Amazon has quietly launched a new feature providing full online access to books. Although electronic books have been around for more than a decade, this marks the first time that consumers have had full, unrestricted access to the full contents of standard paper-bound books — the same books available in brick-and-mortar stores — over the Internet.
Amazon hasn’t announced the launch yet, but I noticed the new feature, which it’s calling “Amazon Upgrade,” today when I clicked on the cover image of a book. Before today, this would provide an enlarged image of the front and back covers, table of contents, and a few interior pages — as long as the book’s publisher participated in Amazon’s “Search Inside the Book” program.
Now, Amazon Upgrade provides full online access to book contents for consumers who’ve purchased a paper copy of the book through Amazon. Full online access costs an additional fee of about 10 percent of the book’s original retail price. For example, on a book I recently purchased, “eBay Powerseller Secrets,” Amazon is now offering me online access if I pay an additional $2.48.
Will this affect the market for online sales of used books? Obviously, it could. If buyers have online access through Amazon to the full contents of an expensive reference book they’ve purchased, for example, they’d have few qualms about selling the paper copy to get most of their cash back. They would retain online access to the book through Amazon, and could easily search the entire contents using their computer keyboard.
Obviously, Amazon isn’t trumpeting this new feature yet since only a tiny fraction of books are available so far. For example, only two of the hundreds of titles I’ve bought through Amazon are available now. You can find out which of the titles you’ve bought on Amazon are available online by clicking here.
Why are so few books available so far? It’s a huge technical challenge to roll out online access to a book exactly as it appears physically. And undoubtedly it was difficult to recruit the first publishers to participate. Publishers participating in a program like this want to make sure there are airtight safeguards against piracy.
Google is also working on a program to provide full online access to books through its Book Search feature. Unlike Amazon’s program, buyers won’t be required to purchase a copy of the paper book. Instead, publishers will set a price for online access, and Google will keep a 30 percent commission on sales.
I’m interested in hearing comments from you on this new program.
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2 Comments
I have some real doubts about how successful this will be, perhaps because I myself am not that tek savy. But other than for work or school, how would I take one of these to the beach, or to bed? I can’t imagine enjoying a good read from my teeny cell phone screen, sitting by the pool with my laptop, trying to see what’s on the screen. Why would I want to buy the book twice? I just recently purchased an e-book from this blog. Not A Weber book I am really sorry to say, I wish I had put my money there instead. Sorry I digressed, in any event it is locked! I can’t download it to paper. I emailed the seller and they Don’t have the key either, they just have the rights to sell it! So I have a book trapped in my computer that I can only read on the screen! My eyesight isn’t perfect, it is very hard for me to read pages of stuff on line. I can’t underline or highlight or lay it out so I can follow the directions. I am one diappointed buyer. Does anyone else remember the early attempts at selling books that would be downloaded to paper by some device? I suspect this will go the way that that idea did, into obscurity. It is just too unwieldy at this point.
Kay
This type of service will most likely be more useful when tools like Sony’s new Reader comes out and other manufacturer start to follow suit. Backlighting your screen will be an option instead of a standard. Mix this with remote broadband connections, and you will be able to take your book with you wherever you go. You will be able to fit more books than you can read in your pocket. This is the direction we are most likely headed here.