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Google wants to sell e-book access directly: ePub ramifications? Not just hassles for Amazon?
June 1, 2009 | 4:02 am
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By David Rothman
Google wants to sell copyrighted e-books access directly to consumers, not just pass them on to retailers. And this could be bad news for Amazon.
The main action from Google will start out in browsers, apparently, with the books readable offline via caches. But will Google in time offer downloads in the form of ePub? One can at least hope, based on its ePub-related alliance with Sony which made hundreds of thousands of classics available in that format. Will Amazon consider beating Google to the punch by embracing ePub for the Kindle?
Meanwhile the New York Times says of Tom Turvey, director of strategic partnerships at Google:
Mr. Turvey said Google’s program would allow consumers to read books on any device with Internet access, including mobile phones, rather than being limited to dedicated reading devices like the Amazon Kindle. “We don’t believe that having a silo or a proprietary system is the way that e-books will go,” he said.
He said that Google would allow publishers to set retail prices. Amazon lets publishers set wholesale prices and then sets its own prices for consumers. In selling e-books at $9.99, Amazon takes a loss on each sale because publishers generally charge booksellers about half the list price of a hardcover — typically around $13 or $14.
Mr. Turvey said that Google would probably allow publishers to charge consumers the same price for digital editions as they do for new hardcover versions. He said Google would reserve the right to adjust prices that it deemed “exorbitant.”
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Comments:
Its been clear to anybody that Google has been planning to get into ebook sales for a while; my take on this half-baked announcement is that it is intended to:
1- defuse at least some of the outcry from their scanning lawsuit settlement, mostly from the publishers’
2- get Google’s hat in the ring before Amazon and Adobe carve up the market
I suspect this is a rush announcement due to the Kindle’s ballooning installed base and Adobe signing up every Tom, Dick, and jane this side of Sony for their DRM chokehold on ePub.
This automatically means that if Google is to do discret sales their choices are:
1- Sign up with Adobe for Adept-encrusted ePub
2- Cook up their own DRM scheme for ePub, splitting the ePub bandwagon onto warring DRM camps
3- Do their own completely different format or wrap their own DRM around a pure OEB file.
Short-term?
Lots of noise–zero impact
Long-term?
Oh, yeah; this is going to get fun!
For me, this is the big ebook story of the year.
By the end of 2009, here’s how publishers and authors will be able to sell their digital content:
1. Directly, from their own websites.
2. Ecommerce sites, that automate the downloads and process payments, such as E-junkie.
3. P.O.D. sites, like Lulu.
4. “Free content” sites, such as Scribd.
5. Proprietary sites, ala Amazon.
6. Sites that take an “open” approach to ebooks, let the publisher/author set the final selling price, and do not manipulate the search results: Google.
And for those of us who can’t decide which way the future is speeding, there is one more option:
7. All of the above.
Michael Pastore
50 Benefits of Ebooks
This is not a big story.
People can already sell books from multiple sources, using multiple formats, and different prices.
That Google thinks people are stupid enough to pay the same for an electronic copy that they pay for a hardcover is about the only breaking news–because it just demonstrates that Google is completely out of touch when it comes to eBooks.
Oh, wait: it will use HTML5. That will make _all_ the difference.
I’m not getting this. Google allowing publishers to set ebook prices similar to hard copies, and they think that they will sell? No way! And, the publishers will still sell through Amazon at a much lower price (hopefully $9.99) So where will people buy? Amazon! The idea of publishers setting prices much higher and having people buy them does not compute!
This just prooves that there is a big market for ebooks.We have also created an ebook online store, where writers can get 90% return. If you got an ebook to sell, come and visit us at sunbookr.com!
Gaic
I’m with Richard on this one. The pricing model makes no sense, especially since the announced Google plan only buys one access to the online edition!
I reckon this is the one to turn into the ‘lending library in the sky’ model, with maybe subscriptions forthcoming.
It does seem rushed and half-baked as far as announcements go, doesn’t it. Even (especially!) the ‘this time we mean it’ line is telling. Just as whenever somebody says, ‘You can trust me,’ it means you can’t, when a company says, ‘Now this time we mean it,’ it means they don’t. Not all the way.
Google is pushing HTML5. They want Android to succeed in mobile. They see opportunities in the mobile space, if only they can get around the telco monopolies worldwide; they fear that the telcos might strike their own deals with MSFT, Apple or others, — or the publishers/content monopolists directly — and cut Google out of the picture entirely.
Eventually Google will have to merge the out of print books with the new books. Of course every piece of webapp Google introduces as ‘Beta,’ but this is not a good strategy to be telling publishers the same thing!
Good to have a big company giving Amazon some competition. Google just has to come up with something better than this. I expect they will in time, unless they just chuck the whole thing in a couple years, like google video.
I agree with Eoin Purcell
http://eoinpurcellsblog.com/2009/06/01/googles-ebook-program/
I read this story (by Mokoto Rich in the NY Times) and saw the glass as half full, not half empty.
Publishers can set any price they want to set: a high price or a low price.
It’s clear to me that publishers who choose to price their ebooks high — or the same price as the paper books — will quickly learn that buyers won’t buy.
Ebooks sold via Google will not restrict a buyer from reading the ebook in one proprietary format, or on one dedicated ebook reading device.
The entry of Google into the playing field will bring down ebook prices and encourage the widespread use of open formats.
Amazon will need to respond to this transformation: and this response will make Amazon a better company.
Everybody wins.
Michael Pastore
50 Benefits of Ebooks
Michael Pastore:
“Ebooks sold via Google will not restrict a buyer from reading the ebook in one proprietary format, or on one dedicated ebook reading device.”
The same can also be said of DRM free ePub books, and they don’t require a browser, and can be read on eReaders as well as computers (with software installed).
“The entry of Google into the playing field will bring down ebook prices and encourage the widespread use of open formats. ”
Not a chance. Have you tried Google’s current eBook interface? You can’t even select and copy a subsection, in order to quote from the book.
Will this impact on Amazon? About as much as Google Video impacted on iTunes, Netflix Watch Now, and even Amazon Unbox/VOD.
Google is taking a much more practical approach than amazon in my opinion. They want to be a distributor of the ebooks, not the distributor of the book and the device in which it is read. The kindle is interesting and has a decent following but I do not think it is the answer to the ebook, why would you want to pay 300 dollars for a device, when you can just read the book on your Iphone which you use for everything else anyways.
Glen, you can also read Amazon ebooks on the iPhone today. Evidently more cheaply, too.
What Google is trying to do is not appeal to us, but to the publishers. “Charging more” is never for the consumer.
Google said about EBooks, instead of about digital copies of paper books. When already all will start to understand this difference? Electronic books which are created for electronic distribution. For online reading , install on the PC and readings on e-reader.