Samuel French, Inc., which prides itself on being the oldest and largest publisher of plays and musicals in the world, is making its publications available as digital downloads. Starting Tuesday, 100 plays by dramatists like Dale Wasserman, Charles Busch, and Marsha Norman will be available for download in the Apple iBookstore. The press plans to add another 200 plays and musicals by the end of the month and will have a total of 1,000 available in the iBookstore by the end of December. Most will be priced at $8.99.
According to Katy DiSavino, marketing and social media social supervisor, although Samuel French’s ePlay program will launch on Apple’s iBookstore platform, it will continue to rollout to other e-book formats over the coming year. To get the formatting to match that of the print edition of the script, the press worked closely with digital distribution partner InScribe Digital. “We’re very satisfied with the results,” says DiSavino.
As for the decision to go digital, says Ken Dingledine, director of publications and operations, “Being able to deliver an author’s content in an additional format will only enhance the reach of the creator’s work. We are witnessing a new generation of actors embracing technology in new ways we never could have imagined. We feel Samuel French has a responsibility to make our authors’ work accessible.”
