Penguin Announces Ebook Publishing Plans

Posted on August 24, 2001

Penguin announced that it is launching an ebook publishing program in September with a list of over 200 titles from the Penguin catalogue. The ebooks will be branded with the new imprint name, ePenguin. Fiction ranges from Emma by Jane Austen to English Passengers by Matthew Kneale, and non-fiction from The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin to Business @ the Speed of Thought by Bill Gates. Starting with Junk and Bloodtide by Melvyn Burgess, ePenguin will also publish for the teen and children�s market. Rough Guide ebooks will also be available from the Penguin website.

Penguin.co.uk will be the primary retail outlet for ePenguin. Consumers will be able to purchase and download titles directly from the Penguin website onto desktop, laptop and, eventually handheld computers. ePenguins will also be available for download from selected online retailers.

Lightning Source Inc. will provide Penguin with digital fulfillment package from the digitisation of content to secure delivery of ePenguins to the consumer. ePenguins will be published initially in Microsoft Reader and Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader. The majority of ePenguins will sell at 20% cheaper than their print book equivalents.

Penguin UK�s epublishing program has an in-house team headed by Andrew Rosenheim, MD of The Penguin Press and Caroline Benn, Director of Online Marketing. Ebook editor Jeremy Ettinghausen is responsible for the publication of the ePenguin list.