La maison d’édition numérique indépendante Smashwords annonce le rachat de son homologue néo-zélandais, BookHabit. Fort d’un catalogue de plus 600 livres et de 340 auteurs, BookHabit est une déjà un éditeurs important dans l’édition numérique indépendante. Le rachat de BookHabit va permettre de bénéficier d’une visibilité plus importante et surtout d’accéder aux partenariats avec Sony ou Barnes&Noble, signés récemment par Smashwords. En effet, les éditeurs numériques indépendantes doivent diversifier au maximum les canaux de distribution afin d’atteindre une visibilité suffisante et une taille critique. La mutualisation des moyens est cruciale. Certes, l’édition numérique indépendante est beaucoup plus développée aux Etats-Unis, mais le marché français n’est pas en reste avec des rapprochements certains entre plusieurs distributeurs numériques.

Los Gatos, Calif. and Wellington, New Zealand – November 19, 2009 — Silicon Valley based Smashwords, Inc. has acquired Wellington New Zealand company BookHabit Limited, consolidating Smashwords’ position as the world’s premier ebook publishing and distribution platform for independent authors and publishers.

BookHabit was founded in 2008 as an ebook publishing platform for independent authors. During that time, BookHabit developed relationships with 340 authors who collectively published over 600 books.

Smashwords launched in May, 2008. Today, the fast-growing service publishes over 4,700 ebooks from 2,100 independent authors and publishers around the world. In the last several weeks, Smashwords has opened new distribution channels for indie authors and publishers by announcing distribution relationships with major online retailers Shortcovers, Sony and Barnes & Noble.

“I’m pleased to welcome BookHabit authors and readers to the Smashwords family,” said Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords. “This acquisition boosts our international base of authors, ebooks and customers. We look forward to helping BookHabit authors gain access to our worldwide distribution network.”

“This acquisition benefits the BookHabit author community by offering broader sales and distribution opportunities, especially in North America,” said Clare Tanner, founder of BookHabit. “Smashwords makes it fast and easy for authors to publish multi-format ebooks, readable on all the popular e-reading devices. I’m pleased to help our authors take full advantage of the free publishing, marketing and distribution tools offered by Smashwords.”

Smashwords purchased the assets of BookHabit for an undisclosed cash sum. Smashwords and BookHabit will immediately begin migrating BookHabit’s authors, books and customers over to the Smashwords platform. BookHabit authors, as with Smashwords authors, will continue to retain all ownership and copyright to their books, and are under no obligation to migrate their books to Smashwords.

Source : Teleread