books

The mobile advertising campaign of iPad applications by Edizioni Piemme, whose catalogue of titles available from Apple’s Appstore will reach eleven titles by Christmas, has been launched on Mediamond websites. In details the campaign has been planned on the Mondadori web and mobile sites held by the advertising sales agency, accessible on the iPad.

The focus of the initiative will be on some of the most successful titles of Edizioni Piemme, such as Storie da ridere and the bestseller Nel Regno della Fantasia of the popular children’s character Geronimo Stilton’s; Il cacciatore di acquiloni by Khaled Hosseini and the autobiographical A un passo dal baratro by Paolo Brosio.

“We are delighted to be able to promote our applications on the Mediamond network,” declared Laura Donnini managing director of Edizioni Piemme.
“It is the first campaign for our mobile applications and we believe that the launch of the applications of our books will certainly benefit in terms of visibility and downloads,” she concluded.

Satisfaction was also expressed by Davide Mondo, managing director of Mediamond, who said, “Our product portfolio is clearly the ideal platform for the realisation of an application advertising campaign. With the tools we have available we have designed an immediate communication campaign that focuses on the interests of the users that visit Mondadori’s digital properties,” he concluded.

Edizioni Piemme has a consolidated leadership in children’s book publishing, with a market share of 18% (Source: Nielsen November 2010), thanks to the success of the “Il Battello a Vapore” and “Geronimo Stilton” brands, as well as its successes in the fiction, non-fiction and religion sectors for general readers.

Mediamond, the joint venture between Mondadori Pubblicità and Publitalia ’80, was set up in 2009 for the sale of advertising on the web. Mediamond’s portfolio is made up of a network of 30 titles that every month reach more than 8.4 million users and 710 million page views, which represents a 35% coverage of internet users.

In addition to e-books, a series of interactive applications for the iPad are now available for some of the titles in the children’s catalogue. These apps area exclusively available from Apple’s App Store, starting on 11 November. Geronimo Stilton is the first protagonist of this operation, which involves some of the most popular titles.

Funny stories

Some of the titles in the series will be sold in a digital format containing the full text as well as extra content. The digital version of the books include a complete audio version of the stories, with the voice of Geronimo Stilton and the other characters from the world of Topazia. The application’s main menu also offers the following functions: write, underline, highlight, make brief notes on the page, write on notepaper, cancel, place bookmark, record brief audio tracks.

But above all it is the extra content that makes the app so much fun and engaging for younger users.

Character profiles. Every time a new character appears in the story, an icon on the side of the text indicates that there is a profile of the character.

Games. At the beginning of each book there are 4 games, such as “find the hidden detail”, “identify the differences”, “find the right shadow” and “find the intruder”.

Outline images to be coloured. In the text, on the side of some images an icon indicates the same image in a black and white outline form that the reader can enlarge and colour, using a palette of colours that appears on the screen.

From the menu it is also possible to access the online catalogue of Geronimo Stilton apps available for the iPad and to send an email to friends, inviting them to join the fun with the range of Geronimo Stilton interactive applications.

The application, developed by Enhanced Press, can be used on the iPad and is downloadable from the App Store. Follow this link: http://itunes.apple.com/it/app/id398491904?mt=8. New titles will be available for sale every two weeks.

In the Realm of Imagination

The bestsellers of Geronimo Stilton come to the iPad, in a version to be read, listened to and …touched! The application provides the complete text of the book that can be flicked through, page by page, or listened to by activating the audio with the voices of Geronimo and his friends.

The pages, that are already full of exciting words, will surprise young readers with the numerous animated images, that provide sound effects and the possibility of interacting by dragging certain objects on the screen.

Over 300 pages of full-colour illustrated text as well as 50 pages with a glossary of imaginative words; more than 150 multi-touch animated images with sound effects; animated presentations profiles of all the characters of the Compagnia della Fantasia and partial audio of the story.

The application, developed by Simplicissimus, can be used on the iPad and is downloadable from the App Store. Follow this link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id400428205?mt=8.

