Quote:
Originally Posted by Quoth
No, that does NOT test Google Books. That is simply using Google as an ebook library or something. Google actually has three different things they call Google Books:
1) The Google Books searchable site that has scans of many books Google doesn't sell as well as ebooks sold by others and their own ebook catalogue. They seem to give a copy of any scan THEY think is Public Domain to the Internet Archive.
2) A Personal Cloud Library.
3) Google Books that they sell via the Playstore. Includes comics and pdfs as well as real ebooks. There are usually some free titles. I used free comics and ebooks to test their app on a 7.8" eink Android ereader-Tablet and compare it with the 6" phone and 10" LCD tablet. Comics on eink are not as nice as on a colour LCD, but 10" needed.
You need a Publisher account at Google.
1) You "publish" the ebook at google. There are forms for metadata, pricing etc and you upload the epub and cover separately, usually from Mac OS, Windows PC or Linux using your Browser. I use Chrome on Linux. It's the same but different as creating a new title at Amazon KDP or Smashwords. By default they assume a PDF. But change all the options including less obvious ones.
2) Google processes it.
3) At release date you can buy it or download a sample. This is done in the Books section of the Playstore. It's best done on an Android phone or tablet. If you never used Google Books before the Android Gadget gets the Google Playbook App. Then it has a manager to manage the downloads. I forget, but there might be an option to have a sample before release. Oddly the sample on Google Books Web Site that has everyone's books that Google can grab and scan is an option.
4) By default the ebooks from Google are only available via the PlayBook App, though they can be DRM free on publisher request and you might find them somewhere on the phone/tablet so you can read them in some other App. Like Kindle books bought on iPhone, iPad, Fire or Android Kindle App, the intention is that they are ONLY read on the Google App. Though they can be completely downloaded and then read without any Internet.
So a special Google account and desktop browser is used to fill in the metadata, pricing, upload the epub and the cover, all separately.
Then the customer is expected to use the Playstore on Andriod to buy & download the ebook. Maybe sideloading is feasible if you use the Playstore on a PC/Mac/Linux, but that would be rare. Google sets up a special nearly impossible to delete connection if you use Paypal. You have to use a Browser to remove it from the Playstore and then ask Paypal to delete it from your Paypal account, you can't remove that end manually. I'd hate to give Google my Credit card details.
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Thanks, @Quoth for providing this insight, I've already had some info about Google Books and how it works.
The method I defined earlier works for me because it enables me to test the ePub intended for Google Books without actually publishing, and there's very little difference between the test ePub and the published ePub.