LasseMaja Series Out as E-books

Bonnier Carlsen's children's books about the detective agency LasseMaja have been a big hit in Sweden. The five books from the series are now being released as e-books - in Swedish and in cooperation with Weldon Owen in San Francisco in English, with LasseMaja, the main character, called JerryMaya.

The books will be in an e-pub format and will be available worldwide at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks and other places. The e-books are created so they can be read both on small and larger screens, says Magnus Nytell, manager for Bonnierförlagen's digital releases.

"The text and pictures are adapted into a format that children want to read," says Nytell. "LasseMaja's success is due in large part to its design, illustrations break up the text on every page and spreads which make the books attractive for kids who have just outgrown the simplest learn-to-read stage. The same idea is used for the apps."

Martin Widmark, who worte the books together with Helena Willis, is especially happy that the books are coming out in English as well. "It takes my breath away that my LasseMaja books will be just a couple of clicks away from all English speakers in the world!" he says.

The LasseMaja books have been translated into 20 languages, are on bestseller lists and are among the most popular in Sweden's libraries. They've repeatedly chosen as Sweden's best book for 6-9 year olds by Bokjuryn, which lets children choose their own favorites. The other 15 books in the series wil come out successively as e-books throughout 2011.

For Bonnier Carlsen, it's a new way of releasing books. "As a Swedish publisher, our focus has been on getting books out in the Swedish language," says Eva Dahlin, editorial director at Bonnier Carlsen. "But in the digital world, the market and readers are global. Now we can translate our books ourselves into other languages and sell them worldwide. Many children who have read the books in Swedish may now be interested in reading them in English."