Wow, it looks like both Google and Amazon are attempting to become the iTunes of books. Both companies have programs to scan and make available books by the page. Imagine purchasing just the pages that are relevant to your interest. This is ideal for technical and how-to books. Even cookbooks would benefit hugely from people being able to purchase just one or two pages for one particular recipe.

From the New York Times:

The idea is to do for books what Apple has done for music, allowing readers to buy and download parts of individual books for their own use through their computers rather than trek to a store or receive them by mail. Consumers could purchase a single recipe from a cookbook, for example, or a chapter on rebuilding a car engine from a repair manual.

The initiatives are already setting off a tug of war among publishers and the potential vendors over who will do business with whom and how to split the proceeds. Random House, the biggest American publisher, proposed a micropayment model yesterday in which readers would be charged about 5 cents a page, with 4 cents of that going to the publisher to be shared with the author. The fact that Random House has already developed such a model indicates that it supports the concept, and that other publishers are likely to follow.

This will certainly change the game. Not only are these new opportunities for book buyers but also authors and publishers. I would expect the ability to sell books a page or a chapter at a time will change the way books are written, packaged and marketed.

Kudos to publishers who embrace this new reality of information on demand. Unlike record companies you will find ways to stay relevant in a new media landscape.

NYT: Want War and Peace Online...

Technorati Tags: Amazon, book, book selling, book writing, design, Google, Google Print, iTunes, marketing, New York Times, Random House, reading, selling

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