If you are tired of paying high prices for ebooks that you later find out aren’t worth the time to read, then OpenBooks.com might be an alternative worth looking into.
OpenBooks is an independent ebook store that lets readers download ebooks for free without commitments, and then you decide how much you want to pay for the books after you read them.
This way you can avoid paying for stuff that isn’t any good, and instead reward authors who know how to write interesting and informative books.
OpenBooks.com allows readers to copy and share ebooks as well; the books don’t have DRM and aren’t locked into a specific platform like other ebook stores.
The ebooks are available for download in PDF, ePub, and Mobi formats, so they will work with any ebook reader or app, including Kindles (Mobi).
On each book’s description page there’s an option to pay what you want, with a recommended price mentioned next to it. Each ebook also contains a payment link for easy access if you decide to pay for it.
Authors get 70% of net revenue sales, which is typical of other ebook platforms as well. Authors also maintain all rights to their books.
OpenBooks.com just recently launched to the public; they’ve been Beta testing since January. Currently there are about 200 ebook titles available for download, covering mostly fiction, non-fiction and self-help, with more titles being added regularly.
I seem to recall a similar pay-after-you-read service launching a few years ago but can’t remember who it was or the specific details. OpenBooks claims they are the first to operate under the “Read First, Then Pay What You Want” model, so maybe I imagined it.
john hershey says
my book is already an ebook. can I still list it with openbooks.
Nathan says
They aren’t exclusive, if that’s what you mean. You can have the book listed in other stores.