Kindle Stores are now open in the UK,
France, Germany, Italy and Spain. From many other markets, a Kindle
device owner can order Kindle titles from the U.S. store, and it is
just a matter of time before many other Kindle Store markets are
open.
Each of these Kindle Stores is robustly
stocked with English language e-books. In the UK Store, those titles
will be sourced either from a UK publisher with exclusive UK rights
or from a U.S. publisher with world English rights. The other stores
are all part of the Open Market and as such most of the time can be
accessed nonexclusively by either the U.S. or the UK publisher.
For print books sold in
brick-and-mortar bookstores, typically the UK publisher covered the
EU and Asia, and the U.S. publisher covered Latin America and most of
South America. But digital distribution changes all of that.
RosettaBooks has worldwide English
rights for about half of its catalog and Open Market rights for many
more titles. So RosettaBooks titles are currently populating these
international Kindle Stores.
Kindle has recently begun merchandising
U.S.-sourced English language titles in its UK and Germany stores.
The #1 title in the RosettaBooks
catalog, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R.
Covey, was recently the beneficiary of this expanded promotion. On
January 28, 7 Habits was the Kindle Daily Deal (at $.99 for 24
hours) in the United States and rose to #1 all categories in the
Kindle Store. On February 10, 7 Habits was the Kindle Daily
Deal in the UK Store (99 pence for 24 hours) and rose to #2 all
categories. On February 12, 7 Habits was the Kindle Daily
Deal in the Germany Store (1.09 Euros for 24 hours) and rose to #1
all categories.
This merchandising “trifecta”
illustrates the beginning of a major expansion of opportunity for
English language titles. Until now, Open Market rights for print
books were usually a modest part of the overall copyright value. All
of that is about to change due to the international marketing of
e-books.
About Us
RosettaBooks launched in 2001 with a list of 100 preeminent backlist titles.
Since then, RosettaBooks has led in every emerging ebook promotion:
Palm bestsellers including the first free ebook sold together with a device (“Palm for the Graduate” including an ebook copy of The Graduate)
Adobe time-limited ebooks (using Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None)
Microsoft eReader free upgrades (led by Red Alert, the basis of Dr. Strangelove)
The first ebooks distributed on an airplane
The first library demonstration of a subscription offer with unlimited downloads and limited time use
The first demonstration “tying” a high quality audio book with the text of an ebook (Michael York’s recording of 1984)
Everything changed with the launch of the Kindle in 2009. RosettaBooks was invited to become a Kindle alliance partner focused on backlist title acquisition with extensive site promotion for titles with short-term Kindle exclusivity.
This alliance made worldwide news in December 2009 with the publication of
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey, a book which has sold 15,000,000 copies since
publication nearly 25 years ago and sells more than 150,000 copies annually in the United States alone.
For nearly two years, the title has been the number one exclusive title available in the Kindle Store.
RosettaBooks expanded its original 100 title list to more than 500 titles by the end of 2011
and its revenues more than forty times as Kindle opened the markets worldwide.
In 2011, RosettaBooks pioneered the short inexpensive original ebook with:
RosettaBooks is now the leading independent e-book publisher. RosettaBooks plans in 2012 to publish hundreds more quality backlist titles and to launch new high brand value original content lines with hundreds of titles.
Why should you publish with RosettaBooks?
Results: RosettaBooks pays out over $1,000,000 annually to rightsholders
Promotion: RosettaBooks implements over 100 promotions annually on the major e-tailer sites with excellent public relations support
Reach: RosettaBooks distributes internationally through all major e-tailers
Scope: RosettaBooks licenses the entire line of successful authors
Terms: RosettaBooks pays the highest standard royalty
(50% of net receipts to 2,500 copies and 60% of net receipts thereafter)
for the shortest term of license (five years) for the narrowest grant of rights (enhanced rights withheld)
Collaboration: RosettaBooks for more than ten years has been a pro-author, pro-agent e-book publisher
