Continuum Aims for 2,000 E-books

SOURCE:The Bookseller

Academic and trade publisher Continuum is to make up to 1,000 of its backlist titles available as e-books over the next six months, following an agreement with digital conversion company codeMantra.

The number will be doubled by the end of the year, and Continuum sales and marketing director Ken Rhodes hopes to have the entire 6,000-strong backlist available as e-books by the end of the decade."From e-books and print-on-demand we’re expecting revenues of between 15 and 20 per cent by 2010," he said.

He cautioned however that a substantial proportion of this would come from print-on-demand rather than e-books.

Continuum publishes around 500 new books a year and a proportion of these will also be put online this year. Rhodes said that all online sales would be made through third parties and that there would be no direct selling.