By: Rickie Mascia, OverDrive Social Media Specialist.

At the London Book Fair, March 14-16, OverDrive’s global expansion is providing one of the hottest opportunities in the publishing industry. With new library partners launching in Europe, Asia and Latin America, digital book sales will continue to grow as readers want popular content (both native and translated) in international languages like Spanish, Chinese, Russian and French.

The trend in digital reading continues to grow as OverDrive saw eBook and audiobook sales dramatically increase to their institutional channels in 2016. OverDrive supplies and enables more than 90 percent of public libraries in North America and that strong commitment is driving the double-digit digital book sale increase year over year. Publishers can take advantage of this fueled growth as there is a demand for a broad catalog of eBooks and audiobooks in all subjects. OverDrive’s network consists of 36,000 libraries, schools, corporate knowledge centers and government accounts in 63 countries.

Numbers reflect significant growth in eBooks and Audiobooks usage.

The increase in popularity of eBooks and audiobooks in public libraries and schools has been fueled by significant increases in a variety of subject areas as well as new digital initiatives. Children’s and Juvenile eBooks and audiobooks grew 19 percent in 2016, and non-English titles (39 percent) and Self-Published (102 percent) experienced similar gains.

OverDrive garners new publishing partners and expands content.

In the past six months, OverDrive added publishers such as Sonolibro (Spain), Penguin Random House UK Audio, Van Schaik Publishers (South Africa), Sonia Draga Publishing House (Poland) and many more to its growing catalog of more than 5,000 publishers. Now offering content in 101 languages, OverDrive is helping publishers meet demand and reach millions of new readers in the United States and across the globe.

 

Community programs that capitalize on the value of digital content:

The value of libraries as a powerful marketing tool has hit an all-time high. This increased exposure and buzz includes libraries building engaging campaigns around digital Book Clubs with dedicated websites, organized group discussions and even special author appearances. These are a few programs now that are capitalizing on the value and convenience of digital.

One Book, One New York
Together We Read (Australia and New Zealand, Canada and UK),
National Library of Singapore: National Reading Movement
CityRead London (In April, readers can borrow the CityRead London featured title, Prophecy from their local library.)