Melville House Books

And Agence France Presse report says that “Japan‘s top book publishers Wednesday formed an alliance to harness the growing e-book market as Amazon’s Kindle and e-book readers by Sony and other companies are set to battle for market share.”

The Electronic Book Publishers Association of Japan launched with 31 members from the major Japanese houses, “to discuss formats for Japanese e-books, legal issues related to the expanding industry, and to analyse what people like to read digitally,” according to the AFP.

The electronic book market in Japan is currently estimated at 46 billion yen (about 500 million dollars), and most titles are distributed via mobile telephones and conventional computers.

Yoshinobu Noma, vice president of publisher Kodansha and the leader of the new association, told the AFP, “We cannot ignore the impact which the expanding market for electronic books has on the publishing industry.”

Though Sony and Panasonic introduced Japan to e-readers sometime ago, the devices have yet to become terribly popular with readers who tend to prefer reading on their phones. Amazon’s Kindle is in the Japanese market also, but they have yet to sell Japanese-language books.

The AFP reports that the new association will not be a negotiating body for the industry. Noma explained that, “Our aim is to ensure the synergy between paper and electronics. We aim to expand paper and electronic books and expand the market.”

Noma, according to the AFP, concluded by saying, “The mission of publishers is to find writers and future writers, nurture them, and to make investments. This will not change whether you deal with papers or e-books. If people find value in what we do, I don’t think we will be left behind.”

Valerie Merians is the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.