The Geronimo Stilton cartoons

Finally, an application has also been created to read the cartoons of Geronimo Stilton in a digital format: cartoons can be viewed in their entirety in the portrait mode (vertical) or enlarged in the landscape mode (horizontal).

The main menu of the application allows users to write, underline, highlight, make brief notes on the page, write on notepaper, cancel, place bookmark and record brief audio tracks.

From the menu it is also possible to access the online catalogue of Geronimo Stilton apps available for the iPad and to send an email to friends, inviting them to join the fun with the range of Geronimo Stilton interactive applications.

Soon there will also be an interactive iPhone application for the cartoons of the popular editor of the Eco del Roditore.

The application, developed by Enhanced Press, can be used on the iPad and is downloadable from the App Store. Follow this link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id400088098?mt=8. New titles will be available for sale every two weeks.

In recognition of the work of the much-loved poet Alda Merini, an offbeat and moving personality who was able to speak directly to people’s hearts, Mondadori is publishing the first anthology that brings together all of the poetry and prose of a leading protagonist of Italian twentieth century literature: Alda Merini, Il suono dell’ombra. Poesie e prose 1953-2009.

From the most intriguing, engaging and well-known of her masterpieces to forgotten pages, this collection is accompanied by an extensive critical and biographical appreciation by Ambrogio Borsani. The early collections of poetry, La presenza di Orfeo, Nozze Romane and Paura di Dio are collected for the first time and the book also includes the more recent and familiar collections, such as Vuoto d’amore, Superba è la notte and her last book, Il Carnevale della Croce, along with a number of rarities. Alongside the autobiographical L’altra verità and Lettere al dottor G., that give an account of a heartbreaking descent into the abyss of an asylum, also her complete short stories are included, from Il ladro Giuseppe to the lyrical sonatas of Delirio amoroso and Il tormento delle figure. A section of biting and highly amusing aphorisms, provide evidence of almost twenty years’ work. The book also features a small number of unpublished poems.

On 2 November, to commemorate Alda Merini a year after her death and to mark the publication of the anthology, Licia Maglietta will give a reading of some of the poet’s work at the Auditorium in Milan (Largo Mahler 1, at 6.30 pm – admittance free).

On Bol.it it is possible to choose from over 90,000 ebooks from Italian and international publishers. The online bookstore offers users the widest selection currently available in our market with more than 5,000 Italian titles made available by the leading publishing companies and distribution platforms in the country. In addition, the catalogue – which features both classics and bestsellers, as well as many new titles published simultaneously with the printed versions – also includes some 85,000 ebooks in English, ranging from great novels to non fiction, children’s books and scientific and professional titles.

To mark the launch of the new ebook catalogue, on Bol.it it is also possible to download for free, in cooperation with Mondadori, the digital version of Il fu Mattia Pascal by Luigi Pirandello.

All of the digital books on the Bol.it store are available in the e-pub or pdf formats and can be used on the most common commercially available tablets and e-readers. A wide selection of the titles in the Italian ebook catalogue is also DRM-free and social DRM, and can therefore also be read on the iPad.

The Bol.it ebook offer operates alongside the already vast catalogue of the internet store, which features a total of 2.5 million products: from ‘traditional’ books, in Italian and English and professional titles, to a large range of multimedia products, including ebook readers, DVD and Blu-Ray films, music, games and gift ideas.

The top ten best selling ebook titles in Italian on Bol.it this week were:

1. Nella testa di Steve Jobs by Leander Kahney (Sperling & Kupfer);

2. La caduta dei giganti by Ken Follett (Mondadori);

3. Inchiesta sul cristianesimo by Corrado Augias and Remo Cacitti (Mondadori);

4. La solitudine dei numeri primi by Paolo Giordano (Mondadori);

5. L’intermittenza by Andrea Camilleri (Mondadori);

6. Non avevo capito niente by Diego De Silva (Einaudi);

7. Il broker by John Grisham (Mondadori);

8. Il bizzarro museo degli orrori by Dan Rhodes (Newton Compton Editori);

9. La strada by Cormac McCarthy (Einaudi);

10. Uomini che odiano le donne by Stieg Larsson (Marsilio).

Canale Mussolini was chosen in the section dedicated to the historical novel in honour of the memory of the founder of the Prize, the writer Marcello Venturi.

