Poetry from Poets Wear Prada Now Available from iTunes

Aug. 17, 2011 - PRLog -- Poets Wear Prada today announced its entry into the lucrative commercial e-book market with the availability of two of its titles on Apple’s iTunes. “Gathered at Her Sky: Life Poems” by Tantra-zawadi, and “Thrum: Poems” by Joel Allegretti are now available for immediate download. Both titles were converted to e-publication format and submitted to Apple's iBookstore by Lulu.com, which publishes and carries print-on-demand paperback editions of several Poets Wear Prada titles. Lulu has partnered with Apple to ensure that as many Lulu titles as possible are “available to every potential customer on the planet, starting with the 120 million plus readers who own an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and shop at the iBookstore.” Lulu converts selected titles from its catalogue and handles their submission to Apple at no cost to its authors and their publishers but an iBookstore listing is not guaranteed.

Roxanne Hoffman, Senior Editor and Founder of Poets Wear Prada, was first contacted by Lulu.com in March about the free e-book conversions with an invitation to "join the ranks of Lulu authors who have already sold 60,000 e-books through the iBookstore." She received word in June that the two titles were converted and submitted to Apple, informed the two authors involved, and started her anxious wait to see if the titles would make the cut. “Gathered at Her Sky” was picked up July 11 and “Thrum” four days later. Both chapbooks are now available on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iBooks, and via computer with iTunes to registered Apple and AOL users.

Her wait finally over, and the two titles now available for sale as e-books, Ms. Hoffman says she is “excited and looking forward to future of publishing and being a part of it.” Poets Wear Prada switched to print-on-demand in 2010 after using local Hoboken mom-and-pop print shops since 2006 to publish the traditional saddle-stitched chapbooks, and after a larger printer failed to deliver the initial 800 copies of what would have been the press's first full-length collection. Ms. Hoffman said, “The quality of the print-on-demand books is better -- we can now offer perfect bound editions -- and the headache of direct mail orders is now handled by two experts in on-line distribution, Amazon and Lulu -- no more trips to the post office -- and best of all, my home office doesn't look like a warehouse. We had been looking at various options to convert our books for Kindle, Nook, iPad and the other competing tablets all of which require their own proprietary format. Then Lulu made the announcement it would do free conversions for the iPad. Sometimes it pays not to be on leading edge ahead of the curve. In this case, my procrastination paid off.” Lulu promises that these e-publication files will be available for further distribution to its ever expanding list of eBook retail partners.

Tantra-zawadi, author of “Gathered at Her Sky” says "I am delighted to join the ranks of authors in the ever expanding e-book market. Poet's Wear Prada has seized the opportunity to reach a broader audience in the digital community with easier access to my book and on-line spoken word musical collaborations. This is an exciting and well integrated introduction into a new technological era!”

Poets Wear Prada also continues to expand its paperback distribution. Six poetry chapbook titles from Poets Wear Prada are now available from Tower Books at Tower.com: "Gathered at Her Sky: Life Poems" by Tantra-zawadi, "Thrum: Poems" by Joel Allegretti, "Green Rain" by Mary Orovan, "The Slip" by Michael Montlack, "Payday Loans" by Jee Leong Koh and "Detailed Still" by Karen Neuberg. The six paperback titles were added to the on-line music store catalogue August 10th, 2011 through Amazon's CreateSpace.com's extended distribution program.

Author Joel Allegretti says, “It seems appropriate that my Poets Wear Prada collection is available through an online music store because ‘Thrum’ deals exclusively with musical instruments. Its international availability is a real bonus because it now has a channel it otherwise would not have.”

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PWP is a small literary press based in Hoboken, New Jersey, devoted to introducing new authors through high-quality chapbooks primarily of poetry, since October 2006. Please visit us at pwpbooks.blogspot.com. "Have you had your poetry today?"