Spain Scores a Digital First With 5 Novel
Agreement between Spanish book downloading site and literary agent allows cheap online novels in country where paperbacks usually cost at least 20
As book prices go, 5 is a bargain almost anywhere. In Spain, where publishers like to keep prices on paperback novels above the ?20 level, it is unheard of.
Now a ground-breaking deal involving Nobel prize winners such as Gabriel Garcia M?rquez and Camilo Jos Cela has seen an offer of two novels for ?10 on classics by the authors of One Hundred Years of Solitude and The Hive.
There is only one catch: the books do not come on paper, but as digital downloads.
An agreement between leer-e, a Spanish book downloading site, and the Spanish-speaking world's most famous literary agent, Carmen Balcells, allows her select group of authors to sidestep their normal print publishers.
As these do not hold the Spanish-language electronic rights to most of her authors' books, Balcells is in effect publishing them directly through leer-e. "I cannot tell you exactly what rights the authors get, but I can say that it is much more than they get from their books printed on paper,'' said Ignacio Latasa, co-founder of leer-e.
He said about 120 works by the authors on Balcells' books would eventually be available to download from leer-e. A dozen are already on the site.
Although Balcells is in her late 70s, Latasa said she had been looking for ways to publish her authors digitally for several years. "It is still early days for this in the Spanish-speaking world and there are not so many people with electronic readers here as in the United States,'' he said. "But now is the time.'' Prices for novels on eBooks.com, an American website, were typically around $12 yesterday.
Now a ground-breaking deal involving Nobel prize winners such as Gabriel Garcia M?rquez and Camilo Jos Cela has seen an offer of two novels for ?10 on classics by the authors of One Hundred Years of Solitude and The Hive.
There is only one catch: the books do not come on paper, but as digital downloads.
An agreement between leer-e, a Spanish book downloading site, and the Spanish-speaking world's most famous literary agent, Carmen Balcells, allows her select group of authors to sidestep their normal print publishers.
As these do not hold the Spanish-language electronic rights to most of her authors' books, Balcells is in effect publishing them directly through leer-e. "I cannot tell you exactly what rights the authors get, but I can say that it is much more than they get from their books printed on paper,'' said Ignacio Latasa, co-founder of leer-e.
He said about 120 works by the authors on Balcells' books would eventually be available to download from leer-e. A dozen are already on the site.
Although Balcells is in her late 70s, Latasa said she had been looking for ways to publish her authors digitally for several years. "It is still early days for this in the Spanish-speaking world and there are not so many people with electronic readers here as in the United States,'' he said. "But now is the time.'' Prices for novels on eBooks.com, an American website, were typically around $12 yesterday.
Use the feedback form below to submit your comments.
Use the form below to email this article to your friends.
- Spanish Lottery Awards 3 Billion to Thousands of Lucky Winners
- Italy Denies Being Spain's Poor Relation
- Spain: Entire Village Questioned Over Mayor's Killing
- Spain Sends City Fraud Suspects Back to Uk
- Inquiry Into Spain's Missing Children
- Number of Britons Seeking New Life in Spain Rises By 12%
- El Gordo Brings £2bn Sparkle to Spain
- Spain Removes Last Franco Statue From Mainland
- Genes Reveal Spain's Forced Conversions
- Power in the Desert: Solar Towers Will Harness Sunshine of Southern Spain
- Judge Orders Exhumations From Franco Basilica
- Marbella Holiday Homes Saved From Demolition
- Spain Honours Volunteers As Civil War Row Grows
- Freedom Fighters Welcome Honour, 70 Years on
- Spanish Hoards of €500 Notes Could Aid Liquidity
- Explainer: Santander Grew Under Strict Reserves Regime
- Judge Opens Inquiry Into Spain's 'red Terror' Victims
- Weather in Spain
- "Star Spangled Banner" Sung in Spanish to Be Released Friday
- Spain Becomes the Third European Country to Legalize Gay Marriage
- Famous Spanish Conquistadors
- The Spanish Royal Family
- Facts on the Spanish Conquistadors
- Famous Spanish Actresses