Amazon.com has added e-books to its repertoire. The company Tuesday
launched an electronic
book store that features content that has never before been available in
print.
The Amazon e-book store currently supports the Microsoft Reader format,
which allows customers to download titles to a laptop or PC, and
downloadable digital audio titles from Audible Inc. Download times are
estimated to range between 2.3 seconds to 2 minutes, according to connection
speed.
“E-books are already opening up a whole new world for readers,” said Lyn
Blake, Amazon.com Books general manager. “What’s exciting for readers is
that we are just scratching the surface today with the technology and the
content, and the potential for both is amazing. While customers will
continue to be impressed with the technology as it advances, we think it’s
the unique and exclusive content that will really delight customers.”
Blake noted that the virtual store launched with a host of titles that
are unavailable in print or audio anywhere else, including In
Fidelity by M.J. Rose (Pocket Books), Star Trek: S.C.E #1: The Belly
of the Beast by Dan Wesley Smith (Pocket Books), Star Trek: S.C.E.
#2: Fatal Error by Keith R.A. DeCandido (Pocket Books), Snow: The
Prologue to Winter’s Heart by Robert Jordan (Simon & Schuster Trade),
Turtle Island Dreaming by Thompson Sayer Crockett (ipublish.com) and
Up, Simba! 7 Days on Trial of an Anticandidate by David Foster
Wallace (ipublish.com).
The e-book store also offers recent best sellers and traditional works.
“The store also features more than 30 free e-book titles available for
download, providing customers a risk-free opportunity to experience e-books
and test drive Microsoft Reader,” said Blake. “Five best-selling titles are
making their e-book debut exclusively at Amazon.com. They are: Leading
the Revolution (Harvard Business School Press) by Gary Hamel, Secrets
of Frank Herbert’s Dune (ibooks), a guide to the upcoming miniseries
airing on the Sci-Fi channel; The GE Way Fieldbook: Jack Welch’s Battle
Plan for Corporate Revolution (McGraw-Hill), which outlines the author’s
successful strategies while CEO at General Electric; The New American
Standard Bible (Foundation Publications) and the Worst-Case Scenario
Handbook (Chronicle Books), which provides readers sound advice for those
unexpected life-threatening situations.”
The Amazon.com e-Books store will also feature the latest in e-audiobook
titles from audible.com, including two digital exclusives that are not
available in conventional cassette tape or CD formats: The Second Coming
of Steve Jobs (Random House Audible), which is Alan Deutschman’s
in-depth portrait of the man who helped to found Apple Computer, and
E-Boys(Random House Audible), which is business historian Randall E.
Stross’s take on venture capitalists and billion-dollar start-ups.
Amazon.com has engaged Lightning Source Inc. to provide fulfillment of
e-books for the new store.
