The Bookseller.com

4th July 2008

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Penguin's frontlist goes digital

11.04.08 Benedicte Page

Penguin UK is set to be the first of the major UK trade publishers to put all its new black and white titles simultaneously into print and e-book format. From September new titles will be available in the .epub format from the company's own websites and from digital retailers, at the same price as the print edition.

"We're aiming to do it for everything where we have permissions, other than our illustrated publishing," said spokesman Joanna Prior. "We're contacting all agents and asking them to agree, and we're hoping ultimately we'll get to a position of blanket agreement."

The first simultaneous print/e-book titles will include Zoe Heller's new novel The Believers, and the paperbacks of Elizabeth Noble's Things I Want My Daughter to Know and Alan Greenspan's The Age of Turbulence. Also in the schedule are a new edition of The Three Musketeers by Dumas from Penguin Classics, The Rough Guide to Ultimate Adventures and DK's Battle at Sea.

Digital director Genevieve Shore described the move as "an important step." She said: "We have seen in other markets that the digital bestsellers are the same books making it to the top of the bestseller lists and we know our readers expect both editions to be available at the same time."

A project to ready the 5,000-strong Penguin backlist for e-book publication during this year and next is already under way.

The .epub format is the International Digital Publishing Forum’s (IDPF) standard file type for digital books. According to IDPF many e-book providers have implemented or announced implementation plans for using the .epub format on their readers, including Adobe, Sony Reader, eBook Technologies, Mobipocket, OSoft and Vitalsource Technologies.

 

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