Here in Canada, sometimes we get the short end of the stick in terms of digital content. Most of the time the selection for ebooks severely lacks with major companies, due to publisher agreements and geo-restrictions. Google eBooks quietly launched in Canada today and the bestseller titles are severely lacking.
Google eBooks boasts 2 million free ebooks that are mostly classics and open source material that they have scanned. They also have hundreds of thousands of bestsellers made available to customers in the USA. Canadians certainly do not have access to copious amounts of best sellers and can only buy a paltry two thousand.
The Canadian version of the Google eBook Store features all of the classics which are free downloads and stored in the cloud. This insures you can read them on your phone, e-reader or tablet, as long as you have internet access. They can be locally stored in your device via a caching system and you merely need to only sync the content over. The paid bookstore features content from prominent Canadians such as Hockey Night in Canada’s Ron Maclean. Perenial favorites such as the new Steve Jobs autobiography are also present.
Many publishing companies in Canada have signed onto the Google Books project because they can set the prices via the Agency model. Penguin Canada, Random House, and HarperCollins, as well as independent publishers McGill-Queen’s University Press, House of Anansi Press, and Dundurn Press are all commited to the success of the platform.
If you reside in Canada and are interested in browsing the new selection of books check it out HERE.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
