The blurb for it is here http://digitalpublishing.org.nz/index.php/great-nz-ebooks hosted off the Digital Publishing website established by NZSA and the Booksellers Association.
Even NBR http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/largest-collection-nz-ebooks-could-be-ready-christmas-aw-100595 ran an article in September last year saying the venture could be live for Christmas 2011 and that 400 books has been funded to be converted. Apparently the site "is where you can find New Zealand’s best literary work being promoted and retailed online. The website has author and publisher profiles, consumer reviews, and links to retail partners where the eBooks can be purchased." Notice how this promotion text is all in the present tense, as if it's already been done.
Also the site was to present books produced for the Kobe platform http://www.kobobooks.com/ and as an author with two books produced for this platform by my publisher I was curious to see what was going on. But nothing. The site is dead: http://greatnzebooks.co.nz/ and no word from Mr Taylor despite my repeated tweets to him yesterday such as this one: https://twitter.com/#!/paul_shannon/status/182633053808631808
This was supposedly a not-for-profit venture and it'd be nice to know what is happening with this investment in the future of New Zealand authorship.
4 comments:
One of the reasons I resigned from the NZSA was because of their involvment with this site. At least twice they appealed for authors to apply to have their work turned into e-books...many notable authors didnt want to have anything to do with the proposed site for many reasons (not least that CLL was involved.)
I agree with you Keri. Don't see my membership being renewed either.
Hi Graham
Thought I would just let you know that Paul has made an error in his post concerning the ownership of the Digital Publishing website. It is owned by CCL which is jointly owned by the NZ Society of Authors and the Publisher’s Association of New Zealand, not Booksellers NZ. Perhaps you could post my note as a comment.
Cheers
Lincoln
Lincoln Gould
Chief Executive
Great NZ Ebooks is the collection marketing website for ebooks NZ authors and publishers are converting and distributing through Digital Publishing NZ (DPNZ). DPNZ is owned by NZSA and PANZ - Publishers Assn of NZ (not Booksellers). The establishment of DPNZ was funded by Copyright Licensing Ltd (CLL). The conversion of 400 titles is well underway, however the time taken to convert from printed books and secure rights to images and other third party content has meant that the formal launch of the website has been delayed.
Martin Taylor was involved in the very initial phases of the project but has no current involvement - I expect this is why he has not responded to your tweets.
DPNZ is a not for profit company committed to provided digital asset management and distribution services to NZ rightsholders. As soon as a reasonable quantity of the 400 titles that are being converted are approved by their rightsholder for being availble for sale, we will initiate promotion of the website.
There's nothing to hide here Paul - everything we are doing is being undertaken to benefit NZ authors and publishers.
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