Google Editions

Google Editions is an upcoming program that will allow consumers to easily purchase and read digital editions of books. Consumers will be able to preview a book, as they do today in Google Books, and will also have the option to purchase its Google Edition. After purchase, the book will live in the consumer's online bookshelf, available to be accessed and read on most devices with internet access and a web browser; as well as on supported partner devices (to be announced during our public launch).
Today it is possible for users to view a limited percentage of each book submitted to Google Books by you. With the launch of Google Editions in 2010, you as the rightsholder will be able to choose to sell full access to your books directly to consumers. We're planning to sell these Google Editions in the near future through the Google Books site, as well as through retailer partners.
Currently, this program is only available in the US. This page provides details to help our US partners get set up and ready to take part in Google Editions when it launches.
From within your Google Books Partner Program account, you can now submit settings to make Google Editions of all your books available for purchase, or to specify individual books that you'd like to sell.

Simple steps to take part in Google Editions

1. Sign in to your account and agree to the Terms addendum
2. Specify your default settings for Google Editions
3. Adjust individual book settings and prices

In order to make your content available for purchase when we begin selling Google Editions in 2010, you will need to agree to an addendum to your existing agreement. Note that the Google Editions addendum does not represent an exclusive partnership. If you currently participate in other programs, you may wish to consult the program guidelines or reach out to those third parties directly. In your Partner Program account, you will be presented with these terms when you click on the new Google Editions tab in your account.

Default Settings for Google Editions

Partners interested in making all or most of their books available for purchase as Google Editions can submit Default Settings for their titles. We will apply these settings to all books in that account, unless other settings are provided for an individual title.
You can follow the instructions below to specify the default settings to be applied to all of the books in your account. If you'd like to change the settings for an individual book, you can do so at any time by following the steps below.

• Default Status: By checking this box, you indicate that you would like to enable Google Editions sales for all current titles in your account, and any titles you add to your account in the future. To sell the Google Edition of a book, you must hold the electronic rights to that book, including all images and other book content. Please note that you can remove or change an individual book's purchase availability by clicking the pencil icon () alongside that book on your Show Books page.
• Default Territories: These settings define the default territories/countries in which your books will be made available for sale to consumers as Google Editions. If you'd like to sell Google Editions of your books in the same countries in which they can be previewed, check "Use the same territories as book preview settings to sell Google Editions titles." If you'd like to sell Google Editions of your book in a different set of countries, specify them by listing each territory code. For guidance on which territory codes to use, please see this page.
• Default List Pricing: This setting determines the default list price for consumers purchasing the Google Editions of your books. Unless you specify otherwise, the default price is set at 80% of the lowest list price of the print book (regardless of format) upon which the Google Edition is based. Google will gather and update these print list prices, and before Google Editions becomes available to consumers, you will have the chance to review these prices. In addition to providing a percentage default, you have the option to set a specific price at which you would like all of your titles to be available for purchase. Since Google Editions sales do not incur the same production and shipping costs as do sales of your print books, you may decide to offer all of your Google Editions at one standard price. In addition to a default list price, you also have the option of setting prices for your Google Editions by individual title.
  Please note that we do not allow partners to set a list price higher than 100% of the lowest print price. We encourage you to consider the perceived value of the Google Editions of your titles for users and set prices accordingly. Typically, publishers have chosen to set the list price for digital formats at a lower list price than that of their print editions. Google reserves the right to sell a book at a price discounted from its Google Editions list price, or to not sell a book. If Google decides to offer the book at a discounted price to consumers, your share of the revenue will be based on the Google Editions list price.
• Default Bundle Pricing: Retailers may choose to sell your Google Editions book in a bundle with the print copy. This setting allows you to specify the percentage of the Google Editions list price that you would like to charge when the print and digital editions are sold together. For example, if you are selling a Google Edition for $15, you may decide that a customer making a print edition purchase from an online retailer will be willing to pay an additional $4.50 on top of the print edition purchase price to receive the digital edition as well. If so, you will want to enter "30%" into this field.
• Other Default Settings: Here you can specify how consumers may interact with the Google Editions of the books they have purchased from you. You can choose not to apply Digital Rights Managment (DRM) software to the digital file download of your books. DRM is intended to make it more difficult for consumers to use purchased content in ways not authorized by its owner. If you choose to make your Google Editions available without DRM, consumers will have more flexibility in using the content file. For further information on the Adobe ACS4 DRM option we plan to support, please see this page.
  Within your Google Edition settings, you can also choose to allow users to copy/paste and print any portion of the Google Editions they purchase. You can also choose to disable copy/paste and printing entirely. If you choose to disable these features, Google will use commercially reasonable efforts to disable these features but cannot guarantee that its efforts will in every instance be effective.

