Like Redford, Martijn Leenders, managing director of one of the oldest e-book stores, eBookMall.com, also sees this as a time of opportunity for indies. “I’m not saying we were excited when the agency plan was introduced. There were challenges getting those titles back,” he says. “It forced us to renew our Web store and try to see it as a positive thing.” EBook Mall was founded in 1999 and is now based in the Netherlands Antilles. As part of reinventing itself, last week eBookMall introduced a new writing contest, America’s Next Author. As Leender sees it, it’s not just about an author winning the $5,000 grand prize and a book contract. The contest, which takes its name from TV reality shows, will provide increased exposure for novice authors’ work. EBookMall is also in the midst of upgrading its browsing experience and will introduce a new book discovery feature in the next few weeks.
