Mondadori and Open Road Integrated Media, a digital publisher and multimedia content company announced today from The London Book Fair that they have formed an international digital publishing partnership. Open Road will digitize, distribute and market english language versions of titles from Mondadori’s catalog starting with 50 ebooks. Mondadori is Open Road’s first foreign publishing partner and this announcement kicks off Open Road’s International Publishing Partner Program.

Jane Friedman cofounder and CEO of Open Road said: “The rise of digital publishing has made the world a smaller place and we are now able to quickly and efficiently publish translations of international books. Open Road is committed to working with international publishers to bring
works from foreign countries to a wider audience than they have ever had before. We are excited to build on the success we have enjoyed with our American partners and to start our international publishing program with Mondadori.”

“Thanks to the digital revolution,” said Maurizio Costa, deputy chairman and chief executive of the Mondadori Group, “geographical barriers are falling and the publisher is increasingly becoming also the promoter of its authors, not only at the national level, but also internationally. To publish in English the works of our most prestigious Italian authors,” Costa continued, “is a source of pride and satisfaction for Mondadori. Thanks to our commitment to digital and our partnership with Open Road, we can finally offer our authors direct access to the biggest market in the world.”

Open Road will digitally market all of the titles in the partnership. The company will create original marketing videos that will be distributed through its online platform and syndicated to content partners.
This announcement takes Open Road’s publishing partners program global. Since its launch, Open Road has worked with a variety of American publishers including MysteriousPress.com, Pegasus Books and Albert Whitman & Company.

The ebooks will be on sale globally starting this summer from Amazon.com, Apple iBookstore, BarnesandNoble.com, Google/IndieBound, Kobo Books,OverDrive, and the Sony Reader Store.

Open Road Integrated Media is a digital publisher and multimedia content company. Open Road creates connections between authors and their audiences by marketing its ebooks through a new proprietary online platform, which uses premium video content and social media. Open Road
has published ebooks from legendary authors including William Styron, Pat Conroy, Alice Walker, Jean Craighead George, Bette Greene, and Virginia Hamilton.

The Mondadori Group is among the most important publishing houses in Europe and is Italy’s biggest publisher of books through its publishing houses Edizioni Mondadori, Einaudi, Piemme and Sperling & Kupfer. Its wide-ranging production covers all market segments, including the ebook market.