Google to be e-book distributor? Perhaps to Powells.com, Borders.com and Buy.com, among others?
“One major aspect of Edition not yet reported is that it will allow online retailers to sell the digital books directly from their site, with Google playing the role of electronic distributor. The selling feature is linked to Preview, the program that already lets retailers present the ability to browse inside Partner books.” – Publishers Lunch on the Google Edition initiative.
Other details: Powells.com, Borders.com (headquarters photo here) and Buy.com are examples given by PL. But how about others such as Costco and, if the owners can overcome a fondness for censorship, even Walmart.com? Meanwhile see related New York Times piece.
As for the issue of customers sticking to Amazon because of lower prices, well that’s a tricky one. Prices for p-books and used books are all over the waterfront, and customers don’t just go for price alone. They’re also interested in, say, good discovery and presentation. And I don’t have to mention the DRM and eBabel issues that the Kindle worsens.
June 1st, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Are these going to be the scanned books? With the OCR errors? They expect people to PAY for them?
June 1st, 2009 at 6:49 pm
That is a very good point. If these are recent titles, then they should already be in some type of electronic form. If so, then I would hope that they have been adequately proofread.
Hey, if I want an ebook that has been OCR’ed and poorly proofed, I can get those off of the “darknet”