Posts Tagged ‘epub’
Authors – what does this mean to you? This is one more outlet to sell your eBooks. If you already have an ebook distribution agreement with us, we’ll be uploading your eBooks on the new Google eBook site this week. If you are ready to get started on eBooks, let us know!
Google Launches Google eBooks
After months of anticipation, Google today launched its long-awaited cloud-based e-book program, Google eBooks. Rebranded from its original moniker, Google Editions, Google eBooks overnight becomes the largest e-book provider in the world, at least in terms of its offerings, launching with nearly three million books available for purchase or download, including “hundreds of thousands of e-books” available for purchase and over two million public domain titles available for free.
The launch includes a redesigned Google Books page, featuring both a store where consumers can find and buy e-books, and a research option for those who wish to search and use the repository. It also includes a Google web reader, and apps for both Apple and Android devices, which are available for free. Google’s cloud-based e-books can be accessed and read anywhere, on any device with a modern, HTML5-enabled browser, whether desktop computers, laptops, netbooks, tablets, or via apps for iPhones, iPads, and Android-powered smartphones. Because it is an open platform, Google eBooks will also be accessible on any e-reader that is based on an open platform, like ePub, including, the Sony Reader and the B&N Nook. Announced over two years ago, the program launches just in time for the 2010 holiday season, with roughly 4,000 participating publishers. Although it is currently limited to the U.S., Google will roll out international editions of Google eBooks beginning in early 2011.
Readers can store and access their e-book libraries on cloud-based personal bookshelves accessible through their Google accounts, and can also download DRM-protected ePub or PDF files directly to their computer or other device for use offline. Google officials say its pricing “will be competitive,” with other e-book ventures, and will accommodate the agency model if desired. The price for titles from agency publishers will be set by the publishers, and the the price for non-agency publishers will be set by the seller, meaning that Google will set the price for books in the Google eBookstore, and “resellers” will set the price in theirs
As for resellers, the program envisions a key role for independent booksellers, who can host and sell Google’s eBooks on their Web sites, a move that makes sense both for Google, which despite its dominant online search presence lacks the retail experience of its competitors, and for indie bookstores, who can now get into the e-book game without having to build and maintain their own expensive platforms. At or shortly after launch, indie stores will begin to roll out their own customizable Google eBook storefronts, including stores participating through a partnership with the American Booksellers Association.
“Now new writers and established authors alike are increasingly taking publishing into their own hands, and the publishing establishment is paying attention. According to a recent Bowker report, the market for “nontraditional books” in the United States grew by more than 750,000 new titles in 2009—a 181 percent increase over 2008. Five of the top 100 bestsellers in the Kindle store—which now produces more sales than Amazon’s hardcover list—are currently self-published.”
Read more in the article from Newsweek – Who Needs a Publisher
Article from: http://mashable.com/2010/07/07/borders-ebookstore-launches/
Borders, the second largest bookstore chain in the U.S., is launching its e-bookstore today, as well as reading apps for Blackberry and Android devices.
The company also announced its aggressive plans to capture 17% of the e-book market by July 2011, following arch rival Barnes & Noble’s recent disclosure that it has already secured 20% of the market in the first six months of its entry.
Borders’s store is already stocked with more than 1.5 million titles (for comparison: Barnes & Noble offers more than 1 million, and Amazon boasts nearly twice that) in a variety of formats, including ePub, mobile and PDF. Customers will be able to read these titles on the two devices offered on Borders.com, the $150 Kobo and $120 Libre Pro e-readers, as well as on the company’s recently launched mobile apps for the iPhone, iPad, Blackberry and Android ().
As an added incentive, those who download the mobile apps on their devices from July 9-10 will receive the five recent bestsellers, including Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein, One Shot by Lee Child, Michael Scott’s The Alchemyst, Julia Child’s Kitchen Wisdom and Master Your Metabolism by Jillian Michaels, for free. This should ensure that a large number of people download and interact with the app right away — something Borders desperately needs if it’s going to carve out a significant marketshare this year.
Borders is, after all, a latecomer to the e-book market, which is expected to surpass $500 million in the U.S. this year, after nearly doubling to reach $314 million in 2009.
Amazon, the biggest player in the space, launched its e-bookstore and e-reader, the Kindle, in November 2007. Sony and Barnes & Noble released their own stores and devices in 2009, followed by Apple’s iBookstore (), which accompanied the release of the iPad in April.
Yet Borders’s CEO Mike Edwards confidently insists, “The race to emerge as a retail leader within the digital category is just starting,” pointing to the company’s “device neutral philosophy” and the low prices of its e-readers compared to its competitors’.
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