Penguin forays into e-books

In its 25th year, Penguin Books India has launched its first tranche of e-books, with over 240 titles including select bestsellers, to give a fillip to the digital book market.

Indian readers can purchase the e-books at international prices from all major international e-book retailers ? Amazon, Apple, Kobo and Google, Gardners, Sony, OLF, Apabi, Go Spoken/Mobcast, OverDrive, Txtr, Ebooks.com, IGroup and Baker and Taylor, according to a statement by the publisher.

At present India's publishing industry is growing at a compounded rate of 30 per cent annually and it is expected to grow at the same pace over the next three years according to industry body FICCI.

E-books are said to make up 9 per cent of total global book market today according to industry sources.

Penguin India e-books will be priced to respective geographies and the full list of e-books will go on sale in he country at local prices when the e-book industry develops further here, says the publisher.

Penguin India, Asia's largest English language publisher has a cross-platform mobile app, available on Apple, Android, Blackberry and Nokia, a redesigned, revamped and upgraded website to a state-of-the-art, navigation-friendly, comprehensive brand portal.