Bookshare Partners With Publishers

By Robin Seaman

Bookshare partners with publishers to make thousands of digital books available to people with print disabilities. The Publisher Partnership Program allows Bookshare members to download best-selling books simultaneously with their release in print.

Bookshare expects to announce a number of new partnership agreements with major publishers this year. The first such agreement was announced in February when Bookshare and Hachette Book Group (HBG) entered into a partnership that broke new ground in the publishing industry. Hachette agreed to donate digital files for all its 1,700 currently digitized frontlist and backlist titles. Hachette will also refer all customer service requests for accessible books to Bookshare for fulfillment.

"We are proud to partner with Bookshare to help the print disabled community to acquire and read the authors and content that the Hachette Book Group edits and distributes," said Maja Thomas, SVP Hachette Book Group Audio and Digital Publishing. "Through this partnership, we will be able to support a community in need by giving access to books and content in an efficient and timely manner."

Bookshare’s conversion and distribution of accessible books from publishers’ digital files significantly reduces the time and expense required by publishers to provide books in accessible formats for people with print disabilities.

Hachette Book Group is a leading trade publisher based in New York and is a division of Hachette Livre, the second-largest publisher in the world.  Hachette Book Group’s product lines include adult, illustrated, religious, children’s and audio books under the Little, Brown and Company, Little Brown Books for Young Readers, Grand Central Publishing, FaithWords, Center Street, Orbit, Yen Press and Hachette Book Group Digital Media imprints.

Bookshare has agreements in place with HarperCollins, Random House, The Perseus Books Group, O'Reilly Media, Scholastic, Brookings InstitutionPress, and a host of other publishers.

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