[Daithi]

Here is something I found interesting in the article --

Google Editions has three business models:
1. to allow the consumer to buy the e-book via Google Books. 63/37 split.
2. to buy it from a partner retailer; 45/55 split.
3. or from a publisher's own website. Split undecided.

The first number in the split goes to the publisher (and author) and the second number in the split goes to Google (and a retailer in the case of option 2).

Compare this with Amazon. Small publishers and authors get 35% and Amazon gets 65%. I don't know what larger publishers are able to work out. Retailers (and publishers) can also sell their books through the Amazon Marketplace and keep a larger percentage of the sale. The percent of the cut varies depending on the price of the sale. A $15 book would have a 65/35 split in the sellers favor.

If I am selling books, I'd much rather have the bigger slice of the pie that Google is offering. However, as a book buyer, I would much rather download my book to my device. I'm not a big fan of cloud computing where some other entity actually possesses my data. It would be too easy for them to deny me access to my data. I don't think Google is a bad company, but I'm just not a big fan of this business model. Too bad Google won't let you down load the books. I think this is going to impact sales. Although Amazon is offering sellers a smaller slice of the pie, they may be selling more pies, and as a seller, in the end, I just want more pie.