Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Amazon to Sell Books by Page, Display Books You Own

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the shaky-ground dept.

Josuah writes "Forbes is reporting that Amazon plans to sell books by the page, so you could purchase only the excerpt you're interested in. What I found more interesting though was the mention of a program called Amazon Upgrade, which will allow you to view books you own from any web browser. Sounds awfully similar to the MP3.com case. I'm guessing Amazon Upgrade also means you need to purchase all your books from Amazon. Interesting value-add proposition."

5 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. The gift that keeps on giving by lildogie · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So I buy a book as a gift, and give it away, but I get to keep the online copy?

    Cool for me, rats for the author.

    Maybe they could do this with music?

  2. So basically by TheNationalist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They're going to make you pay for what you would otherwise do for free at a bookstore (read parts of the book before you buy).

    --
    Check out this guy's BZFlag cheat client!
    1. Re:So basically by Mac+Degger · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It gets even better: "...so you could purchase only the excerpt you're interested in." [from the blurb].

      Basically, they're selling you what fair use already allows you to do!

      --
      -- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
  3. Question... by fullcircleflight · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How will you know which page to buy if you can't see it until you buy it?

  4. textbooks by TedCheshireAcad · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This would be a very useful service if textbooks were included. I, along with many other students, know the pain of buying a $120 textbook and only using the first 2 chapters, then selling it back to the book store for $20 and a Hershey's bar.

    Of course, this was before I figured out their racket and started buying international textbooks....