Google Goes to War This Summer Against Amazon in E-Book Arena

From DailyTech: Google began scanning books and newspapers into its digital archive, Google Books, in 2004. While the public loved having instant access to classics, out of print titles, and more, publishers weren't so thrilled. In 2005, the Authors Guild of America and Association of American Publishers brought suit against Google for "massive copyright infringement".

The authors' groups and Google finally made peace after lengthy negotiations. As part of the agreement that was reached, Google would offer to sell the digital books that it was previewing.

That plan is about to be executed this summer. Speaking to a publishing industry panel in New York City, Chris Palma, Google's manager for strategic-partner development, announced that Google Editions, it's new sales service, will land in June or July.

Google believes that it can compete with veteran players Amazon and newcomers Apple andBarnes & Noble, thanks to its unique approach. Unlike its rivals, Google will be offering its service across a variety of sites (with one central store site) and will try to make its digital books available for as many different devices as possible, not just one.

Google is still working out pricing, but the rough plan is that books sold through its central site (stored on its servers) would be sold with a cut going to Google and a bigger cut going to the authors/publishers. Book sold on other sites using Google Edition technology will feature an even bigger cut for the authors/publishers. This should help small independent publishers launch their own sales sites.

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