Open Road Integrated Media is releasing titles by one of the authors it touted at its launch, Pat Conroy. The digital publisher, headed up by Jane Friedman, announced that it will be publishing (and marketing) e-book editions of The Prince of Tides, The Lords of Discipline, The Great Santini, and The Water Is Wide this month. "August is the month of Conroy," declared Friedman.
A rep from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which publishes Conroy in print, said a "mutually satisfactory agreement" was reached with Open Road to do the digital editions, which will be available in North America only. The titles will be rolling out throughout August, with Prince of Tides being published first on August 10, and be available as both standard e-books and enriched e-books. The e-books will be available from a host of retailers--Sony, Amazon, bn.com and Apple--while the enriched e-books can be purchased from Apple's iBookstore or as a Kindle AV Edition. The enriched e-books will feature videos and photos, including clips about Conroy's life and the writing process behind the work itself.
The Lords of Discipline is scheduled for August 17, The Great Santini for August 24, and The Water Is Wide for August 31.
Friedman said sales of Open Road's already released e-books "are robust" and that the company is on target to release the 750 to 1,000 e-books it said it would have in the market during its first full year in operation.
