Authors that have worked with Expanded Books:

Dr. Arthur Agaston Ray Bradbury Orson Scott Card William S. Cohen Pat Conroy Cornelia Funke Teri Garr Elizabeth Gilbert Terry Goodkind Kathy Griffin

Eric Idle Dr. David A. Kessler Tracy Kidder Dean Koontz Carson Kressley Howie Mandel Alonzo Mourning Dr. Nicholas Perricone Michael Pollan Jerry Rice

Jessica Seinfeld Brian Selznick Maurice Sendak Danielle Steele Gloria Steinem David Stills Donald Trump Dionne Warwick

The Expanded Books story

In 2004, as popular NBC sitcom, Friends was coming to a close, MSN contacted Todd Stevens, Co-Executive Producer of Friends and Co-Founder of Expanded Books, for exclusive video content. They wanted to broadcast video tied in with the Friends finale on MSN Video. Naturally, the cast of Friends was already committed to an endless line of TV interviews. In search of an alternative, Todd had an idea about creating a video around a newly released Friends tie-in book entitled, Friends 'til the End. This book happened to be packaged and edited by Skye Van Raalte-Herzog who worked at Warner Bros. Worldwide Publishing at the time. The idea of creating a video based on book content proved to be a groundbreaking concept. The video was aired in conjunction with the finale of Friends and was extremely successful. Todd and Skye immediately discussed the possibility of developing further videos. Expanded Books was formed.

Videos for the Publishing Industry Few publishers had thought of using videos to promote books back in 2004 when Expanded Books was formed. In fact at the time there was no identifiable production company dedicated to providing TV-quality video production to publishers. Expanded Books was a pioneering company, promoting the idea of marketing books by merging two forms of media. In those days, the publishing world thought in terms of "words on paper" when marketing books. The video produced by Todd and Skye for the finale of NBC's, Friends became the first in a line of celebrity book promotions developed by Expanded Books in the early days. There was also: Carson Kressley's, Off the Cuff, and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. Almost a decade later, it is standard practice for publishers to promote books using video. Expanded Books remains at the forefront of their production.

Expanded Books Today Expanded Books is unique in that they are able to produce any type of book-based video content: trailers, commercials and TV series. They develop videos for any author, in any genre. The goal at Expanded Books is to work closely with authors (or their reps: publishers, publicists, agents, etc) to conceptualize and adapt ideas from books to the video screen. Expanded Books has a broad, engaging approach that often includes live-action, author interviews, dramatizations, animation, stills, and even long form programming, ranging in length from 8 - 30 minutes--for TV, web, or DVD distribution.

Full-Service Production Expanded Books is the only company that offers publishers and authors the ease of one-stop production and distribution. No matter how ambitious your ideas, Expanded Books has the background and experience to make them happen. Contact Expanded Books Today to Discuss Your Work.

Expanded Books Principals

Todd Stevens, Executive Producer Todd Stevens is Co-Founder of Expanded Books. An accomplished television producer, Todd has enjoyed decades of success producing an assortment of highly acclaimed television series. He was Co-Executive Producer of NBC's Emmy Award-winning sitcom, Friends, and was also involved in the production of an array of legendary TV series' such as Cheers, Sydney (starring Valerie Bertinelli), Mary (starring Mary Tyler Moore) and Cheers spin-off, The Tortellis. Todd is currently the Producer of the CBS sitcom, Mike and Molly. Todd is considered a veteran web producer, having begun producing and distributing original content through MSN Video in 2002. The first video channel he launched, was Weird TV. Since that time, Todd has supplied more than 600 videos to MSN and Yahoo!, each made exclusively for the web.

Skye Van Raalte-Herzog, Producer Skye Van Raalte-Herzog is Co-Founder of Expanded Books. Skye worked at Warner Bros Worldwide Publishing for almost a decade before forming Expanded Books. Skye was instrumental in producing film and television tie-in books for Warner Bros and as a result has collaborated with almost every major U.S. publishing house on tie-in books. Skye has produced books in a variety of formats throughout her career: novelizations, coffee table books, script books, and episode guides, usually blending various forms of media for optimal promotion. Skye was also entrusted with producing and developing hundreds of children's books based on premier Warner Bros properties such as Harry Potter, The Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, and The Jetsons. Successful, high-visibility titles Skye has worked on include: Friends...'Til the End, the bestselling coffee table book published in May 2004, a title that celebrated all ten years of the Emmy award-winning show; The Last Samurai companion book, The West Wing, and The Art of the Matrix.