The Bookseller.com

28th August 2008

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Faber to publish 200 e-books

26.06.08 Alison Flood

Faber is planning to roll out an e-book list of up to 200 titles later this year, and is also considering increasing the output of its newly launched print-on-demand imprint Faber Finds.

Chief executive Stephen Page, speaking after the launch of the independent publisher's new website yesterday (Wednesday, 26th June), said that sales of Faber Finds titles had been "very encouraging" since its launch with 100 titles at the beginning of June. "Every single one has now got sales against it." He said that several had already reached the 40–50 copy threshold needed to break even, with "a lot" well on their way to the threshold.

Page said Faber could accelerate its roll out of Faber Finds, which was initially scheduled to publish 20 new titles a month. "Given we are now able to clear rights a little quicker, we may accelerate the number of titles we make available."

Faber is also planning to launch an e-book list of 100–200 titles later this year, Page said, in line with the arrival of e-book readers in the UK, which are expected this autumn. "We will have a largely frontlist launch of e-books with some backlist," he said, "and over a period of time we will bring in more backlist."

The new site, which is in a testing phase this week, sees Faber offering an e-commerce facility for the first time. But Page stressed that Faber was "in no way" setting itself up in competition with retailers. "I just don’t think that’s credible," he said, adding that Faber would only "very" rarely
discount its titles.

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