Children’s eBook sales surge in 2014 in public libraries and schools through OverDrive

Synchronized eBooks with narration from top publishers provide ubiquitous compatibility for kids’ best-sellers

Cleveland, OH – January 13, 2015—OverDrive, the leading sales channel for eBooks, audiobooks, and other premium media to libraries and schools, announced today that library spending on children’s, juvenile, and young adult eBooks in 2014 grew by 48% over 2013. Helping drive this dramatic growth was OverDrive’s 2014 launch of narrated eBooks and highly-illustrated best-selling children’s titles using open industry-standard EPUB3 and OverDrive Read. These popular children’s eBook titles are compatible with any device connected to a web browser, including PCs, tablets, and mobile devices.

Libraries and schools have purchased tens of thousands of titles that showcase illustrations and two-page “across the spine” display of images with the story faithfully reproducing the print editions. As a result of OverDrive’s support for open-standard HTML5 and EPUB3, award-winning and iconic children’s authors and brands, including classic titles from Dr. Seuss, are now available as eBooks for lending from thousands of libraries and schools with an OverDrive catalog.

Narrated eBooks, with audio synced to text, include titles from actors and authors such as John Lithgow, Randy Travis, and Ray Charles, among others. Several narrated titles incorporate a full soundtrack and sound effects. The top-selling narrated eBook titles to libraries for 2014 from OverDrive were:

• Curious George Goes to the Zoo (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade and Reference)
• 50 Below Zero (Open Road Integrated Media)
• I got the Rhythm (Bloomsbury USA)
• Found (Bloomsbury USA)
• Telephone (Chronicle Books)
• Here Comes Destructosaurus! (Chronicle Books)
• Time for Bed, Fred! (Bloomsbury USA)
• The Most Magnificent Thing (Kids Can Press Ltd.)
• An Early American Christmas (Open Road Integrated Media)
• Click, Clack, Moo (Simon & Schuster, Inc.)

The 10 Top Selling Illustrated eBooks sold to libraries by OverDrive in 2014 were:

• The Long Haul (Abrams)
• Hard Luck (Abrams)
• The Third Wheel (Abrams)
• Can’t We Talk about Something More Pleasant? (Bloomsbury USA)
• The Strange Case of Origami Yoda (Abrams)
• Emperor Pickletine Rides the Bus (Abrams)
• The Cat in the Hat (Random House, Inc.)
• The Surprise Attack of Jabba the Puppett (Abrams)
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Random House, Inc.)
• Green Eggs and Ham (Random House, Inc.)

“Ninety-three percent of children between the ages of two and 13 are reading or being read eBooks at least once per week, according to research by PlayCollective and Digital Book World,” says Steve Potash, CEO of OverDrive. “With advancements from OverDrive including Kids eReading Rooms and enhanced eBooks, digital reading can be tailored for specific age groups, creating a truly immersive, quality experience for young readers.”

Visit OverDrive at Digital Book World in booth #302 to see the illustrated picture eBooks, narrated eBooks, streaming video and more. Sample titles and find libraries and schools at www.overdrive.com.

About OverDrive OverDrive is the leading global digital distribution platform, supplying the industry’s largest catalog of eBooks, audiobooks, music and streaming video to 33,000 libraries, schools and retailers worldwide. We support all major computers and devices, including iPhone®, iPad®, Nook®, Android™ phones and tablets, Chromebook™, and Kindle® (U.S. only). OverDrive offers all digital media on a single platform, and offers APIs to streamline a seamless user experience. OverDrive Read, the breakthrough EPUB and HTML5 browser-based reading experience, now supports fixed layout and narrated eBooks. Founded in 1986, OverDrive is based in Cleveland, Ohio USA. www.overdrive.com

Contact:
David Burleigh
Director of Marketing & Communications
dburleigh@overdrive.com
216-573-6886 ext. 218

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