E-books to go on sale in May

Whitcoulls and Borders will offer titles for a range of devices, including iPhones. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

Whitcoulls and Borders are set to become the first book retailers in New Zealand to offer e-books.

The chains' Australian owner REDgroup Retail has signed an agreement with a Canadian company to sell e-books and other electronic content on the stores' websites from next May.

Kobo Inc is a spinoff from Canadian book retailer Indigo Books & Music. Kobo, an anagram of "book", encompasses Indigo's original digital books business Shortcovers and brings in partners including REDgroup, the American Borders Group and Hong Kong conglomerate Cheung Kong Holdings.

REDgroup managing director David Fenlon said it would be possible to download Kobo books to a wide range of portable electronic devices such as the iPhone, Blackberry, Palm Pre and Android. "We really hope that we'll be able to get it on any device."

This is in contrast to the Kindle electronic reader, owned by internet retailer Amazon, which can only display books from Amazon's store.

Kobo will offer downloads of books, magazines and newspapers, and will sell its own e-reader.

Mr Fenlon said a comprehensive range of titles would be offered. Shortcovers' catalogue was available, and REDgroup was in talks with New Zealand publishers to provide content.

REDgroup, which also owns the Angus & Robertson and Borders chains in Australia, only launched its online retailing service this year.

Rob Smith, chief executive of rival bookseller Paper Plus, which has yet to offer internet retailing, said the chain also had a plan to start selling e-books but he would not reveal the timing at this stage.

It still was not clear how the market would develop, he said. "The jury's out as to whether or not people are going to be prepared to sit in front of the computer all day and then also read a book like that."

Mr Fenlon said e-books would appeal to certain consumers more than others. For example younger people had adapted well to e-readers, and they were convenient for travellers.

He said the opportunity existed to grow the e-book market to somewhere between 5 and 15 per cent of publishing in the next five years, but it would vary greatly from genre to genre. Far more than 15 per cent of textbooks and educational books would sell digitally, he predicted.