A new agreement announced ahead of this year’s London Book Fair just made the world of international publishing a little bit smaller. eBook distributor and discoverability platform Trajectory has inked a deal with the third largest smartphone producer in the world, Xiaomi, to bring publisher content to the company’s 150 million customers. This agreement will bring Macmillan, Gardner Books, MIT Press, and other publishers’ titles to this market.
“We are excited to add Xiaomi to our authorized list of eBook retailers in China,” said Trajectory CEO Jim Bryant in a press release. ‘This new partnership compliments our strategy to establish relations with every relevant eBook sales channel in the world and to help our publishing partners reach new markets. Trajectory’s discoverability technology is a part of the new agreement with Xiaomi. All of the English-language eBooks that we will be submitting will arrive with keywords generated through our Natural Language Processing Engine in English and in Chinese with inter-catalog recommendations.”
More than its multi-lingual catalog of titles, Trajectory will also be bringing its search tool to the Chinese reading market. The tool, Natural Language Processing Engine (NLPE), aids in book discovery using a specific keyword algorithm, and functions across multiple languages, regardless of what language the reader searches.
“China is one of the most important publishing markets in the world and our multi-channel approach is well suited for publishers wanting to reach a global market. Xiaomi is an exceptionally strong partner with its focus on all international markets,” said Scott Beatty, Trajectory’s Chief Content Officer. “Reaching readers simply through a handful of eBook retailers is not sufficient. A multi-channel, multi-device, global approach serves both readers and publishers in the most efficient manner.”
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.