Alexandria Labs signs historic deal to release Black Spring Press Crime Series as limited digital editions
November 30, 2023
NYC-based technology company Alexandria Labs is thrilled to announce it has signed a licensing deal with London publisher Black Spring Press Group to create limited digital editions of the much-anticipated Black Spring Crime Series. This is a historic collaboration between a literary press and a technology company, all built around a desire to transform how readers enjoy digital books and create a permanent home for independent publishers on the modern Internet.
This deal marks the premiere of Alexandria Labs’ platform for publishers to create and distribute limited digital editions, unlock a new revenue stream, and reach new audiences. With traditional book formats, readers must give up true ownership when they purchase a digital book; with Alexandria Labs’ limited edition e-books, this trade-off no longer exists, and these e-books can be treasured, displayed, or lent freely by readers while protecting authors’ and publishers’ copyright. Alexandria Labs is committed to preserving literature and access to information, using blockchain technology and encryption to make Alexandria e-books safe from loss, theft, and censorship as e-books have never been before.
Black Spring Press, founded in 1984, has published classics from Nick Cave’s writing, to the history of Biba fashion, to Carolyn Cassady’s ground-breaking Off The Road. It resurrected Bonfiglioli’s Mortdecai, and published editions of important work by Leonard Cohen, Orson Welles, and Julian Maclaren-Ross. The publisher is named after the classic by Henry Miller, a collection of stories entitled Black Spring, published in 1963 by the important indie company Grove Press in New York. It is dedicated to Anaïs Nin. The Black Spring Press Group has been contributing to literature for 39 years.
The collectible digital editions of the Black Spring Crime Series will be released on the Alexandria platform in the coming weeks, including titles already published as well as those to come in the series’ ten-book run. The Crime Series, curated by Luca Veste, began in 2023 with Zephaniah Sole’s A Crime in the Land of 7,000 Islands and has been endorsed by bestselling authors including Lee Child, Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, and Mark Billingham.
Alexandria Labs founder and CEO Amelie Lasker says, “We at Alexandria are great fans of Black Spring Press Group. It means so much to be able to debut our publisher platform with such a beloved and long-running brand and an exciting curation of thriller titles.”
Black Spring Press Group publisher and owner Dr. Todd Swift says, “The future of publishing is going to have to reckon with, and creatively redefine, web3—so I am exceptionally proud and delighted to be starting this historic adventure with Alexandria Labs, who seem to combine the impossible—genuine good-natured humanity and 100% tech-know-how. Our books feel in great hands!”
Links: