Rainbow eBooks has announced today that they are shutting down their online bookstore. The web store will remain active for purchases through September 30, 2013 and will remain active for customer downloads through December 31, 2013. After December 31, 2013 Rainbow eBooks will provide direct links to publishers.
A number of online stores have closed in the last year and people are encouraged to backup their books locally. One of the drawbacks of buying digital editions is that you technically don’t own the book, you are merely licensing it. This causes confusion for users who deal with companies and they end up disappearing and you are out hundreds of dollars.
In the end, the closure of this store is a drawback to people who purchase Gay and Lesbian fiction. This store specialized in this content for a number of years and was fairly popular.
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.