New Transmedia Publisher Reaches for the Stars

15 December 2011

PRESS RELEASE

New Transmedia Publisher Reaches for the Stars with Global Partnerships

Pear Jam Books celebrated its worldwide launch on 14th December 2011 at Auckland’s Stardome, many new stellar careers as authors’ and illustrators’ books came to life among the stars.

Pear Jam Books is the creation of Jill Marshall, a well-published author with international success best known for her Jane Blonde series for girls. The new publishing company aims to put the power firmly back in the hands of the writers by working with publishing partners across the globe.

“We have fantastic local support in NZ with companies like Image Centre who print our books so beautifully,” says Marshall. “And partnering across the water with the likes of US-based ebooks2go.com means a little New Zealand -based company can have global reach and immediate connections with the reader.”

‘We’re very pleased that NZ readers with the new Kobo Vox, Barnes & Noble or Kindle afficionados in the US, and a Sony book-lover in the UK, can all read the same great PJB eBooks,’ says David Aubrey, director of ebooks2go. ‘We’ll soon handle US and European print-on-demand for PJB too.’

Each Pear Jam Books title including Jill Marshall’s own new series for girls, Matilda Peppercorn, will be published in four PEAR formats: P for play (app/game), E for e-book, A for audio, and R for Read in traditional print. Products will largely be sold online through e-tailers and the Pear Jam books ecommerce sites, enabling readers to get hold of their story in whatever way they choose. Fourteen brand-new titles, ranging from funny baby app Kiss to gritty adult crime thriller Furt Bent from Aldaheit, have all been published in just eight months since PJB was formed to publish Christchurch fundraiser - Curly from Shirley, the Christchurch Dog. Marshall has handpicked her first stable of authors from her writing consultancy, Write Good Stuff, with established and new writers working together in a tight-knit team.

Pear Jam Books fiction for the whole family can be bought directly from www.pearjambooks.com, in your local bookstore, and via e-tailers like Amazon and Fishpond. ‘It’s an exciting time to be a writer,’ says Marshall. ‘And an even better one to be a publisher. I’m so proud of all these books and their creators, and I know readers in NZ and across the world will lap them up.’

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