Yesterday Simon & Schuster launched a new “e-commerce solution” for selling digital editions of medical books, following iTunes’ lead by offering individual chapters of books.
In the new Ask Doctor Oz site, readers can find answers to specific medical questions from different authors, including books by Dr. Michael F. Roizen and Dr. Mehmet C. Oz. Once the reader has located an answer in a specific text, they can buy individual e-chapters of the relevant title–instead of buying the whole eBook. However, readers can still buy the complete digital title as well.
Simon & Schuster’s Chief Digital Officer Ellie Hirschhorn had these thoughts: “It represents a transformational shift from current trade publishing models, and means that consumers may no longer have to purchase an entire book when perhaps a chapter or two will provide them with the answers they are looking for, or if they are looking to sample parts of a book before making the decision to purchase the entire work. This opens up a new world of opportunities for where and how our digital content can be distributed and sold, and we plan to expand both the chapter selling model and use of our e-commerce widget to other content categories.”