Well, that certainly is something to be hoped for! I also notice that you can get a free ebook from them when you subscribe to their newsletter. From the press release:
When Kris Waldherr, an award-winning book designer, author, and illustrator, downloaded her first e-book, she was appalled at how ugly it looked. “I could hardly read it. I gave up after several pages,” she recalls. However, Waldherr also recognized an opportunity: “I became determined to create beautiful e-books.”
This month marks the successful launch of Art and Words Editions (ArtandWordsEditions.com), Waldherr’s new digital publishing house based in Brooklyn, New York. Art and Words Editions specializes in impeccably designed and gorgeously illustrated e-books for children and adults. With e-readers hot sellers over the holiday season, she couldn’t have picked a better time. In December, the New York Times reported that 10% of surveyed adults planned to purchase an e-reader as a gift; at the start of 2011, it was estimated that over 10.3 million e-readers were in use in the United States.
Art and Words Editions began by reissuing Waldherr’s extensive back catalog — she’s published over twenty picture books for children and illustrated gift books for adults including the best-selling THE BOOK OF GODDESSES — but expanded to feature other award-winning authors and illustrators. They include Robert D. San Souci (THE FIREBIRD, MULAN), Donna Henes (THE QUEEN OF MY SELF), and Lisa Hunt (THE FAIRY TALE TAROT, SOUL DRAWINGS). Waldherr says, “We intend to usher in a golden age of e-books for children and adults.” Besides e-books, Art and Words Editions has also developed iPhone and iPod apps.
Art and Words Editions’ e-books are available from Apple, BN.com, and Amazon for the iPad, Kindle, NOOK, and other e-readers. Want to play it safe? They also publish PDFs which can be read on any computer.
Visit ArtandWordsEditions.com to learn more and for purchasing links. For a limited time, receive a free e-book download when you subscribe to their newsletter.
be aware that these files are huge – 16 mb is the size quoted to me for one of them. This may be an issue for downloads.
becca – Good point, I guess they may feel that they are aiming at a specialist market who will have a high level of tolerance for downloads. It looks like all of their eBooks will be pdfs and will have the limitations arising from same.
Actually, the majority of our e-books are in ePub format; the average file size is closer to 5 mb. These books are distributed for us by iBooks, BN.com, and Amazon–we’re in the process of adding Google Editions. Some e-books are also available in PDF format books, which does make for larger file sizes. We use this format mainly for for art books, which we also offer as softcovers.
We decided to offer our free download as an PDF, to make it accessible to as many people as possible. in coming months, we plan to expand into offering enhanced edition e-books, with multi-media content. our intention is to offer beautiful, inspiring e-books accessible in as many formats as possible.
Kris Waldherr
Art and Words Editions.
Kris: I wanted to publicly thank you for your help in getting the downloaded free book. I’m glad that your other books will be in epub and kindle format – that should make the downloads much easier for me. And your sample book is indeed beautiful.