Individual Book Settings for Google Editions

You have the option to enable all your titles for Google Editions (see Default Settings above) or to choose individual titles that you'd like to make available for purchase. To edit the Google Editions settings for a particular book, go to the Show Books page and click on the pencil icon () alongside that book. If you would like to edit more than 20 books at a time, we recommend using a spreadsheet to submit Google Editions settings. You will need to specify the following settings for any books that you'd like to make available for purchase:

• Status: Checking this box means that you would like to make a Google Edition of this book available to consumers for purchase. You must hold the electronic rights of any book you wish to sell as a Google Edition, including all images and other book content. You can stop making a book available for sale at any time by unchecking this box.
• Google Editions Territories: This setting defines the territories or countries in which your book will be available to consumers. If you'd like to sell the Google Edition of a book in the same territories in which it can be previewed, simply check "Use the same territories as book preview settings to sell Google Editions titles." If you'd like to sell the Google Edition of a book in a different set of countries, specify them by listing each by territory code. For guidance on which territory codes to use, please see this page.
• Electronic ISBN & Google Editions ISBN: These fields are for adding optional identifiers that may be associated with your title. For example, if you already have an e-ISBN for a title or you choose to create a unique ISBN to track Google Edition sales, you can use this setting to associate it with the print ISBN from within your account.Please note, if you check the box "Assign Google-provided ISBNs to all my eBooks", Google will provide and assign an e-ISBN to each title you have designated for sale as Google Editions.
  The e-ISBN for each title will be displayed in your reporting data once Google Editions have become available for consumer purchase.
• Google Editions List Price: Here you can set the Google Editions list price for your book just as you do for a hard copy book. The default list price for each book will be 80% of the lowest list price of the print book (regardless of format) unless you specify otherwise for your account using Default Settings. Google will gather these print list prices. Before Google Editions become available to consumers, you will have the chance to review these prices. You can also set a specific list price for each title. Please note that Google reserves the right to sell a book at a price discounted from its Google Editions list price, or to not sell a book. If Google decides to offer the book at a discounted price to consumers, your share of the revenue will be based on the Google Editions list price.
• Google Editions Bundle Price: When Google Editions are available to consumers, retailers may choose to sell your Google Editions book in a bundle with the print copy. This setting allows you to specify the percentage of the Google Editions list price that you would like to charge when the print and digital editions are sold together. For example, if you are selling a Google Edition for $15, you may decide that a customer making a print edition purchase from an online retailer will be willing to pay an additional $5 on top of the print edition purchase price to receive the digital edition as well. If so, you will want to enter "30%" into this field.
• Other Settings: Here you may specify how consumers can interact with the Google Edition of the book they have purchased from you. You can choose not to apply Digital Rights Managment (DRM) software to the digital file download of your book. DRM is intended to make it more difficult for consumers to use purchased content in ways not authorized by the content's owner. If you choose to make your Google Edition available without DRM, consumers will have more flexibility in using.the content file. For further information on the Adobe ACS4 DRM options we plan to support, please see this page.
  You can also choose to allow users to copy/paste and print any portion of the Google Editions they purchase. You can also choose to disable copy/paste and printing entirely. If you choose to disable these features, Google will use commercially reasonable efforts to disable these features but cannot guarantee that its efforts will in every instance be effective.

We take the security of titles made available for purchase as Google Editions very seriously. Please see this page for details on how we are protecting your content.
Google will make Google Editions sales reports available through the Google Editions tab in your account. These reports will show the sale transaction date, list price at time of sale, publisher revenue share, Google Editions ISBN, and the print ISBN of the book upon which the Google Edition is based. These reports will be made available at the account level as well as the ISBN level.
For further questions regarding our payment terms, we invite you to consult our Terms and Conditions. As we approach the launch of this feature to our users, we will request that you provide relevant bank and tax information so that we can transfer accrued revenue to your bank account.
As we prepare to launch this feature to consumers, we'll continue to provide any further details via your Partner Program account and this help page. If you have any questions or need assistance in signing up for Google Editions, please contact our team.