Google Editions to launch in June or July

According to the Wall Street Journal, representatives from Google revealed today that Google Editions, the company’s planned bookselling service, will debut in late June or July.

Chris Palma, Google’s manager for strategic-partner development, announced the timetable at a panel on Google’s plans sponsored by the Book Industry Study Group in New York. The event, held at Random House’s Manhattan offices, was entitled: “The Book on Google: Is the Future of Publishing in the Cloud?”

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Google says users will be able to buy digital copies of books they discover through its book-search service. It will also allow book retailers – even independent shops – to sell Google Editions on their own sites, taking the bulk of the revenue. Google is still deciding whether it will follow the model where publishers set the retail price or where Google sets retail prices. Publishers have yet to publicly commit to participate in the service, yet many continue to cheer the idea as potentially significant new opportunity to increase the sale of digital books

As an aside, it would be pretty ironic if Google were to be hailed as the publishing industry’s new saviour. Wasn’t it only a few months ago that everybody was freaking out over the Google Book Search settlement?

Bookmarks: Sarah Palin’s book-tour blunder, Rick Moody’s Twitter fiasco, and Sky Gilbert goes back in the closet

Sundry links from around the Web:

• Sarah Palin’s publicist admits it was a mistake to try barring foreign journalists from a book-signing event
• Poet, playwright, and activist Sky Gilbert comes out as “no longer gay“
• Rick Moody’s Tweeted short story is deemed an utter failure
• Amazon’s bid to scrap amended Google settlement is thrown out of court
• The Wall Street Journal advises Christmas shoppers to beware of e-readers, which may be going through “an eight-track moment”

Bookmarks: Google gets friendly, Quartet Press shuts down, and more

Sundry links from around the Web:

• Google will allow rivals to sell copies of its digital books
• Upstart digital publisher Quartet Press shuts down before it ever really got started
• Marion Boyers, the venerable independent U.K. publishing house, is also closing its doors
• U.K. advances are down by as much as 50%
• Boston school library nixes books, opts for e-readers instead

Google’s day of reckoning

Authors who wish to opt out of the Google Book Search settlement have until midnight tonight to do so. If you’re an author, and you’re still undecided about what to do, here’s some previous Q&Q coverage that might help:

• Canadian authors mount last-minute opposition to Google Book Search settlement
• A Google Book Search settlement primer

Also, here’s the official settlement page, and the full Settlement Agreement.

Yet more developments in the Google Book Search settlement

In response to the rallying opposition to the Google Book Search settlement, a federal judge in New York has extended the opt-out deadline, giving authors an additional four months to consider Google’s terms.

As if that weren’t enough, the U.S. Justice Department has also opened an antitrust investigation into Google’s actions. Mobylives reports:

The probe seems to be focussed on the fact that, as a Reuters wire story reports, the settlement “would allow Google – and only Google – to digitize so-called orphan works” and sell access to them. Orphan works are books that are out of print, but still in copyright. (Reuters is not correct when it indicates that it is unclear who owns copyrights in this situation – often, ownership is clear, as we here at Melville House can attest about several books we’ve brought back into print that are available now through Google Books.)

“There are legitimate antitrust issues related to Google’s ability to solely commercialize this content,” commented Peter Brantley of the Internet Archive. IA also digitizes books, and Brantley “said his organization had ‘multiple conversations’ with the Justice Department about the Google plan,” according to Reuters.