The winds of change are blowing in the world of publishing, as evidenced by another interesting article from the Book Standard.

On the heels of the Google Print lawsuit initiated by publishers, Google is exploring a plan to let users rent books for a small fee; about 10% of the book's cover price. This also comes not long after Amazon's recent announcement of their Pages service that allows you buy books by the page for online viewing.

I like that people are trying to find a business model that works for them as time marches on. I can't personally say that any of these models appeal to me. Online reading is OK, but cannot surpass the physicality of holding a book. Buying by the page? Whatever for? Maybe grabbing a story from an anthology or for some text from some research books, but otherwise I see no purpose. Even so, it's not something I'm likely to do. But that's just me.

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Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday November 15, 2005 at 5:41 PM
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