Copyright Licensing Limited (CLL)
has announced that, following the completion of the conversion of 400 New
Zealand titles from print to digital, the services of its company – Digital
Publishing NZ (DPNZ) – will be discontinued.
CLL has been engaged with the New Zealand publishing sector to energise
digital in New Zealand since 2008. Over the past 2 years, DPNZ has worked
alongside independent publishers and authors to up-skill the sector and invest
in conversion and distribution of e-books.
The
board of DPNZ has, over the last year, worked with people within the
industry and outside consultants to investigate the commercial feasibility of
DPNZ. As a result of those investigations on how the local industry might
advance the original objectives it is now clear that the level of investment
required to develop a home grown NZ solution to achieve these initiatives would
outweigh the ability of the industry to invest and earn revenue from these
projects.
Paula Browning, Chief Executive of
CLL says, “It has been an eventful couple of years and in the short time since
DPNZ was established, the digital publishing world has gone through some
exciting changes. With the increase in demand for books in electronic
formats, we are now seeing some of the big names in the publishing world step
into the local market in search of content for distribution”.
One such distributor is
Faber Factory which was set up 18 months ago by the reputable independent
publisher Faber & Faber. Much like DPNZ, Faber Factory was established
to assist independent publishers in the UK to convert, store and distribute
titles through their existing network of international retailers. Recently,
they partnered with The Perseus Books Group in the US to use its Constellation
Digital Services infrastructure. Faber Factory has been successful in
providing these services to independent publishers in the UK and now they have
teamed up with Allen & Unwin (A&U) in
Australia who will also offer this service in NZ.
The past few years have been a rollercoaster
for publishing worldwide. DPNZ and its shareholders believe that the investment
and support Copyright Licensing Ltd has made into digital publishing in NZ has
given the sector a comprehensive step-up that will enable NZ publishers and
authors to actively participate in evolving the e-book
world.
4 comments:
This not a surprise.
me.books (Vic. University) had done it earlier -and way better - and I suspect they make very little out of the site (happy to stand corrected Fergus!)
There is HUGE publicity for e-readers - but no corresponding HUGE uptakes for the things.
A very large segment on the *book-buying* public in ANZ doesnt want a bar of them-
I should be utterly amazed that a failed venture - which used up a lot of $$$ that could be better used among better authorly causes - is sunk beneath publicity-smarm speak and writers' inertia.
I resigned from the NZSA on this issue.
Sure as shit, aint going to rejoion any time soon.
What happened tp my earlier comment?
Bookman - are you *censoring* stuff?
I resigned from NZAS on this matter:a lot of monies, better put into authors ,was totally wasted in this project - who is to be called to account for a foolish venture?
Post a Comment