A Thousand Old Books Made New

Turning a long-neglected classic into an e-book requires one brutal step that makes any lover of literature squeamish: the book is ripped apart, the pages cut from the binding so that they can be scanned. But it’s a step well worth the end result, which will give a book new life and new readers. And it’s just one step in a complicated process – steps that Swedish book publisher Bonnierförlagen is now taking for a thousand books from its archives under a new project that will increase the number of available e-book titles in Swedish by up to 20 percent.

“The 1,000 Project is about digitalizing and publishing the best and most important books we have ever published, books we think will be in demand long into the future,” says Magnus Nytell, head of Bonnierförlagen Digital. The publisher picked books, many of which have been unavailable for years, from a list that spans 200 years of publishing books and 84,000 ISBN titles.

“When we started, we didn’t have the rights anymore for most of the books,” says Nytell. “So it meant a lot of work, everything from contracts with heirs who have no idea what an e-book is, to tracking down physical copies of books that we didn’t have in our archives. The majority of the books we ended up having to buy from used book sellers throughout Sweden.”

Once the books are tracked down, they are pulled apart and sent to India for scanning, conversion and proof-reading. Then the files go through several more rounds of proof-reading in Sweden before they are ready to be published as e-books.

The books have been published as soon as they are ready, and the plan is to be finished by March 2013.

While Bonnierförlagen’s sales of e-books has doubled, the numbers are still very small. The e-book market just hasn’t taken off yet in Sweden when compared to the U.S., for example. There are several reasons for this, according to Nytell. One is that Amazon, the biggest driver of e-book sales not just in the U.S. but in other countries where it has established itself, hasn’t entered Sweden yet. The e-reader market is also small, with online book retailer Adlibris’ Letto the only Swedish e-reader on the market, aside from the iPad. “Libraries are another issue,” says Nytell. “The fact that you can sit at home at your computer and download a book for free without any restrictions makes for a really difficult situation for a retailer who needs to make money. Some 90 percent of all e-books read in Sweden come from libraries.”

Despite these challenges, it hasn’t stopped the 1,000 Project. “I’m incredibly proud to be part of publishing so many masterpieces that so many Swedes will have the chance to read,” says Nytell. “And the books will never end up in a warehouse or need to be destroyed. Now Arne Dahl, Selma Lagerlöf, Ellen Key, Vilhelm Moberg, Anaïs Nin, Guy de Maupassant and Emile Zola and many others will always be available, forever. We’re creating a treasure chest of Swedish books!”