Fordham U. Press E-lated About Ebook Launch

Fordham University Press has launched its first ebook with Barnes & Noble and is planning a total of 100 ebook titles in the near future, press director Fredric Nachbaur has said.

Now available on ebook is one of the Press’ most recent titles, The Rat That Got Away: A Bronx Memoir (Fordham University Press, 2009).

FUP is working with an outside company, codeMantra, to convert additional book files and to deliver them to the Press’ trading partners, which include B&N and Sony. Other initiatives are in the planning to deliver ebooks to libraries, Nachbaur said.

Sales of ebooks in the marketplace still only represent about 1/2 to 1 percent of the U.S. book industry, but that figure is growing rapidly, according to the International Digital Publishing Forum. Most university presses, said Nachbaur, are predicting sales of approximately 2 percent per year, and FUP is hoping for about the same in 2010.

-J.S.