In a press release this morning, Microsoft announced that it was cranking up the promotion of electronic books – eBooks – and will be making a number of them available for free downloading beginning July 4th.
Hoping to encourage more avid readers to try eBooks, Microsoft this summer will offer a series of compelling best-sellers in the Microsoft Reader eBook format for download at no charge. Some 60 premier fiction, non-fiction and reference titles — from authors such as Amy Tan, Bill Bryson, Margaret Atwood, Elmore Leonard, Walter Mosley, Douglas Adams and John Updike — will be available from the Microsoft Reader Web site, starting July 4.
eBooks haven’t ever really clicked for me. Part of the problem is publisher greed — while they have substantially lower costs compared to paper books, they’ve continued to price eBooks at slightly below the paper book versions.