Book Excerpts Online

It is not a new idea since Google had been doing it for a while. The only difference is even if Google also has a book search for recent authors, most of the books that it avails digitally are older books whose copyright has expired. In few cases, if the publishers and authors agree, recent books could also be added to be browsed. Who took the plunge recently is Random House Inc. with its search and browser program, Insight that was launched today. The idea behind it is the publisher believes it will help its authors and especially booksellers, as it would enable people to sample books’ contents, which will in most cases be followed by a purchase. Earlier in the week HarperCollins had done the same with what it calls Browse Inside “widget” program, where excerpts are made available from many renowned authors. The target audience is mostly the MySpace generation according to a company official. What this would mean for the companies is it will be an enhancement on what they were already availing to visitors on their sites and both companies believe it will give them a digital capability to market their products on blogs and sites, including authors’ sites.