At a publishing industry panel in New York yesterday, Google announced that it will begin selling digital books as early as June.
The Wall Street Journal has the story. The books, referred to as a Google Editions, will be accessible across websites and devices–no proprietary readers here. Users will be able to buy books through Google’s book search service, and retailers would be able to sell copies on their own websites.
From the WSJ article: “The company would have copies on its servers for works it strikes agreements to sell. Google is still deciding whether it will follow the model where publishers set the retail price or whether Google sets the price.”
That last point is pretty crucial, so we’re interested to see how it will play out. But generally, it seems like Google is trying to shake up the market in positive ways, and some big competition for Amazon wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. Read more at eBookNewser.