Demibooks, a Chicago publishing technology company, has released Demibooks Storytime, a new e-reader app for the iPad that offers a multi-publisher retail marketplace for interactive children’s books created using the Demibook Composer e-book platform. Composer is an iPad-based authoring tool that offers interactivity, realistic animation, sound and visual effects.
The Storytime app provides another retail channel for multimedia publishers in addition to the Apple App Store. In addition Demibooks is partnering with Usborne Books & More, the direct sales division of Education Development Corporation, which is also a Demibooks investor, to provide support for each title beyond what they might receive via the App store, according to the company. Storytime will feature content from all publishers using the Composer platform, and at launch includes books from Kane Miller (an EDC division) and McGraw-Hill Education.
CEO of EDC Randall White said, Storytime will be, " very compatible with our existing print product line of our direct selling division, Usborne Books & More. Storytime will be presented to over 1 million families annually by our sales force of over 6,000 consultants."
Demibooks Composer allows publishers and self-publishing authors to create and sell interactive book apps and sell them through the App Store. The Storytime app is free to download and consumers can use it to find and purchase kids’ digital content. The app is integrated with Facebook and allows readers to share their content.
Rafiq Ahmed, CEO of Demibooks Inc. said, "We've responded to our customers who have struggled with the discoverability challenge of launching their Composer based books only on the App Store. For no additional development cost, they now have a second distribution channel in Storytime."
