Google announced today that the company plans to give publishers a way to sell online digital versions of their books through a partner program. The new online bookstore is expected to be online with an inventory of thousands of books by the end of this year.
The announcement makes it obvious that Google is going into head-to-head competition with Amazon.com and its popular Kindle e-book reader. There will be one major difference between the two, however: unlike Amazon.com's proprietary format that only allows the reader to read books on the Kindle device or on an Apple iPhone, Google says that it is developing an open platform for reading and accessing books. This means that books from the Google bookstore can be read on any PC or Macintosh or any other device for which programmers will write Google-compatible software.
Given Google's popularity, I suspect that such software will appear for Windows, Macintosh, Linux, smart phones, tiny netbook computers, and perhaps even for a dedicated reading device.
This could be a boon for genealogy book publishers. The books in electronic format would presumably be much cheaper to produce than the same books printed on paper. The publishers presumably would pass on part of the savings to purchasers and pocket the rest. This could be a win-win for consumers and publishers alike.
Today's announcement was aimed more at publishers than at potential customers. The company apparently wants to produce a lot of books and have them available before the formal launch of the new eBookstore. I doubt if the new service will be available for at least six months.
We might expect that the e-books will be cheaper than paper ones, but that's what many people thought about the e-books for the Sony e-Reader. In the UK there is only one official supplier (Waterstones) approved by Sony and the e-books are more expensive than the hardbacks supplied by other retailers. There's an even greater differential when the book is already available in paperback. Hopefully, Google's entry into the market will push prices of e-books down.
Posted by: Dave Dobbin | June 02, 2009 at 04:21 AM
I hope that I'll be able to read them on my palm also. The ability to mark on it (highlight, underline,etc) would also be great. One thing I don't do is sit in front my my pc and read books. The palm I can take with me anywhere just like a regular book.
Posted by: Mary Beth Figgins | June 02, 2009 at 08:21 AM
My wife got a Kindle for Mother's Day and she says that most electronic books are actually more expensive than the paperback editions!! You would think that they could make more profit from selling the e-book at the same price.
Posted by: Peter Fear | June 02, 2009 at 08:44 AM
I simply print the ebooks. I suppose I'm not green enough. I started school with BLACKboards, too. Anyway, with a printout I can highlight, underline, and even comment in the margins. Marginal notes?
Happy Dae·
http://ShoeStringGenealogy.com
Posted by: Dae Powell | June 02, 2009 at 08:55 AM
Firstly, I have been reading electronic books on my PC for years using Adobe Reader but you can't curl up with a good computer. I love my Kindle.
Lastly, every book I have purchased for my Kindle has been cheaper than its non-electronic editions.
Posted by: Eileen Souza | June 02, 2009 at 12:49 PM
I love my Kindle2, too. Books are less expensive unless you buy a best seller as soon as it's published. Also, there are many out-of-copyright books available for free that can be downloaded to a Kindle. I would hope Google entering the market will make all the prices go down!
Posted by: GeneladyMO | June 03, 2009 at 01:34 AM
I've been reading and publishing ebooks for hand-held devices as well as personal computers for over a decade, and currently have 3 or 4 ebook reading applications on my iPhone alone (including Amazon's Kindle for iPhone). While some ebooks may be more expensive than print, it's not because of intrinsic costs. It's simply market forces. Not as many ebooks are sold as print (yet), but formatting them for all the different readers can be an expensive proposition, then the distributors, like Amazon, take a big "discount" off the top. In most cases, Amazon takes 55% of the price before the publisher gets a penny! Out of the remaining 45%, the publisher pays the author as well as all the overhead. The same is true for print books, of course. One result of the electronic "revolution" in book publishing may be like in the music industry -- a lot more independent publishers will bypass the big distributors and go direct to customers, making it much more likely they can make a living and stay in business.
Posted by: Katherine Prawl | June 03, 2009 at 07:09 AM
As a retired school librarian, I am delighted at the prospect of more books available to the public. Maybe newspapers won't go out of print, as we are now experiencing, as they will all go online! I hope printed works will stay, as I can pick up and read a bit and later read some more!
Posted by: Susanna Friedman | June 04, 2009 at 05:25 AM
I have been debating on buying a Kindle since they came out. I had just determined to go for it, when the newer, larger model came out, throwing me back into the desicion-making process. I want to buy two, so it is getting pricey. Any hopes someone will come out with something as good as the Kindle, but less expensive?
My daughter is in Cambodia. Everytime she goes back, she leaves many books behind because they just weigh too much! What a shame for an avid reader!
Will the google books have the audio option? I am very excited about that because I spent 10 hours a week commuting.
Posted by: Susan | June 04, 2009 at 11:47 AM