The Perseus Books Group released their digital book technology, dubbed Constellation, earlier this month in a bid to bring new marketing technology to a wider range of publishers. Online book selling heavyweights like Barnes and Noble and Amazon allow users an array of digital options to further entice online customers such as excerpts or sample chapters. At the same time, big publishers like Random House are able to throw their weight around to push for these technologies in their releases when smaller independent publishers are unable to.
These selling techniques are proven marketing tools, but in the past it’s been limited to those major publishers. Constellation intends to change that by giving independent publishers access to “electronic readers, digital book search, print-on-demand and other digital formats.” The ability to flip through a potential book purchase was once reserved for in-store purchases only, but technology has driven that privilege online. The advent of Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader have driven an interest in e-books, but the options are limited. Hopefully this will bring further competitive prices to the book world and bring with it a wider library of available e-books.
