Some Interesting Publishing Developments
Google will roll out a new online service for booksellers in the first half of 2010. Dubbed Google Editions, the service will allow readers to buy books from various e-book vendors and read them on a broad array of devices, from cell phones to e-readers.
Consumers will be able to purchase e-books directly from Google or from existing e-book stores such as Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. Books sold through Google Editions will be hosted by Google, so they will be searchable in a web browser.
The store will launch with about 500,000 e-books through partnerships with publishers that have digital rights to the works they represent. Google so far has no plans to manufacturer a dedicated e-book reader that carries its brand name.
Wal-Mart and Amazon Trade Price Cuts On Books. An excerpt:Taking a page from its original playbook, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. launched a full-fledged price war with Amazon.com Inc. and a nation of book retailers, lowering online prices on certain highly anticipated hardback titles to $9.
The volley of discounts, which began Thursday when the retailer listed prices for some upcoming hardcover releases such as Dean Koontz' "Breathless" and Stephen King's "Under the Dome" at $10, was answered with a similar price cut by Amazon, the largest online bookseller. Then the two competitors lowered the prices even further to $9.
The book discounts, the latest in a series of aggressive online maneuvers by the world's largest retailer, could position the company to do to the online marketplace what Walmart stores did to local merchants decades ago.
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