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Kobo teams up with ABA to offer ebooks to U.S indies

The American Booksellers Association has partnered with Kobo to sell ebooks and e-reading devices.

Kobo will now provide ABA members nearly three million ebook titles, as well as ereaders and accessories. The company will also support 400 member stores with training, merchandising, marketing, sales, and logistics.

Publisher’s Weekly quotes ABA CEO Oren Teicher:

We are pleased to offer our ABA members a competitive e-book retailing solution uniquely crafted to meet the needs of independent booksellers and their customers. Through this partnership with Kobo, indie bookstore customers will have access to a broad and diverse inventory of e-books.

The deal comes after Google terminated its reseller program for ebooks in April. That decision was met with surprise by many indie booksellers in Canada and the U.S. who saw the plan as a chance to launch themselves into the digital world “ it would have allowed thousands of booksellers to take digital books from Google’s store and sell them for a commission.

Several Canadian independent retailers had signed on to the program through a partnership between the Canadian Booksellers Association and Campus eBookstore.

After the cancellation, the CBA looked to Login Canada, Transcontinental, and Enthrill Entertainment as potential providers. Christopher Smith, vice president of CBA says the organization has plans in the works and will make an official announcement in early September.