(Press Release) SEATTLE, Nov. 18, 2010—Amazon and The Toby Press today announced that Amazon plans to acquire the publication rights of up to 121 books currently published by The Toby Press. The books represent the works of 61 authors and include diverse fiction titles and works in translation.
Amazon's publishing imprints, AmazonEncore and AmazonCrossing, will re-publish the works as print editions and Kindle editions in the United States and globally in cases where authors choose to make their works available. Kindle editions will be available for Kindle devices and Kindle apps, and print editions will be available on www.amazon.com and its websites worldwide, as well as in bookstores throughout the United States, United Kingdom and Germany.
"Matthew Miller and his team at The Toby Press have done a wonderful job of building a first-class list of literary fiction. We're excited to expand the audience of these titles, some of which have never been published digitally before, and introduce them to readers everywhere," said Jeff Belle, Vice President, Amazon.com Books. "We admire the great books that The Toby Press has published and are proud to now be associated with this distinguished group of authors."
The Toby Press was founded in 1999, with the purpose of publishing fine literary and commercial fiction. Toby titles span from first-time authors such as Crystal Wilkinson, Samantha Dunn, and Joshua Barkan, to celebrated translations of Anna Enquist of the Netherlands, Yasmina Khadra of Algeria, Hartmut Lange and Katharina Hacker of Germany, Haim Sabato and Shlomo DuNour of Israel and Laurent Gaudé (winner of the Prix Goncourt). Toby's crime genre features brilliant psychological thrillers from the writers of many countries, including II Magdalen (U.S.), Haim Lapid (Israel), FG Ledesma (Spain), C Gross (Germany) and others.
"As we transition our business in a new direction, we're very excited to be able to work with Amazon to make sure every one of our authors continues to receive the attention they deserve," said Matthew Miller, Founder, The Toby Press. "We support AmazonEncore and AmazonCrossing's mission to bring great books to a wider audience and hope that these books continue to find interested readers."
Introduced in May 2009, AmazonEncore uses information on Amazon.com, such as customer reviews and sales data, to identify exceptional books and emerging authors. Amazon then works with the authors to introduce or re-introduce their books to readers through marketing and distribution into multiple channels and formats, such as the Amazon Books Store, Amazon Kindle Store, and national and independent bookstores via third-party wholesalers. AmazonEncore is a brand for titles published by Amazon Content Services LLC.
Introduced in May 2010, AmazonCrossing uses customer feedback and other data from Amazon sites around the world to identify exceptional foreign language books deserving of a wider, global audience. AmazonCrossing acquires the rights, commissions translations, and introduces these compelling voices to the English-speaking market through multiple channels and formats, such as the Amazon Books Store, Amazon Kindle Store, and national and independent booksellers via third-party wholesalers.
For more information on AmazonEncore and AmazonCrossing upcoming titles, visit www.amazon.com/encore or www.amazon.com/crossing.
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon's developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon's own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Kindle and Kindle DX are the revolutionary portable readers that wirelessly download books, magazines, newspapers, blogs and personal documents to a crisp, high-resolution electronic ink display that looks and reads like real paper. Kindle and Kindle DX utilize the same 3G wireless technology as advanced cell phones, so users never need to hunt for a Wi-Fi hotspot. Kindle is the No. 1 bestselling product across the millions of items sold on Amazon.