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HarperCollins is to publish Darren Shan's backlist as e-books, having concluded a deal with the Christopher Little Agency for the digital rights.
Shan has been published in print by HarperCollins Children's Books for a decade but it is the first time the digital rights were offered for sale. The deal is for digital rights in the UK and Ireland; in the US Little, Brown already publishes the books digitally.
The 24 e-books go on sale today [21st March] at an introductory price of £2.49 and includes the bestselling series The Saga of Darren Shan, The Demonata and The Saga of Larten Crepsley. After two weeks the digital books will be priced at £4.49.
The deal was concluded by Rachel Denwood, fiction publishing director, with Christopher Little and Rachel Clements at The Christopher Little Literary Agency.
Denwood said: “I am delighted to be extending our phenomenally successful partnership with Darren Shan to include digital publishing." She said the "digital strand [would] cement Darren Shan's position as the unrivalled master of teen horror, across all platforms".
Little added: “We’re thrilled that Darren’s children’s titles with HarperCollins will now be made available digitally and look forward to seeing Darren’s worldwide popularity increase still further.”
In an exclusive blog published on FutureBook.net, Shan said: "I love the entire concept of e-books. As a child growing up in rural Ireland in the 1980s, I had very limited access to books. It was hard to know what was happening in the world of children’s literature, and harder still to get access to new, exciting novels. The internet has changed all that. Now it’s possible for readers anywhere in the world to have instant access to any book that grabs their interest. The arguments that naysayers make against e-books don’t hold water."
Shan's next print book Oceans of Blood will follow in May 2011. His books have sold over 3m copies in the UK and Ireland and 20m worldwide.