Digitalback Books, Partners Impelsys To Digitalise African Literary Works

Digitalback Books – a virtual library venture dedicated to making literary works from Africa and the Diaspora widely available to readers, at TedxEuston, 2014 launched its breakthrough application.

In partnership with a broad alliance of publishers and content providers including African Books Collective, UK based Peepal Tree Press and Nigeria based Parresia Publishers with many more in the pipeline, the digital library is now available for access to a rapidly growing population of increasingly mobile and data savvy users, with the launch focusing on Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy.

In collaboration with Impelsys – a global leader in providing electronic content delivery solutions- Digitalback Books has brought its content to readers over multiple channels, including free apps for iPad and Android devices.

Digitalback Books is built on the award-winning, SaaS-based Impelsys platform, iPublishCentral and offers a subscription model for readers to browse and read all of the available content online rather than having to purchase individual books outright.

“This launch is the culmination of a dream and a journey started many years ago,” said Gersy Ifeanyi Ejimofo, founder of Digitalback Books, “We firmly believe that access to books reflecting one’s heritage and experience should not be considered a luxury. However, the distribution of physical books in Africa faces many obstacles; there are currently more smartphones in peoples’ hands than books. So our unique business model transforms each of these phones into a deliciously diverse collection of African works through an affordable subscription. We are glad to have found the right partners who saw our passion, understood our vision and have been able to support us with the right solution.”

Also speaking, Sameer Shariff, Founder & CEO, Impelsys Inc., said, “Impelsys is happy to have partnered with Digitalback Books and help deliver the literary work from Africa and the Diaspora to readers. Digitalback Books’s philosophy closely aligns to Impelsys vision of spreading knowledge through technology.

“It gives us a lot of satisfaction to have been instrumental in providing the right platform – iPublishCentral – that can meet Digitalback Books’s needs today and in the future. Right from understanding the vision and requirements of Digitalback Books to building the eBook delivery portal, Impelsys’ implementation team worked closely with Digitalback Books’ to build the portal that will help  www.digitalbackbooks.com | www.ipublishcentral.com readers access the culturally rich collection of African work on their mobile devices”.

Digitalback Books showcases today at TedxEuston 2014, an annual TEDx event held in London that serves as a call to action for Africans in the Diaspora to do their bit and contribute to the advancement of the region.

DigitalBack Books, www.digitalbackbooks.com sources literary works from across Africa and the Diaspora and makes them widely accessible as a digital library of 100’s of titles.

Leveraging advances in technology and the explosion of mobiles devices on the continent, Digitalback Books seeks to plug some of the gaps that the region’s publishing industry faces in distribution.

Digitalback Books is available online and also available via apps for the iPad and Android devices.