Publishing and Internet: Google will sell digital books

Google Editions is a new service by the Google which offers the users purchase of digital books. According to the book industry panel set in New York, an employee of Google Chris Palma revealed that the company is planning a service for the convenience of the users to purchase the searched book on the engine. However, there are no details about publishing companies-partners, and eBooks’ prices. Some sources claim that Google books will be available on PC, iPhone and iPad.

Amazon is a major electronic book retailer today, but to read its books one needs a special reader Kindle as well as appropriate software. In the USA Kindle’s price totals $260, price of Amazon’s electronic books, being downloaded into it, amounts to $10-15. 500 000 books are available in the portal’s library. In Moscow price for Kindle reaches about 20 000 rubles. Apple too has recently announced about a launch of a similar book project, related to iPad.

Google has got 30 000 partners-publishers worldwide, the company’s service is aiming at maximum geographical coverage, Google’s representative in Russia, Alla Zabrovskaya, informs. However she was unable to provide any details about the launch of Google Editions.

In Russia in 2009 the share of eBooks legal sales came to $2,5 million, whereas pirates managed to earn $10-15 million, ex-Director General of Litrez.ru online shop, Alexei Kuzmin, reported. He estimated that this market was up 300-400% within a year. “Yandex” is still not planning to establish a separate book trading service. Books could be found and bought using electronic money via “Yandex. Market”, but this is not a mass product — in Russia eBooks, like any other digital content, are vulnerable to piracy. Piracy whittles away attempts of eBook publishers and retailers to develop the legal market.