Optus launches ebookstore

Australian telecommunications company Optus is now selling ebooks.

The Optus ebookstore, which also sells audiobooks, was launched on 11 November. The store is powered by OverDrive, with ebooks available in EPUB and PDF formats and able to be read on devices that support Adobe digital rights management (DRM).

To purchase ebooks and audiobooks, Optus customers need to download OverDrive’s Media Player software. Existing Optus customers can pay for their purchases from their pre-paid mobile account or monthly mobile bill, while new customers can purchase ebooks and audiobooks using Paypal.

The Optus ebookstore currently offers approximately 530,000 ebook and audiobook titles from approximately 1150 publishers. Among the local publishers with ebook titles in the store are Penguin, Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Pan Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, Allen & Unwin, Hardie Grant, Bloomsbury, Text Publishing, Black Inc., Scribe Publications and Lonely Planet.

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, discount department store Big W has also recently started selling ebooks through OverDrive. The Big W ebookstore launched in September with around 300,000 ebooks from a mix of international and Australian publishers.