From an article in The Capital Times:
“Level 7,” a science fiction book by Mordecai Roshwald about a post-apocalyptic dystopia published by the University of Wisconsin Press in 1959, has gotten a new life in the present thanks to the Amazon Kindle.
Krista Coulson, electronic publishing manager for the UW Press, says “Level 7” was one of the first backlist titles the press published in e-book format, thanks to requests from Kindle users looking for the story. …
To signal to readers that UW Press was serious about entering the e-book market, Coulson says it focused on bundling e-books in the core academic areas of the press, including African studies, regional books and poetry. It then moved on to best-selling titles and award winners — the “low-hanging fruit,” Coulson says.
In four years, UW Press has converted about 500 titles into e-book format, and has another 300 to 400 in the pipeline. …
According to Coulson, sales for e-books are still quite low, and because the market is so small, it’s hard to ascertain meaningful sales numbers. One possibly significant number is this: When customers had a choice to purchase an e-book or print book from the UW Press website, about 65 percent chose the e-book version.
Much more info in the article.
