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e-Books to be Considered for National Book Award

© Richard Loeffler

Overdive (http://www.overdrive.com) announced today the opening of the first European retail store in the Content Reserve Network to sell secure eBooks from US publishers. Since opening last month, more than 250 international and US publishers have joined the Content Reserve network to securely distribute their titles to a global channel of trusted retailers. "eBook retailers throughout Europe are preparing to sell English titles from US publishers such as Random House, McGraw-Hill and Time-Warner Publishing while US booksellers are preparing boutiques to sell eBook titles in French, Italian, Swedish and other European languages," stated Pamela Turner, Content Reserve Director of Content. "We are delighted that Rubiconbooks, a Danish eBookstore operated by Autotext of Denmark, will open this month with hundreds of US eBook titles in Microsoft Reader with ClearType format," Ms. Turner added. eBooks are electronic or paperless versions of books sold by Internet bookstores for reading on a PC or PDA. "OverDrive's eBook inventory and DRM services allowed us to quickly and affordably open our eBookstore with titles from both local Danish publishers as well as best sellers from leading US publishers", stated Anders Buhl, Autotext CEO. "Content Reserve provides access to best sellers from a dozen countries through the Internet across languages, national boundaries, time zones and currencies," Buhl added. "Content Reserve is the first global, digital content distribution center that takes advantage of the Internet and the advances in Digital Rights Management," stated OverDrive CEO Steve Potash. "Currently we are working with over 60 retailers to add secure eBook inventory to their businesses. Nearly one-third are outside of the US," Potash added. OverDrive has entered into Application Service Partnerships with Autotext of Copenhagen, Denmark (www.autotext.dk) serving the Scandinavian publishing community; Emotionbooks.com, of Milan, Italy; and Estuary Technologies of Dublin, Ireland. European Content Reserve Network members include http://www.epocket.fr, Vivendi Universal Publishing (France); http://www.ePan.se, KF Media (Sweden); http://www.libuk.com, (Italy); http://www.pocketmanager.com, (Ireland) with dozens more scheduled to open this summer.

The National Book Foundation announced last Friday, that it would consider opening the National Book Awards this year to e-books. The awards have four categories of $10,000 each and are considered one of the highest honours for a book in the United States.

Books published only in electronic format will be accepted in the existing categories of fiction, non-fiction, young people's literature and poetry, the foundation will not accept the books in electronic form for consideration in the awards program. The awards will be presented in November in New York City. The annoucement was made this week at the American Booksellers Convention in Chicago.

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