Demibooks launches Storytime, a curated marketplace for interactive children's books on the iPad

CHICAGO, April 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Demibooks, Inc. (demibooks.com), a leading digital publishing technologies company, announces the launch of its new reader app, Demibooks® Storytime.  Storytime is a curated, multi-publisher marketplace for interactive children's books produced on the Demibooks Composer platform.

Demibooks now offers a unique, entirely tablet-based publishing ecosystem for anyone wanting to create, publish and sell interactive book apps for children.  Storytime books are created using Demibooks Composer, the company's iPad-based authoring platform also available in the App Store. Features include integration with the Facebook social graph, allowing readers to easily share with their friends what they purchase, read and rate in Storytime.

Storytime offers publishers and independent authors/illustrators a new distribution channel in addition to selling their book apps directly in the App Store. To promote Storytime, Demibooks is partnering with Usborne Books & More, the direct sales division of Education Development Corporation. Publishers will benefit from a sales boost beyond typical App Store releases. Combined with the reduced cost of easily producing such titles on the Demibooks Composer platform, Storytime improves the business model for book apps.

Rafiq Ahmed, CEO of Demibooks Inc. says, "We've responded to our customers who have struggled with the discoverability challenge of launching their Composer based books only on the App Store. For no additional development cost, they now have a second distribution channel in Storytime. What further sets Storytime apart is EDC's nationwide direct sales team who will drive more consumers to all books within our reader app."

Storytime will feature curated content from all publishers using the Composer platform, and at launch includes books from Kane Miller and McGraw-Hill Education. Titles include Not Without Bear by Anna Grossnickle Hines, a book app shortlisted for the 2012 Bologna Children's Book Fair Ragazzi Digital Award.

CEO of EDC Publishing Randall White said, "We are excited to add this excellent digital product, which will be very compatible with our existing print product line of our direct selling division, Usborne Books & More. Storytime will be presented to over 1M families annually by our sales force of over 6000 consultants."

Demibooks® Storytime is available for free from the App Store today:http://bit.ly/getstorytime

About Demibooks Inc.

Demibooks provides publishing platforms for interactive books. Demibooks® Composer is the first code-free, affordable way for publishers and self-published authors and illustrators to create interactive books for the iPad, right on the device itself. Demibooks® Storytime is a curated, multi-publisher marketplace for interactive children's books produced on the Composer platform. Founded in 2010, Demibooks is headquartered in Chicago with a R&D center in Sydney. For more information on Demibooks® Storytime, please visit demibooks.com or contact Lauren Strohl at [email protected] or (312) 834-3364.

About Educational Development Corporation (EDC)

Educational Development Corporation is a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ stock exchange (ticker: EDUC). EDC sells children's books, including Usborne Books and the Kane Miller line of international children's titles through a multi-level sales organization of independent consultants, through 5,000 retail stores and over the Internet.  More than 1,500 different titles are available for children of all ages, with periodic new additions. For more information on EDC please visit http://www.edcpub.com

SOURCE Demibooks, Inc.