BitLit, a start-up with an app that allows customers to purchase e-book editions of titles they already own, has added Macmillan to its roster of publishing partners. Macmillan, the second of the Big Five houses to add its titles to the service, joins over 300 other publishers that have signed contracts with the Vancouver, BC-based company.
Through the deal with BitLit, customers who own a selection of existing Macmillan books will be able to purchase e-book editions of those titles for $2.99. Macmillan's Tor/Forge imprint has added all of its titles to BitLit--including bestsellers like Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game--while other imprints at the publisher have added some of their titles.
Macmillan's deal with BitLit follows on the heels of an agreement HarperCollins recently struck with the company. Both houses will now be experimenting with BitLit's technology, which allows consumers to take a picture of their physical bookshelf--using their smart phone--and then download available e-book editions of their library using the images of their books' spines.
Relying on readers' "sheflie" photographs, as BitLit has coined them, titles with available e-book editions in BitLit will be called up. To complete the purchase, a consumer must photograph their book's copyright page, complete with their handwritten name on it.
BitLit, which was founded in 2013, has quietly been talking to publishers. The company, which wanted to expand its library of titles before positioning itself to consumers, if available on both iPhone and Android devices. While CEO Peter Hudson confirmed that the majority of titles currently in the BitLit ecosystem are DRM-free, the company is working with DRM titles as well. In addition to Macmillan and HarperCollins, some of the other publishers with titles in BitLit include Wiley, Elsevier, Verso Books and Baker Publishing Group.
