Scribd Store: YouTube for Documents Becomes iTunes for Documents

Submitted by Bibliofuture on May 18, 2009 - 11:14am
Topic: 
Publishing

Online document sharing site Scribd has launched Scribd Store; a marketplace where publishers can sell original written works. This move comes at a time when ebook piracy is said to be at its peak (Scribd, as one of the biggest document sharing sites out there, is often mentioned in these reports), and is therefore a welcome move both for Scribd, which is trying to clean up its name, and for publishers such as Lonely Planet, O’Reilly Media, Berrett-Koehler and others, which partnered with Scribd for the Store launch.

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Comments

Submitted by Bibliofuture on May 18, 2009 - 2:01pm.

Site Lets Writers Sell Digital Copies
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/18/technology/start-ups/18download.html?_r=1&ref=technology

Submitted by Bibliofuture on May 18, 2009 - 8:15pm.

There was a website in the late 90's that sold documents online. The name was something like BigIdea or ThinkBig. I know I am killing the name. Anyone remember what the correct name of the site was? I am pretty sure they got bought by Amazon.

Submitted by John on May 20, 2009 - 8:41am.

They were an self-publishing site, later bought out by B&N.

Submitted by Bibliofuture on May 20, 2009 - 9:45am.

FatBrain. Yes that was it. I could kinda picture the logo. I knew it was black and white. Because I didnt have the right name my searches were not finding it.

It is interesting to see how timing is everything. FatBrain and another company at the time eMatter both had the Scribd business model but because of timing and whatever other reasons they didn't fly. FatBrain was bought by Barnes and Nobles and folded into the company so that Fatbrain doesnt seem to exist anymore. This opened up the space for a company like Scribd to come around.

Submitted by effinglibrarian on May 19, 2009 - 12:07pm.

don't read my book here... okay, go ahead and read or download it or whatever. I don't care if I'm not a successful writer/blogger: I still have my looks.

Submitted by Walt on May 20, 2009 - 12:06pm.

I wrote about it at the time and hoped to use it as a way to distribute what's now Cites & Insights. But it closed down rather rapidly--and never really had a workable business model. Does Scribd? We'll see. (And, well, what effing says may apply here as well.)