Annick Is Partnering with Open Road to Bring You Great E-Books!

We're pleased to announce that Annick Press has partnered with Open Road Media, a New York-based digital publisher and multimedia content company, to offer thirty-four of our titles as e-books. The titles include Robert Munsch’s children’s classic The Paper Bag Princess, the ten-book Mole Sisters series by Roslyn Schwartz, and original picture books such as Red Is Best by Kathy Stinson.

The e-books will be on sale this summer from Amazon.com, Apple iBookstore, BarnesandNoble.com, Google/IndieBound, Kobo Books, OverDrive, and the Sony Reader Store.

Our director and co-founder Rick Wilks had this to say:

“Annick has enjoyed over thirty-five years of publishing success. Now, as we prepare to position our program for the future, we are thrilled to partner with Open Road Media. Perhaps the foremost challenge facing creators of books for youth is finding the paths to connect with today’s readers. We’re confident that a relationship with Open Road will forge such a connection, to the betterment of all who appreciate access to both their favorite titles and to making new discoveries.”

And from Open Road, advisor Barbara Marcus said:

“Open Road is very excited about our new relationship with Annick Press. Annick publishes timeless titles that we have long admired. Now with Open Road, these books will also be available as ebooks, which we are excited to distribute and market to a new audience of digital readers.”

You can read more about this exciting news in the following places:

• Open Road Media blog
• Publishers Weekly 
• Quill & Quire

Digital Book World 2011

From Monday to Wednesday this week, I was in New York attending the 2011 Digital Book World conference. Here's what the Sheraton's Metropolitan Ballroom looked like at Monday night's opening ceremonies cocktail hour:

The opening ceremonies also included some great 7x20x21 presentations (seven presenters each show 20 slides, and each slide can appear for no more than 21 seconds). One presenter was Sarah Wendell, who runs the website Smart Bitches Trashy Books:

Besides giving a presentation about her relationship with ebooks that was both funny and insightful, Sarah also blogged about her overall DBW experience. (She also made a DBW drinking game based on buzzwords that kept coming up.)

Tuesday and Wednesday were packed with panels and presentations on everything from metadata (a hot topic) to enhanced ebooks vs. apps to the evolving roles of agents and independent booksellers. If you weren't able to attend, never fear: Paul Biba of Teleread.com has posted great summaries of many of the panels. If you're at all interested in how the publishing industry is evolving to accommodate ebooks and other digital initiatives, definitely check them out!

Check Out Our Spooky Halloween Blog Tour, Oct. 25-29!

In celebration of the release of our ebook edition of Drew Hayden Taylor's The Night Wanderer, six blogs are hosting a spooky Halloween blog tour from Oct. 25-29. There will be interviews with the author, reviews, and giveaways, so stop on by!

Here's the trick-or-treat schedule:
Oct. 25: Teresa's Reading Corner
Oct. 26: A Girl Reads A Book and YA Book Shelf (plus a bonus interview)
Oct. 27: Chick Loves Lit
Oct. 28: Word of Mouse Book Reviews
Oct. 29: Tahleen’s Mixed-Up Files

The ebook will be live on Kobo next week, along with some special promotional pricing, so check back in on Monday!