Amazon acquires children's book titles
Amazon announced this week that it has acquired more than 450 children鈥檚 book titles from Marshall Cavendish Children's Books.
The bookseller, which recently created imprints through which to publish science fiction, romance novels, and mysteries, in addition to other genres, says it hopes to convert many of the titles into digital form. Books acquired through the deal include a version of the holiday classic 鈥淭he Night Before Christmas鈥� by Clement C. Moore with illustrations by Gennady Spirin and 鈥淢y Name Is Not Easy鈥� by Debby Dahl Edwardson, a young adult novel which was a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People鈥檚 Literature this year. One of the newer titles received by Amazon is 鈥淭he Golem鈥檚 Latkes,鈥� a children鈥檚 book in which a rabbi鈥檚 maid asks the golem for help preparing the dish.
The vice president for Amazon Publishing, Jeff Belle, said in that this is the company鈥檚 first push to become a presence in the children鈥檚 publishing industry. The company has released a few children鈥檚 titles under the AmazonEncore imprint before now.聽
鈥淭his is a case where there鈥檚 a great list of books that have not been digitized,鈥� Belle said.聽
He said the new format of the books will widen the children鈥檚 book audience for those in the industry.
鈥淸We] see a chance to connect a terrific group of authors and illustrators with more readers,鈥� he said in .
Marshall Cavendish said in a statement that it will now focus on publishing educational books.
Amazon鈥檚 decision to release books under its own imprints have caused controversy in the publishing world from publishing companies who fear they鈥檒l be muscled out by the book giant.聽
BGC financial analyst Colin Gillis that he thinks publishers should be paying attention to this new venture.
鈥淭his should raise the alarm for other publishers,鈥� he said. 鈥淥ne of their healthiest distributors is getting their business.鈥�
Molly Driscoll is a Monitor contributor.
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