• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Login
  • Register

Publishers Lunch

The Publishing Industry's Daily Essential Read

  • Publishers Marketplace
  • Site Guide
  • Help

S&S to Offer Almost 5,000 Titles for Sale on Scribd.com

June 12, 2009
By Michael Cader

In a release originally set for announcement today that hit the wires last night after Business Week violated the embargo, Simon & Schuster is offering almost 5,000 of their titles available for sale on Scribd.com through a branded “storefront” on the site, including books from some of their bestselling authors. They books are priced at 20 percent below print retail, and the site provides the publisher with 80 percent of the revenue. S&S is also providing free previews with links to purchase print books from the publisher’s website.

Scribd’s files are viewable online but download only as protected PDF files that the WSJ says are not currently viewable on Kindle, but will be viewable on the iPhone OS after a software update from Scribd.

A Scribd spokesperson declined to provide information on sales so far of books in general following the launch of their beta store a few weeks ago. But Kathleen Miller indirectly acknowledged our assessment based on the site’s own displayed “views” that sales of books have been modest at best. She told us “it’s been our experience (with “pre-commerce” documents) that it often takes a while for things to take off.” Miller added that “‘views isn’t a good snapshot right now. We’ve experienced a glitch that undercounts views by up to 50%. We are in the process of fixing it.”

S&S chief digital officer Ellie Hirschhorn says in the announcement “we’re pleased to offer them this convenient, user-friendly option for discovering, sampling, and purchasing Simon & Schuster books, any time and anywhere.” Scribd uses the release to remind publishers of their “Copyright Management System,” said to “help prevent the upload of unauthorized written works” by comparing them to legitimate files already provided to the site. Indeed, Hirschhorn tells the AP “It’s a way for them, in terms of technology, to match our files against any have been uploaded, to identify those uploaded files and then tell whether they’re legitimate. If you’re not in their program, the entire onus falls to the publisher, or to the author, or to the agent, for finding a pirated book. And now it’s a shared responsibility.”

But Carolyn Pittis at HarperCollins says of that system, “Theoretically, it sounds great that technology can, in real time, alert Scribd about a pirated copy and prevent someone from actually uploading it. But I don’t know how sophisticated that system is and whether it can work on a large scale.”
S&S Scribd store
Press release
AP

Filed Under: eNews, Free

sidebar

Primary Free Sidebar

Login


Forgot password
Quick Pass users click here to log in
Get Full Access
The publishing industry's essential daily read

Each Publishers Lunch Deluxe subscription includes full access to our searchable multi-year archive of industry news, a nightly email reporting 10 to 50 deal transactions, and our database of industry contacts, scripts, and posting privileges.

Learn More

RSS Automat

  • Noah Baumbach Said to Sell Memoir to Knopf June 5, 2023 Deadline
  • Rushdie: "I’m trying to write a book about the attack on me -- what happened and what it means, not just about the attack, but around it" June 2, 2023 Guardian
  • Hollywood Studios Are Using Force Majeure Clauses to Extend Book Options for Free During Writers' Strike May 30, 2023 WSJ
  • On the Staying Power of Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" May 26, 2023 NYT
  • Another Postponement: Publishers and Internet Archive Still Negotiating Judgement, Will Try Again for June 9 May 26, 2023 PL court document
  • Martin Amis, 73, Dies of Esophogeal Cancer May 21, 2023 BBC
  • Britney Spears Concedes Delay On Her Book: "It may take me a year, maybe longer who knows ... to share my story" May 20, 2023 Instagram
  • Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson Announced for Publication September 12 May 18, 2023 Press release
  • Penguin Random House and PEN America Sue a Florida School District, Alleging Removal of Books about Race and LGBTQ+ Identify Violates First Amendment May 17, 2023 AP
  • Thomas Coesfeld to Become CEO of BMG On July 1, Ahead of Previous Schedule May 17, 2023 Press Release
© 2023 Publishers Lunch. All Rights Reserved.