Hummingbird's E-Book & Audio "Must-Read Bargains"

Hummingbird, the company that aims to "democratize" e-book and audiobook retailing, has introduced "Must-Read Bargains," a program under which certain e-books and audiobooks are discounted to consumers for a full calendar month.

"We found publishers discounted e-book and audiobook titles for a confusing array of dates and durations, sometimes for no more than one day," explained Stephen Blake Mettee, Hummingbird's president and chief visionary officer. "This made it hard for our booksellers to develop and deliver effective promotions."

February's selection includes 471 titles discounted by 15 publishers, including titles from HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, Workman and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, as well as smaller presses. Hummingbird has produced cut-and-paste jpeg images of some of the titles for booksellers' use. February's include the audiobook of Alex Haley's Roots for Black History Month and the e-book version of the Indies Next Pick Fallen Land by Taylor Brown.

Noting that consumers see Amazon and its subsidiary Audible as the main companies involved in providing e-books and audiobooks, respectively, Mettee said, "With programs like Must-Read Bargains, we are helping to turn that around. We want people to think 'my independent bookstore' when they think of e-books and audiobooks. We think of this as a team effort, us and our bookstore partners, but it won't happen overnight."

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