The jury motivated the award as follows:

The novel is a fresh and invigorating reconstruction, characterised by an original stylistic and aware approach, that recounts the story of a family of colonists from the Veneto to the new towns established after the draining of the Pontine marshlands, over a number of generations. It paints a highly suggestive picture and manages to translate into a colourful daily language a authentic country saga laced with civic passions and dreams of social redemption against a backdrop of significant historical moment. Added to this is the pathos of personal memory – the author himself comes from a family of colonists – that is able to evoke the atmosphere and characters of events that have for some time been removed from a “politically correct” historical research.

The award ceremony will be held at the Teatro Ariston in Acqui Terme on Saturday 23 October at 5.30 pm, in the presence of the President of the Piedmont Region, Roberto Cota.

In addition to Antonio Pennacchi, during the event, which will be presented by Alessandro Cecchi Paone, prizes will also be presented to Alessandro Orsini, in the historical research category, for his book Anatomia delle Brigate rosse. Le radici ideologiche del terrorismo rivoluzionario (Rubbettino), Marco Patricelli, in the popular history category, for Il volontario (Laterza), and Folco Quilici in the “History on TV” category. The special prize “Testimone del tempo 2010” will be awarded to the Hon. Sandro Bondi, Vittorio Messori and Massimo Ranieri. While Ennio Di Nolfo will receive a Special Prize “for his career.”

Telecom Italia and the Mondadori Group today signed an e-book distribution deal in Frankfurt, at a ceremony attended by Telecom Italia CEO Franco Bernabè and Mondadori Group Deputy Chairman and CEO Maurizio Costa.

As a result of this deal, Bibletstore Italy’s first digital bookshop opens for business today, offering over 1,200 e-books from the Mondadori publishing group.

Eight hundred titles from Mondadori, Einaudi, Sperling & Kupfer and Piemme’s back catalogue will be sold through Telecom Italia’s e-book store (www.biblet.it) along with over 400 new books published simultaneously in paper and electronic form.

Telecom Italia CEO Franco Bernabè declared: “We are particularly pleased about this deal with the Mondadori Group. It is a significant testament to our ability to innovate, which allows us to position the company as a driver of high-tech-led markets. Telecom Italia’s launch of Bibletstore spells the adoption of a new business model that differs from models adopted in other countries. Telecom Italia is developing this model in partnership with publishers, which retain the greatest possible freedom in terms of commercial positioning and setting price points.”

Maurizio Costa, Deputy Chairman and CEO of the Mondadori Group, stated: “The global transition currently underway in the book market, prompted by the uptake of new technologies, is set to have a significant impact also in Italy. Rapid mobile device growth will free reading. People will have more time to explore new content, which will lead to an increase in consumption in step with worldwide trends for increasing demand for information, learning and cultural entertainment. This partnership with Telecom Italia is a significant first step for the Mondadori Group’s leveraging of its publishing assets, which will also become available over the main platforms and devices available on the market.” Mr Costa concluded: “In the near future, our focus on the customer/reader will increasingly become our most precious resource. By sharing expertise with Telecom Italia, we will be able to offer our users an increasingly personalized service.”

Ken Follett’s latest novel, Fall of Giants, is one of the first new Mondadori books available on Telecom Italia’s e-book store shelves. Back catalogue titles from the Group’s publishing imprints include literary masterpieces by Jane Austen and Thomas Mann and recent bestsellers such as Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections and Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, along with books by leading lights on the contemporary book scene such as Philip Roth and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and genre literary greats ranging from Agatha Christie to John Grisham. Also available are great thinkers of the past such as Descartes and Seneca, and more recent Italian and international non-fiction, as well as classic children’s books from Hans Christian Andersen’s Fables and the latest generation of children’s heroes such as Geronimo Stilton.

