HarperCollins offers ebooks through Vancouver’s BitLit

by Stephen Hui on July 21st, 2014 at 7:00 AM

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A Vancouver-based ebook startup has snagged a major publishing partner.

BitLit Media announced today (July 21) that HarperCollins Publishers has signed on for a pilot program.

The local tech company has a mobile app that allows users to obtain the ebook editions of print books they already own for free or at a discount. The BitLit app came out for Android in January and iPhone in March.

HarperCollins will be offering the ebook versions of Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost, Black Magic Sanction by Kim Harrison, Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, Wicked by Gregory Maguire, The Success Principles by Jack Canfield, and 15 Seconds by Andrew Gross for $1.99 to $2.99.

“BitLit offers readers another way to engage with the books they’ve purchased so they can read in various formats as they choose. It provides added value to consumers at a discounted price, and additional sales for our authors,” HarperCollins chief digital officer Chantal Restivo-Alessi said in a news release.

In an April interview with the Georgia Straight, BitLit CEO Peter Hudson described BitLit as “iTunes for books”.

Almost 20,000 titles are now available through BitLit.