By Siobhan O’Leary

Libreka.de, the online book search database run by the Marketing- und Verlagsservice des Buchhandels, a subsidiary of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, wants you to know that you can, in fact, get something for nothing. According to the Boersenblatt, they’ve just launched a promotion called “Download Days“, in which a selected ebooks can be downloaded free of charge every Tuesday until November 10th (except during the Frankfurt Book Fair when there will be a free ebook available every day). The idea behind it is to demonstrate the advantages of the new medium and to assuage the fear of the unknown.

German book wholesalers KNV / KNO VA and Libri.de both made announcements this week about new initiatives they have planned for the coming months. As reported in the Boersenblatt, Libri is planning to substantially increase its non-book offerings. There will now be more than 200,000 music titles (on CD and DVD), 23,000 films (on DVD, UMD, or Blu-ray) and 6,000 games for computers and game consoles available in its online shop. KNV, meanwhile, is launching a new platform called New Digital World, which is also intended to bundle content and various forms of media – from ebooks to other value-added content.