S&S Making E-Backlist Available on Scribd and Oyster

Shelf Awareness

Simon & Schuster is making its backlist e-book titles available to consumers via Oyster and Scribd, both of which offer Netflix-style flat-rate plans allowing subscribers to read an unlimited number of e-books. Titles include backlist from S&S companies worldwide, with e-books available in the countries where S&S has e-book rights. As part of the program, S&S authors will have access to information on subscribers' reading and purchasing activity for their titles.

S&S joins HarperCollins and Wiley as major publishers participating in Oyster and Scribd, which charge subscribers, respectively, $9.95 and $8.99 per month.

S&S president and CEO Carolyn Reidy said, "Consumers have clearly taken to subscription models for other media, and we expect that our participation in these services will encourage discovery of our books, grow the audience and expand our retail reach for our authors, and create new revenue streams under an author-friendly, advantageous business model for both author and publisher."