Purchase eBook Edition Of Your Current Physical Book On The Cheap

Ebooks are starting to gain traction these days, that is a given. After all, nobody would like to lug around a behemoth of a novel that surpasses the 1,000 page mark – it would take up too much space in your suitcase or hand-carry luggage. However, there is one major advantage that physical books have over an ebook – you can never run out of batteries when you need to read it in a lighted environment. Still, publisher HarperCollins intends to push the ebook agenda further forward by letting you purchase an ebook edition of an existing print copy of the book on the cheap – as long as you are able to prove that you already have a print copy of the book.

This happens to be a pilot program that the publisher is working with alongside ebook service BitLit. BitLit would enable users to write their names on the copyright page of books that one owns, capture a photo via a camera using your smartphone or tablet, upload the image in order to “unlock” the opportunity to own a legal digital copy for anywhere from $2 to $3, with the price variation being attributed to the title. Image recognition technology is used by BitLit to verify one’s information automatically. Right now, the service has seen more than 20,000 books on offer, with majority of them hailing from small or independent publishers. [Press Release]

Edwin Kee
Categories: General
Tags: ebook