DK Online hosts its own sites but had already been considering moving to an outside host, he said. The present 33,000 pages were likely to double or even treble by Christmas as a result of putting the books online. Browse before buying Dorling Kindersley is famous for children's, reference and cross-section books. It also publishes CDRoms and videos. If people wanted to they could download every page but the cost in ink cartridges, paper and time online wouldn't make it worth it.
Any books ordered online are delivered free of charge anyway, the company says.
Profits rise Already the complete text and illustrations of Dorling Kindersley's Star Wars are available online, as well as many volumes of its travel and language titles and the Maths Made Easy series. The company said if publishing books online did hit sales, the service would be halted. Visual Dictionary - were the group's largest selling titles in the year, making 10.6m. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.