There aren’t a lot of details yet, but the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Amazon is in talks to launch a Netflix-like service for digital books.
The source says that for a fixed monthly fee, users would have access to an online library of books. They also report that the service would be available for Amazon Prime members (who pay $79 a year for perks like free shipping and access to online TV shows and movies).
Now before those of you who like to read the latest New York Times bestseller get too excited, the books would mainly be older works and there would be monthly restrictions on how many you would have access to.
As you might have expected, some publishers are not happy about this idea and feel it would “downgrade the value of the book business”. So, have any publishers signed on? No one knows yet but I’ll keep an eye out for any new developments.
What do you think about this service – a good or bad idea?
This would be a great idea for readers but bad for authors and publishers. However the fact that only older works would be available doesn’t satisfy me much.