Canadian ebook bundling service Shelfie enters US market

Canadian ebook bundling service Shelfie has partnered with Harvard Book Store in the US to offer digital editions of four print books, reports Publishers Weekly. The partnership—Shelfie’s first with a US bookstore—allows customers who purchase a copy of Chris Anderson’s Ted Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking, Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies and Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything: The Basics (all Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) to access the ebook through the Shelfie app. Shelfie vice-president of content Mary Alice Elcock said ‘what makes Shelfie unique is that we are a digital company in support of print. We only make a sale when a reader has first purchased a print book.’ Harvard Book Store owner Jeff Mayersohn said he jumped at the chance to trial the service. ‘We believe that bundling the ebook and print book will be of great value to our customers,’ he said. Shelfie currently has 1300 publishers participating in its service, including HarperCollins, Macmillan and Hachette.

Category: International news