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Google set to turn Web browsers into e-book readers

Up until now, e-books and e-reader devices have mostly gone hand-in-hand: For example, you’ve got Amazon and the Kindle, Apple’s iBooks and the iPad, Barnes & Noble and the Nook. Google, on the other hand, is taking a characteristic, in-the-cloud approach with Google Editions, promising to deliver your e-books to any device – ranging from a desktop PC to a smartphone – with a Web browser.

After months of delays, Google Editions is finally slated to go live before the year is out, according to the Wall Street Journal, and we’re not just talking a single Google Editions e-book store. Instead, expect hundreds, with independent booksellers to get the chance to sell Google e-books on their own websites and share a slice of the revenue.

Prices for e-books sold via Google Editions should be about the same as they are on Amazon’s Kindle store, Apple’s iBooks app, and through Barnes & Noble’s digital bookstore, with “many” of the biggest book publishers expected to participate, the Journal reports, along with “millions” of free virtual volumes slated to go live.

And just as you’ll be able to buy Google Edition e-books from a variety of Web-based sources, so will readers be able to browse their purchased e-books just about anywhere, on anything with a Web browser. (Well, not all browsers, probably; we’re still waiting for details on which browser technologies will be required for loading up a Google e-book.)
It’s a clever approach – although, if you ask me, one with plenty of minuses as well as pluses.

On the plus side: no need to worry about whether there’s, say, a version of the Kindle app for your particular smartphone, or even feature phone. All you’d have to do is fire up your phone’s browser, surf over to Google, sign in, and start flipping pages.
I also like the idea of being able to read your Google Editions books from just about any hand-held, tablet, desktop, or laptop – even one that isn’t yours.

Sure, you can already read Kindle books on a desktop, but you’ll need to have the Kindle desktop software installed before you start reading. With Google Editions, you could conceivably pick up a book from where you left off at, say, a public Internet cafe in some far-flung corner of the world. (Just don’t forget to log out completely once you’re done with your Google book.)

And don’t be surprised if you start seeing Google Editions volumes for sale on your favorite sites. Movie lovers browsing IMDB.com, for example (well, maybe not IMDB in particular, since it’s owned by Amazon), may no longer have to go far to buy an e-book on the history of film – instead, you’d be able to browse Google’s aisles directly on a participating site.

Needless to say, there are plenty of downsides to Google’s e-book strategy – well, from the perspective of a reader, at least.

Sure, being able to browse your Google e-books from any Web browser is great, but what if you don’t have an Internet connection? That’s the beauty of having an e-book saved on your Kindle, iPad, or Nook – you can read on a Wi-Fi-free beach in Bali, deep underground on a subway, or anyplace else where wireless isn’t an option.

Also: What if the Google Editions servers go down? Hey, it happens – and when it does, no more reading for you.

Finally, there’s plenty to be said for dedicated e-reader hardware like the Kindle and the (first) Nook, which boast e-paper displays that are easy to read in direct sunlight. I’ve tried reading e-books on my iPhone’s LCD display at the beach, and believe me, it’s no fun.

But what do you think: Would you prefer to buy an e-book that you could read from any Web browser, or would you rather shop at an e-book store that lets you download and store your digital volumes on a dedicated e-reader, or a device like the iPad?

Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News

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WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) – Borders Group Inc, the second-largest U.S. book chain, may file for bankruptcy later this month, a source familiar with matter said.

The struggling chain, which operates, 500 stores, will likely close at least 150 stores, according to a separate report by Bloomberg News.

Several private equity investors are considering whether to provide a junior loan to the company, according to the report.

Bloomberg cited unidentified sources for its story.

Borders said on Sunday it would seek to preserve cash by delaying its January payments to vendors and landlords as it tries to complete a debt restructuring.

Borders last week secured a $550 million credit facility from GE Capital, a unit of General Electric Co, under several conditions, including that it close stores and arrange financings with other lenders, vendors and landlords.

It also warned it might have to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy if it failed to meet those conditions.

Analysts have faulted Borders for being ill equipped to adapt to bookbuyers’ migration to digital formats and for having too many stores in an age when many shoppers prefer to buy even paper books on line from retailers like Amazon.com Inc

The chain operates 500 namesake superstores in addition to the smaller Waldenbooks chain. About three-quarter of its superstore leases expire in 2017 and beyond, according to a regulatory filing.

