publishing activity in which a publishing company outsources the myriad tasks involved in putting together a book—writing, researching, editing, illustrating, and even printing—to an outside company called

340-554: The takeover. In 2013, Bertelsmann and Pearson completed a merger to form Penguin Random House. Bertelsmann owned 53% and Pearson 47% of the company. Penguin's trade publishing activity continued to include DK under the newly formed Penguin Random House. In July 2017, Pearson agreed to sell a 22% stake in the business to Bertelsmann, thereby retaining a 25% holding. In December 2019, Bertelsmann agreed to acquire Pearson's 25% in Penguin Random House, and therefore DK, making it

360-405: The way that we find and explore information. In the early 1990s, games on personal computers generally ran on the now obsolete MS-DOS operating system. However, with the introduction of Microsoft Windows 3.1x in 1992, Microsoft Home published several entertainment applications that implemented the new technologies of Microsoft Windows such as DirectX . Furthermore, these applications encouraged

380-491: Was an effective way of presenting and exploring information before the World Wide Web became mainstream. These products were embellished with hyperlink relatively new at this time. Most of these products were released on CD-ROM , giving the software the ability to display high-resolution graphics and animations, and play high-quality waveforms and MIDI files. These products proved that personal computers would revolutionize

400-663: Was founded in 1974 by Christopher Dorling and Peter Kindersley in London as a book packager . Its first book as a publisher in the UK was First Aid Manual for the British voluntary medical services. In 1988, DK Inc. published the first Eyewitness book. DK Inc. began publishing in the United States in 1991. That same year, Microsoft bought a 26 percent stake in DK. In 1996, DK hired Neal Porter, Richard Jackson and Melanie Kroupa from Orchard Books to start

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