The Nordic countries’ biggest online book retailer Adlibris today launches a Swedish e-reader, Letto. A special online book store for e-books adapted for Letto and other e-readers opened as well, with books in the open format epub.
"Letto is a new way to read books," says Pär Svärdson, CEO of Adlibris. "We have looked at e-books for a decade, but it seems they are beginning to be taken seriously now."
The latest Swedish books as well as a broad selection of classics are easy to find and download at www.adlibris.com/letto.
"Adlibris' idea is to offer a wide choice for book lovers," says Svärdson. "Letto is as small as a book but big enough to hold an entire library. It's easy to carry in a bag, to work or to the beach. In short, it's an easier way to read."
Why are you launching the e-reader now?
"Over the past decade there's been a lot of talk about e-books in Sweden, but since there were no e-readers, publishers started to lose interest," says Svärdson. "And since there wasn't a big market for e-books in Sweden, e-readers from outside Sweden weren't launched here either. So it seemed the time was ripe to finally push hard to get a market for e-books going in Sweden."
Letto has menus in Swedish and a paper-like screen that allows for easy reading, even in strong sunlight. It can handle a number of different formats, so books can be downloaded from most online stores.
"It's exciting that Adlibris has created a simple and modern Swedish e-book platform," says Håkan Rudels, marketing director for Bonnierförlagen. "We are taking our 200-year-old traditions into a new era. Already there are 500 Swedish titles available for Letto and from 2010 on, all new Swedish books from Bonnierförlagen will come out as e-books."
What do you think the launch of Letto will mean for Bonnierförlagen in the long run?
"That we're saving time in the digital development process. We've long been working on the digitization of our list, so that wasn't affected by Letto. I mean more the speed of digitization. And if it goes well, it can be good business for us in the consumer sector in the future, via Adlibris."
The introductory price of Letto is SEK 1,495 (regular price SEK 3,170), and it can be bought at adlibris.com/letto. During the campaign, a Letto purchase will include four books already loaded on the e-reader, plus a book of the reader's choice that can be downloaded from adlibris.com.
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Comments
Dear Hermon, first of all, we only sell e-books in Swedish - which you of course might already know. Almost every Swedish e-book published today is made available as an Epub, and only considering that fact I would recommend you to buy an e-reader that supports Epub (which would exclude the Kindle). I assume, however, that you might still want to buy e-books in English as well as the ones in Swedish from us - and the easiest way might be to still buy a Kindle since there is a way of converting Epub books into the .mobi format the Kindle supports (visit http://calibre-ebook.com/). It's all depending on things like in which language you do most of your reading and what U.S. bookseller you're used to. From a strictly Swedish point of view: Epub is the way to go. —John Augustsson, Adlibris
John Augustsson, February 24, 2011
Hello, I am planning to move back to Sweden this year and i am considering buying a Kindle or Nookbook, here in the US, before i move back, but my concern is that i won't be able to dowload books from Sweden with either of these US bought e-readers. Any thoughts? Thanks, Hermon
Hermon, February 23, 2011
Dear John, this is the answer from Adlibris (www.adlibris.se), the Bonnier company which sells e-books: You can order books regardless of what country you are in. When you register, instead of giving your personal code number (social security number) your date of birth information – year, month and day. You can order only with a Visa or Mastercard. The book can then be downloaded via your customer account at the homepage several minutes after the purchase has gone through.
Linnea Pontvik, November 9, 2010
I have an ebook (reader) and I like to know if it possible to order books from your company in Sweden? Thank you, John Clement British Columbia, Canada jcc@shaw.ca
John Clement, November 8, 2010
It's great that FINALLY an ebook reader is being re-branded for the Swedish market. I am one of the lucky ones to get this great deal. Looking forward to the Letto to arrive next week!
Cin, February 15, 2010
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