Penguin Group recently announced a distribution agreement with Beijing-based Founder Apabi Group to sell both front and backlist digital books in English to Chinese readers.
The books will be available by May 2009. In addition, Penguin digital titles from the UK and Dorling Kindersley will also be made available in Apabi’s Chinese e-Book (CEB) format.
For a bird’s eye view of these developments, check out this Guardian article: “The Chinese market was worth about £7 billion in 2007–with almost a quarter of a million titles producing a total print run of 6.3 billion copies — but its English-language market is small by comparison with India and UK exports to the country run at about £10 million.” (Via Publishers Weekly)