HC and Kobo in bundling trial with Australian indies

HarperCollins Australia and Kobo have teamed up with two Australian booksellers to sell print and digital titles bundled together.

The new project began yesterday (17th November) with Pages & Pages Booksellers, an independent bookshop in Mosman, New South Wales, and online bookseller Boomerang Books, and will run until the end of January.

Pages & Pages co-owner Jon Page said on his blog: "Bundling is a great idea when it comes to books. Unlike music and DVD, it is next to impossible to digitize a print book. Given some of the limitations that surround e-books giving readers the opportunity to buy both formats together adds to readers’ convenience and gives them a handy backup for their digital library.The bundling of print books and e-books opens a lot of doors currently closed by e-books."

The print books that can be brought during the project will come with a unique code that can then be used to download a title from the Kobo store. Books available in the trial include Cleanskin Cowgirls by Rachael Treasure, Ghost House by Alexandra Adornetti and The Menzies Era by John Howard.

Last year, HarperCollins partnered with Foyles for a similar bundling project in the UK, selling print titles shrink-wrapped with a voucher inside containing a code to download a digital version. The e-books were provided by Foyles' e-book service, Foyles powered by txtr.