Google ends e-book sales via independent stores

Google will put to an end a program that previously allowed independent booksellers to offer their wares – in this case, e-books, from its online store. This move will come to fruition by the end of January 2013. Google digital publishing director Scott Dougall mentioned that this particular program failed to garner enough traction that Google was targeting, and starting from the search engine giant will eventually sell e-books using Google Play as the only channel. This does not bode too well for publishers as well as booksellers, since they had hoped that Google’s e-book store might eventually make some headway into Amazon.com’s lead where the digital e-book market is concerned.

They will, however, continue to work closely with their 16 reseller partners as the transition is being made in the coming months. Apart from that, booksellers will continue to be highlighted in the “Buy this book” section of Google Book search. If you were a bookseller or an author, what steps would you take to counter this move?