[bookshare-discuss] FW: The Independent Publishers Group Has Signed Our Agreement on Behalf of Their Publishing Clients

From: Madeleine Linares <Madeleinel@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "bksvol-discuss-repost@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <bksvol-discuss-repost@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2012 21:01:08 +0000

Hi all,

Just received this exciting note from our Director of Content Acquisition:

"The Independent Publishers Group (IPG), the second-largest distributor of
independent books in the U.S. (after the Perseus Books Group), based in
Chicago, Illinois, has signed our agreement. IPG represents 500 publishers,
of whom 300 are participating in its digital program. Of the 6,200 titles they
distribute digitally, 5,100 are in EPUB and the remainder in Mobi and PDF. We
would be maximally eligible for 3,000 to 3,500 of those titles as the agreement
excludes distribution from the UK and Australian branches of the multinational
trade publishers (Random House, HarperCollins, S&S and Hachette) and, in the
case of Macmillan, from their US operation.

Annual frontlist that we would be maximally eligible to receive would be from
2,500 to 3,000 each year. IPG received enormous media attention in February
when Amazon yanked 5,000 of their titles from the Kindle eBook store over IPG's
refusal to accept their new terms of service. Those titles were recently
reinstated on May 25th. In the several months that IPG titles were down, they
turned their resources to converting their backlist to EPUB, of which we are
the fortunate beneficiary. Their metadata is in ONIX.

IPG will be alerting its clients later this month about its agreement with
Bookshare in its bi-monthly newsletter. They will offer publishers an
"opt-out" scenario so that publishers will be automatically enrolled with
Bookshare unless they inform IPG they do not wish to participate. IPG will
give them four weeks to opt-out. By the middle to end of August, we'll have a
firm list of which publishers are on board.

Half of IPG's clients are international. Clients include publishers from the
UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, the Netherlands, Israel, Spain and
other countries. They distribute ten university presses in Australia, New
Zealand, the UK, and the Netherlands (Auckland, Canterbury, Melbourne,
Northumbria, Nottingham, Hertfordshire, New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria,
and VU University Press (Amsterdam)).

Their larger publishing clients include

* Allen & Unwin (1,100 titles), Australia's leading independent
publisher;

* Chicago Review Press (443 titles), a cutting edge independent
publisher of general nonfiction in music, film, popular science, history,
biography, and travel, as well as an award-winning line of children's activity
books;

* ECW (929 ), which publishes books for young adults as well as poetry
and fiction, mystery, pop-culture and political analysis, sports books,
biography, business, and travel guides.

Of interest to the team will be their client, the Islamic Texts Society in the
UK (51 titles), which produces English translations of works of traditional
importance to the Islamic faith and culture. IPG distributes print books in
Spanish for a dozen Spanish-language publishers but at this point has a
relatively modest digital program (50 titles), which is expected to grow as the
Spanish-language market is experiencing a period of explosive growth in ebooks.

IPG also distributes for associations such as:

* The American Cancer Society

* The American Academy of Pediatrics

* The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), which publishes quality
social science in Africa

* The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
(International IDEA)

* The American Psychoanalytic Association"

So exciting!

Best,

Madeleine Linares
Volunteer Coordinator
Bookshare, a Benetech Initiative
650-644-3459
madeleinel@xxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:madeleinel@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

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[bookshare-discuss] FW: The Independent Publishers Group Has Signed Our Agreement on Behalf of Their Publishing Clients

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