Bonnier News - Bonnierförlagen

Sweden's Gondol Book Club Doubles Membership

By Bert Menninga on 2010-09-03
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Since April, the Gondol literary book club has doubled its membership from 10,000 to 20,000.

Swedish book publisher Bonnierförlagen launched its new book club Gondol on April 28.

Photo Op

By Bert Menninga on 2010-05-28
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Author photos from Bonnierförlagen are now available at Wikimedia Commons.

It's all about getting the word out - or in some cases, getting the pictures out. This was the thinking behind the recent decision of Swedish book publisher Bonnierförlagen to release author photos for use on Wikipedia.

"We released photos of those authors we have photographed ourselves, where we hold the rights to the photos," says Bodil Forsberg, communications manager at Bonnierförlagen and the person behind the initiative.

Books on YouTube

By Bert Menninga on 2010-05-10
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Author interviews and trailers from Bonnierförlagen have their own channel on YouTube.

Books and YouTube sound like a strange combination, but for Swedish book publishers Bonnierförlagen there's nothing strange about it. Since May 2008, the publishing house has had its own channel on YouTube with author interviews, book "trailers" and presentations, attracting hundreds of thousands of views. The channel is regularly updated and there are a total of 138 videos so far.

Book Catalog Goes Digital

By Bert Menninga on 2010-05-04
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Bonnierförlagen switches from a paper catalog to a digital version with books, photos, interactive features, videos and more.

Book catalogs have long been like the products they sell: mostly made of paper and glue. But today's readers and bookshops are used to quickly finding information online, which could mean the death knell for the traditional printed book catalog. At least it is for Bonnierförlagen, which has now switched from paper to digital.

There are seven individual catalogs for seven of the publishers within Bonnierförlagen.

For Literature Lovers

By Bert Menninga on 2010-04-27
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New Swedish book club Gondol focuses on the intellectually curious.

For Sweden's literature lovers, life just got a whole lot more interesting with the launch of a new book club aimed at readers interested in non-mass-market books.

Adlibris launches Letto, a Swedish e-reader

By Niklas Sessler on 2010-02-10
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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.

The book that set the record

By Niklas Sessler on 2009-12-16
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How long is the world’s longest mustache? Who is the oldest person to win an Oscar? And how much did the world’s most expensive coin cost?

The answers to these questions, and hundreds of others, can of course be found in Guinness World Records, the book that is a record in and of itself. With over 100 million copies sold since its first edition in 1955, it is the world's most-sold licensed book. Today it is published in 25 languages in more than 100 countries.

Going Green With E-books

By Niklas Sessler on 2009-12-08
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E-books are the most environmentally friendly of all books – at least if you read enough of them on your e-reader. That’s the key finding of a new study from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm

CC licensed by Flickr

"The study, in which we collaborated and contributed data, was carried out by KTH," explains Erik Larsson, environmental manager at Bonnierförlagen, which, together with Adlibris and Elib, represented Bonnier in the study. "Similar studies have been conducted for magazines, but we wanted to focus on books. And KTH, as an independent research institute, felt like the most appropriate partner."

Bonnierförlagen invests in e-books

By Niklas Sessler on 2009-11-13
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Starting in the spring of 2010, all of Bonnierförlagen’s titles will be published as e-books, in parallel with their printed editions. Almost 200 titles will be released in digital format during the project’s first phase

"In order for e-book sales to really gain momentum, four things are needed," says Magnus Nytell, digital publishing manager at Bonnierförlagen. "The first is a cool, user-friendly e-reader. The second is a well-functioning distribution system. Third, we need a simple, practical retailer. And the fourth is a wide selection of titles, which is especially important if people are going to spend a few thousand crowns on an e-reader.