In a world first, the partnership between Telecom Italia and the Mondadori Group will see the launch this Christmas of three subscription-based themed e-book channels: high-brow lit, genre lit (thrillers and romance), and books for children. This new development will completely revolutionize the way readers are offered books. For a set monthly fee, readers will have access to a theme-based reading list. Subscribers can read as many books as they like from this list, one book at a time.

Telecom Italia’s dedicated new e-book platform will carry ePub and PDF format e-books protected by a Digital Rights Management (DRM) system to protect authors’ copyright.

Customers can, starting from today, buy e-books on Bibletstore from their PCs and pay by credit card. In the near future, TIM e-book readers will be launched that offer straightforward and direct access to the e-book store via 3G phone connection. Customers will pay nothing to browse the store, and will only be charged for the books they purchase. Using this method, payments will be accepted by credit card or by charging against credit on the SIM card. E-books may also be purchased and read using Olivetti’s OliPad, a new tablet that is being launched over the next few months, and on other devices that download dedicated applications free of charge.

In this novel Ken Follett tells the interrelated stories of five families (an American, a Russian, a German, an English and a Welsh) against the backdrop of the historic events that took place from 1911 to the First World War and the October Revolution. As in Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, Follett ably reconstructs a historical saga, weaving the events of big history into the smaller stories of protagonists that move, love, struggle and suffer against the background of the terrible events of the twentieth century. From the coal mines of Wales to the sparkling candelabra in sumptuous palaces, and from the corridors of politics to the alcoves of power, from Washington to St Petersburg, from London to Paris, the story moves incessantly between hidden dramas and international intrigues. The protagonists are rich aristocrats, the ambitious poor, courageous and strong-willed women, all of whom have to deal with war and the consequences of war.

Good and evil, love and hate, peace and war intertwine in this epic novel and are also graphically represented by two different covers, one white, one black.

Ken Follett is considered the world’s leading author of bestsellers and has sold more than 120 million copies, 18 million with Pillars of the Earth alone.

From 1 October, Sky Italia will broadcast the Ridley Scott-produced TV drama series based on Pillars of the Earth.

Antonio Pennacchi won the 64th edition of the Premio Strega with the novel Canale Mussolini.

Pennacchi’s book recounts the story of a large, patriarchal, peasant family that together with 3,000 other families in 1932 is relocated to Lazio from Veneto to colonise the Agro Pontino swamps that had just been drained by Mussolini.

The heroes of this moving saga are the Peruzzis, from the grandfather to Pericle to Adelchi, three generations of agricultural labourers who with tenacity fight the march of destiny. Drawing a large picture that has the wide scope of a poem, the story weaves the adventures of the Peruzzis together with the no-less engaging events that took place during the half century of Italian history spanning from the beginning of the 20th Century to the Second World War.

Pennacchi recalls the past with a clear and critical spirit and merges it with subtle emotion to produce a vast and rich story, an authentic epic, a great Italian novel.

Following legal authorisation and the positive results of duediligence, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. today exercised the contract as per thepreliminary agreement stipulated on 16 July – and already communicated to the market– forthe acquisition of 70% of the share capital of Edizioni Piemme S.p.A.

The definitive price, fixed on the basis of the results of due diligence, is of €14.107 million.

This operation will allow Mondadori to significantly strengthen its position in thechildren’s books segment and also acquire a portfolio of established authors in the fictionand non-fiction area.

An extraordinary general meeting of the shareholders of Arnoldo Mondadori Editore today approved the partial split of the subsidiary Elemond: the company will transfer, to the parent company Arnoldo Mondadori, its stakes in Einaudi and Mondadori Printing, its specialised magazine business and property holdings.

The split, that will not involve any equity exchanges given that the split company is already wholly-owned by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, that will become effective on 1 April 2002, as part of a larger project aimed at re-organising the Elemond Group.

The project, approved by the Board of Directors at a meeting on 13 November 2001, aims to simplify the corporate structure and to align the business in which the Elemond goup is involved.

In fact, after the split approved today, the company will focus on its role as a an operating holding company for the Mondadori Group’s activities in the art and illustrated books sectors, the organisation of exhibitions and the management of museum bookshops.