More on Apocalypsis

Trade mag Publishing Perspectives has a post by Sebastian Posth (for tongue-twister fans) on the e-publishing experiment Apocalypsis. German publishers Bastei Lübbe have been releasing Mario Giordano's specially commissioned thriller in serial form, each e-book totting up about 60 pages and including extra shiny stuff like sound and pictures. There are no concrete sales figures in the article, but the series seems to be keeping readers' interest afloat.

Posth is enthusiastic about the translation/marketing strategy:

Different approaches for different markets! Whereas the English version was translated in-house and distributed by Bastei Lübbe themselves, the Spanish and Mandarin version will be translated abroad and marketed internationally as a joint venture together with local publishing, distribution and retail marketing partners in Spain and China.

I'm not sure how to define in-house, because I'm not sure the English translator Diana Beate Hellmann actually lives in Germany, but certainly the German publishers commissioned their own translation rather than waiting for an English-language company to buy the rights. Fascinating stuff, and I'm sure I'm not the only one following this development with bated breath. Am I?