Lightning, BookSite Provide Ebook Services to Independent Booksellers

Posted on February 23, 2001

BookSite, a provider of ecommerce tools to independent bookstores, and Lightning Source Inc., a provider of digital fulfillment services, announced a strategic alliance that will provide Lightning's ebook fulfillment service to BookSite's network of independent bookstores. Under the agreement, the ebook services will give independent bookstores the ability to sell ebook titles to their customers in Microsoft Reader format.

The independent bookstores participating in the pilot program, which will begin offering ebooks to their customers in the coming weeks, include BookPeople in Austin, TX; Brookline Booksmith in Brookline, MA; McGraw-Hill Bookstore in New York, NY; and Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops in Milwaukee, WI. Efforts will be focused on developing in-store programs to educate the public about ebooks, as well as entertain customers with the new technology offered by ebooks. The pilot program will explore methods to cross-market ebooks with other book forms, including the use of in-store kiosks, shelf talkers, author appearances and ebook demonstrations.

``Independent booksellers maintain close relationships with their customers, which makes them key to consumer trial and adoption of ebooks,'' said Lightning Source President and CEO Ed Marino. ``This alliance puts independent booksellers in a critical leadership position as the industry works to make ebooks a commercial success story. Their expertise in local and regional markets opens new channels for consumer availability of ebooks and provides publishers and authors with access to a loyal book-buying public.''

Under the arrangement, BookSite will offer independent booksellers the ability to sell titles from Lightning's library of ebooks, which includes titles from a wide range of publishers such as HarperCollins, Holtzbrinck, iPublish, McGraw-Hill, Penguin Putnam, Simon & Schuster, and Wiley.

``Consumers always appreciate good service, which in the case of ebooks is making them easy to find, easy to order, and easy to figure out. The Internet serves the multiple purposes of delivering the promotional content to the store to bring attention to ebooks, delivering the ebooks themselves, and clearing the payment for the transaction,'' said President and founder of BookSite, Dick Harte.