Thursday, October 6, 2011

Google launches UK eBookstore

Google's eBookstore has opened in the United Kingdom – its first outside the United States, paidContent UK reported today.

The online giant unveiled its U.S. eBookstore in December last year, and is set to launch stores in Australia and Canada soon. UK publishers including Hachette, Penguin and Random House have all signed on to sell their books in Google's UK store; however the UK e-book market is not as large as it is in the United States. More European stores are slated for 2012.

Google has said it will offer hundreds of thousands of commercially available books to UK readers, as well as another two million public domain books, TheBookseller.com reported. All will be available via a variety of devices, including personal computers, tablets, smartphones, e-readers and more.

“We’ve been working with publishers for some time to build new online revenue sources for writers and publishers, and this is the next step in that direction. With Google eBooks, readers can access their books across a variety of devices; publishers have an open platform for selling their works; and booksellers have an easy-to-implement way to sell digital books in addition to their existing offering,” said Jason Hanley, strategic partner development manager at Google, according to TheBookseller.com.

Google's eBookstore does four things right when it comes to selling digital content, Practical Ecommerce noted: It uses good graphics, offers free stuff, uses quick views and allows users to personalise their store when they login.

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