Hachette says its books among top iPad downloads

France's biggest publisher Hachette Livre said Tuesday that four of its books were among the top eight downloaded from Apple's iBookstore after the launch of the new iPad tablet computer.

It named the books, published by its US unit Hachette Book Group, as "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" by Seth Grahame-Smith, "Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang" by Chelsea Handler, "Outliers" by Malcom Gladwell and "Worst Case" by James Patterson, Michael Ledwidge, Bobby Cannavale, John Glover and Orlagh Cassidy.

The company gave no figures for each or total book downloads.

Apple boss Steve Jobs said last week that some 600,000 books had been downloaded onto the iPad from iBookstore.

Launching the iPad, Apple said it was the ideal platform for electronic books and newspapers, pegging the tablet computer as the future for these media which have struggled in the Internet era.

Hachette's US operation counts as the fifth largest publisher in the United States and publishes some 800 books annually.

So far, electronic books account for only three percent of the overall market but all major publishers have made them a priority area for the future.

(Agencies)