Anobii, a book and reading social networking venture that allows readers to post their books online as well as rate and post reviews, has signed retail partnerships with ten of the U.K.’s biggest publishers. The deal will allow Anobii to sell e-books from the houses via the site when the Anobii 2.0 upgrade launches at the end of October.
The new agreement will allow Anobii to allow its members to buy e-books (the site will start selling print books “in the near future”) from such publishers as Random House, HarperCollins, Pan MacMillan, Faber & Faber, Canongate and other U.K. houses. Anobii 1.0 is an international social reading platform that attracts more than a million users each month, users from more than 20 countries. The site is particularly popular Italy.
Anobii’s cloud-based digital book service will also use Adobe’s DRM standard, which will allow the books to read on most digital readers. Anobii has apps for iOS and Android OS devices.
Jamie Byng, Managing Director, Canongate, described Anobii 2.0 as, “dynamic and needed,” and said that it, “encourages readers to meet other readers to share their knowledge and interests.” He said, “Finding innovative ways to connect readers with books, both new and old, is one of the great challenges and opportunities of the publishing times. Anobii is attempting to do something different.”
Anobii COO Matthew Hardcastle said, “Anobii has a strong and growing global community of passionate, knowledgeable readers, who help each other find great books. Partnering with the major UK publishers to sell their ebooks through Anobii, is a big first step in helping readers not only discover but also buy and read from a very wide range of the best books available in the U.K.”
