E-commerce major Flipkart has inked a distribution deal to offer digital content from the US-based content distribution network Publish On Demand Global (PODG). As per the deal, Flipkart will be offering PODG content like e-books, mobile books and tablet books for purchase on its site and eBook app across iOS, Android and Windows 8 devices. PODG claims to currently have tie-ups with more than 10,000 authors and publishers globally. However, this includes print tie-ups as well, which is not part of the current deal. The deal period or the terms of the partnership were not disclosed. It's worth noting that Flipkart already has print distribution tie-ups with PODG along with its competitor Infibeam. Earlier in January, PODG had partnered with an India-based publish-on-demand facility to extend its platform to the country, enabling authors to print their books locally and distribute it across PODG's global network including channels like Flipkart and Infibeam. Besides this, PODG also has e-book distribution tie-ups with Handygo Technologies's e-book and e-magazine initiative Rockstand. Smashwords Tie-up: Last August, Flipkart had inked a similar tie-up with California based indie publisher focused self-publishing and distribution platform Smashwords to add the latter's entire catalog of free and paid e-books to its catalogue. Smashwords claims to have published more than 290,000 e-books from more than 80,000 authors and publishers globally as of now. In June, Penguin Books had partnered Flipkart to offer short digital reads from its catalogue called E-Singles. At launch, it offered 47 e-singles and the company was planning to expand the catalogue to offer e-singles from other categories like poetry, short non-fiction, plays and fiction among others. Flipkart had debuted its e-books…
