
Indie Bookstores and Google eBooks
You may have heard the news about Google’s launch of their eBooks program.
Google eBooks is partnering with the American Booksellers Association so indie bookstores can provide an easy way for their customers to discover, read, and buy hundreds of thousands of e-books at competitive prices.
“This partnership with Google allows independent bookstores that are our members to better compete with corporate retailers on selection, price, and convenience,”said ABA President Michael Tucker. “It levels the playing field.”
Google eBooks offers a new form of cloud-based digital book that allows you to accessyour library on almost any device from one single repository, regardless of where the eBook was purchased. Google is offering tens of thousands of titles for sale, ranging from new releases and bestsellers in every category to classics in the
public domain.
Because Google eBooks work with myriad devices, including Androids, iPhones, iPads,Sony and Nook Readers, laptops & more, consumers are free to shop from a variety of retailers rather than being bound to one. This opens up a wealth of indie recommendations and bestsellers to avid e-book readers.
Though Malaprop’s hopes our customers continue to love and support print books, we are very pleased to be able to sell you Google eBooks through our website. We want to be a source for your books—print and digital, and your support helps us continue to be a part of this community. When you visit our website, click on the Google eBooks icon and you’ll see lots of information about this new program, including a way to search for and purchase Google eBooks through our site.
UNC-TV’s “North Carolina Weekend” program with videographer Alan Brown filmed an episode about Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café and the anniversary reading by Brian Lee Knopp, author of Mayhem in Mayberry. The episode is wonderful, emphasizing both the importance of Malaprop’s as a place for authors and readers to meet and be inspired, and the utter handsomeness of author Knopp, who no longer sports the mullet on the book cover, but instead is beginning to resemble George Clooney. I’m in the show, too, triumphantly passing a pop quiz on book placement in the store. (No longer available at UNC TV online.)
Linda Barrett Knopp
[email protected]