Google book store opening "first half of next year"

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 15 Oct 2009 at 16:14

Google will launch its online book store, dubbed Google Editions, in the first half of next year.

The search giant announced the store at the Frankfurt Book Fair, and will initially offer around half-a-million books at prices set by the publishers. Google aims to offer 600,000 books by 2010, and will take 37% of the revenues generated, with the remaining 63% going to publishers.

Rivals such as Amazon and Sony will also be able to offer their own catalogues through the service. In this case publishers will receive 45% of the revenues, with the majority of the remaining 55% returning to the original retailer.

Google will take "a small percentage" in these cases, and described it as a good deal for rivals.

"Google Editions allows retail partners to sell their books, especially those who haven't invested in a digital platform," says Tom Turvey, Google's director of strategic partnerships. "We expect the majority (of customers) will go to retail partners not to Google. We are a wholesaler, a book distributor."

It's not clear what format the books offered by Google will be in, though Turvey claimed Google is not "focused on a dedicated eReader or device of any kind."

Google Editions is a separate offering to the Google Books Project, which is currently being investigated by US regulators. The Book project will create a massive repository of out-of-copyright books, where authors and publishers can register works and receive a portion of the revenues earned from ads, subscriptions and sales.