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It was a tough week in the world of publishing, but two of the big trade houses: Penguin Books and Random House had some big announcements regarding the digital age.

Penguin Group USA announced a new program called Penguin 2.0. It included two programs, both centered around a new section on the Penguin Web site which will feature a new blog and access to exclusive Penguin content such as enhanced e-books, videos and special print products. And it also features Penguin Personalized which will allow consumers to add a custom dedication to particular Penguin books, which will be printed POD and shipped. Penguin is starting the program with a holiday-themed title: A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings by Charles Dickens. A dozen more titles will be added in the next few months.

The other piece of Penguin news is Penguin Mobile, an iPhone app, available for free from the Apple App store. The application makes the features of the Web site—the blog, book previews, podcasts, news and Penguin-specific book-finding tools—available on the iPhone.


The e-book offerings in the iPhone just grew significantly with the announcement of a partnership between Fictionwise, one of the largest e-tailers of digital books, and Stanza. What is Stanza? Stanza is a FREE application for your iPhone and iPod Touch. Use it to download from a vast selection of over 100,000 books and periodicals, and read them right on your phone. It’s a wireless electronic library that stays open 24/7.Through this partnership, 40,000 titles from Fictionwise.com will be made available for direct purchase and download through the Stanza by Fictionwise store accessed through the Stanza iPhone application.

Random House also announced a partnership with Stanza, through which e-books by several RH authors will be available for free through Stanza.