Once the Managing Director of Waterstones, Tim Coates has now announced the imminent launch of his brainchild – Bilbary. Bilbary.com is an international online consumer site dedicated to the sale and lending of eBooks. He said of the venture:
“Readers are going to be the obsessive focus of this site. It won’t sell anything else. It’s the site to come to for everything, for readers’ groups, for recommendations, and it will be linked to Facebook. The student can get hold of a book you can’t get from the university library direct from the publisher. Academic publishers see real potential.”
Coates describes the site as bringing together the skills of the bookseller and the librarian on the internet, with “shop window” recommendations and librarians available for consultation. The idea is that by the time Bilbary.com launches, the website will be offering upwards of 300,000 titles for 20-day loans at 25% of the RRP.
What do you think of an eBook “library”? Is Coates on the right track?
Inkings and Inklings 