Borders is late comer to the ebooks market, a rare source of growth in the publishing world, launching its ebook store eight months after its larger rival, Barnes & Noble Inc, and nearly three years after Amazon.com.

Sales at stores open at least a year have plunged in recent years, with overall company sales down 37.3 percent in the last three years.

Borders did not immediately return several calls for comment.

Its shares fell 35.6 pct to 47 cents in regular trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

After hours, shares fell further to 38 cents. They hit an all time low of 35 cents in December 2008.

(Reporting by Tom Hals; additional reporting by Phil Wahba in New York; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

Photo: 2space.net

SCARBOROUGH, Maine – Nearly half the nation’s independent book stores have closed in the past decade. Book store chains are struggling. E-books are all the rage.

Even so, Brett Wickard is defying logic by adding books to the inventory at his Bull Moose record shop, devoting 3,500 square feet of space, aisles of shelves and 22,000 books of all types that sell for at least 35 percent off the list price.

His timing may not be that bad.

A decade ago, some 2,700 independent book store companies with more than 3,200 locations were members of the American Booksellers Association. Membership is now down to about 1,400 companies with 1,700 stores.

But the numbers have stabilized in the past couple of years and have even shown a slight uptick lately, said Meg Smith, spokeswoman for the ABA. Independent bookstores are expanding product offerings, with more gifts, lattes and cappuccino, and even beer and wine. Some indies are even jumping on the e-book bandwagon.

And the economy’s downturn has helped in an indirect way.

“The recession has had a golden lining for some stores, with lower real estate costs and the resulting opportunities that presents,” Smith said.

In Scarborough, barely a mile from the busy Maine Mall, where there’s a Borders bookstore, Wickard is going after book buyers who are seeking the low prices they can get on the Web but who want to support a local merchant and enjoy the bookstore experience.

Industry watchers say Wickard appears to have little company among music merchants in diving head-on into the indie book business. He acknowledges the move is a risk.

“Retail is a tough way to make a living,” he said on a recent day at his store. “So if you combine how tough retail is, with how tough it is in a bad economy, combined with a decline in the importance of books and reading in the American mind, combined with the incredible swiftness of the arrival of e-books, I think physical bookstores have to be very smart and very nimble to stay in business.”

Getting into books was a business decision for Wickard, much in the way he previously added movies and video games to his selection at his music store chain.

Virtually all of Bull Moose’s sales came from music in the early years of the business, said Wickard, who opened his first store in Brunswick in 1989 while attending Bowdoin College. Bull Moose now has 10 stores and 125 employees in Maine and New Hampshire, with annual revenues between $15 million and $25 million, Wickard said.

A decade or so ago, Wickard branched out into movies and video games. Nowadays, music makes up less than half of Bull Moose’s revenues, with movies and video games accounting for most of the rest.

Bull Moose – which originally started as Bull Moose Music but dropped the last word after branching out – first added books in a big way in February when it expanded its store in Bangor and created 3,000 square feet devoted to the printed page. Sales there were so good that Wickard decided to expand into books in Scarborough, his largest store.

His customers appear to like the idea of buying local.

Shopping for Christmas presents, Susan Marshall held two books and a movie in her hands as she asked a Bull Moose clerk for his suggestions. Marshall, 56, of Portland, said she liked the customer service, as well as local ownership and low prices that make it competitive with national chains.

“Besides, I like shopping,” she said. “I’m not a big Internet shopper.”

There are similarities between independent bookstores and record stores, including a rough patch in which hundreds of records stores went out of business. There are now about 1,800 independent music stores nationally, down from 3,000 seven years ago, said Joel Oberstein, president of Almighty Institute of Music Marketing in Los Angeles.

Like book stores, music stores have to expand their product mix to remain competitive, Oberstein said. But Bull Moose is the first music store he’s heard of to dive full-scale into books.

Wickard expects book sales to account for 20 percent of the Scarborough store’s revenues in 2011. He’s exploring whether to add books at his other Bull Moose stores.

“Running a business is a lot like running in front of a steamroller,” he said. “If you don’t keep running, you’ll get run over.”

By CLARKE CANFIELD, Associated Press

Photo: fortherecordsj.wordpress.com