Spotted some good news in today's New York Times. Turns out that Google was able to reach a deal with publishers over including out-of-print/in copyright books in Google Book Search. This will open the door to a treasure trove of information being unlocked in these hard-to-find books. Awesome! Read Google's news release about the deal here.
The Times also noted that several major publishers, including Penguin, are looking at new ebook models, including monthly subscriptions that would allow electronic access to best sellers. Sounds a little like Netflix for books.
The article also notes that while traditional book sales are falling, ebook sales are up 55% over the last year. It suggests, probably accurately, that Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader are responsible for at least part of this increase.
Despite this, my bet is that tying texts to a specific device or platform won't prove a sustainable model. Ultimately, the device -- whether it's a Kindle, Reader, mobile phone, iPod, laptop, or whatever -- is merely a storage tool and viewer. Users are going to want to be able to move their data to wherever it suits them, just as they do with music.
The faster the publishers and ebook vendors realize that the same unfettered access that has made digital music work applies to texts, the faster the ebook market will grow.
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