Google eBookstore is now live. I see a James Patterson Book, the Gift in the top left hand corner. As well as Patricia Cornwell. I see three free ebooks – somehow not sure how they came in.
The CNN article points out that Google books have actual page numbers, versus the Kindle's location number which actually marks the exact point where one make a mark. The same article goes on to say that Google takes 30-48% of the purchase price into their coffers. It also says that small booksellers can have their own stores within this space which is pretty interesting.
I can't help myself: Love the Kindle
To me, the more games in town the better, at least at this point — although my prolific reading means I love the Kindle as there are so many free books from authors I love (I read the Kindle Nation Daily to see the updates on this.) I love my Kindle unapologetically – it has improved my life, but rather, I guess in many ways it is the books that I read that have improved and Kindle is just the vehicle.
Also, the little known Kindle refresh which lets you access your kindle highlights like flashcards and review what you've read keeps the most important things in reading in my mind. If you go to http://kindle.amazon.com/ you can manage your kindle and tell it to sync highlights as well as setting up the refresh feature and whether you want to review your notes every 3 months, 6 months, 9 months or a year! This is a powerful feature!
The Money
Interestingly, as comparing the Google bookstore above to the best sellers in the Kindle ebookstore below there are two things that are noticeable: 1) the Kindle prices for best selling books tend to hover around $9.95 and 2) there are a huge amount of free books and some games available for free on the Kindle.
Either way, what happened in the music industry in the last 10 years is hitting the publishing industry full steam.The Herd of the Unheard: The Long Tail Tipping Point in the Ebook War?
Although many of the big publishers think they have this bull by the horns, what they don't realize is that this is a whole herd and at the risk of being trite –
there are a whole lot of “small” authors who are ready to be heard waiting in the wings tired of being turned down by aquisition editors.
This herd of the unheard may just may gravitate towards the hugely profitable model of Amazon giving 70% to the authors who sign directly with Amazon.
Related articles
- Google eBookstore live in the U.S (i-programmer.info)
- Google Enters the eBookstore Ring (themillions.com)
- Google launches eBookstore with choice of sellers and devices (arstechnica.com)
- First Look: Google eBookstore (macworld.com)
- Is the Google eBookstore any different? (cnn.com)
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
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