Google... opened its long-awaited electronic book store Monday, competing against Amazon.com Inc. and further accelerating the shift of book distribution from brick-and-mortar stores to the Web.
***Another theatre just shut down up the street from me. This is not because fewer people are finding moving pictures entertaining, it is just more people are finding alternates to the mass viewing theatre. There will always be theatres. There will always be books. The issue will be standards that meet customer expectations.***
Over the past decade, the number of independent stores operated by the ABA's membership has fallen from 3,000 to 1,700, the ABA said. McQuivey expects hundreds more to close during the next decade.
The upheaval will occur as sales of e-readers, tablets and electronic books steadily rise during the next five years.
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Even larger book retailers are feeling the pressure to shake things up.
Activist investor William Ackman on Monday offered to finance a $963 million bid by Borders Group to buy rival Barnes & Noble Inc. Combined, the two retailers operate about 1,400 stores, many of which would presumably be closed if they were to combine forces.
Although most analysts doubted a deal would come together, the proposal underscores the challenges facing traditional book retailers as they look for ways to lower their costs.
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Google's electronic book store, in the works for more than a year, draws upon a portion of the 15 million printed books that the Mountain View-based company has scanned into its computers since 2004.
About 4,000 publishers, including CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster Inc., Random House Inc. and Pearson PLC's Penguin Group, are also allowing Google to carry many of their recently released books in the new store.
Those publishing deals will ensure that most of the current best sellers are available in Google's store, said Amanda Edmonds, who oversaw the company's partnerships.
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Google's e-books will work on the Nook, Sony Corp.'s Reader devices and practically every other e-reading device except the Kindle. Google achieves this with the help of Adobe Inc.'s copy-protection system for e-books.
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Google plans to offer sharp discounts on many of its e-books but it will still pay publishers 52 percent of the list price for sales made on its site, unless another arrangement has been negotiated with an outside agency.
The formula means that even if Google elects to sell a book with a $10 list price for $6, the publisher would still get $5.20.
The revenue-sharing formula changes slightly when the electronic sales occur through one of the independent book merchants or other partners Google hopes to recruit. Google didn't disclose the precise split of these arrangements.
***All of this is inevitable, and will lead to the best all-round deal for all concerned. The best part of this is with digitl books, there is a no return policy.***
"In the long run, I don't think Google has a strong appetite to make it easier for book sellers to stay alive," McQuivey said.
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***Right, it is the booksellers job to keep themselves viable, by serving customers.***
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