CBS may be the last major Hulu.com holdout, but one of its divisions is among the first to embrace e-books. The company’s Simon & Schuster unit announced Friday a deal with Scribd to sell e-books on the new Scribd Store.
Scribd launched its e-commerce publishing marketplace in May as a complement to its free content-sharing platform. Scribd boasts more than 60 million readers a month.
“Simon & Schuster is a major force in book publishing and is again leading the industry by recognizing the power of the social Web to influence reading and buying behavior,” said Trip Adler, CEO and cofounder of Scribd. “We are thrilled to offer our users a one-stop solution for discovering, sharing and buying written works of all kinds, including best-selling books by one of the world’s top publishers.”
Banking on Best Sellers
Nearly 5,000 Simon & Schuster e-book titles will be available on Scribd at launch. Book lovers can purchase, download and read the books on Scribd.com, on a computer desktop, and on a selection of mobile devices.
The Simon & Schuster Scribd storefront will showcase best-selling books from authors like Stephen King, Dan Brown, Mary Higgins Clark, Chelsea Handler, and Steve Martin. Simon & Schuster will also make thousands of printed titles available for preview with links to purchase from the Simon & Schuster Web site and other retailers. Specific titles include Steve Martin’s Born Standing Up and Jimmy Carter’s We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land.
“With millions of visitors and an extraordinary number of posted documents, Scribd has become an important destination for readers seeking written information that is relevant to their lives,” said Ellie Hirschhorn, executive vice president and chief digital officer of Simon & Schuster. “We are pleased to offer them this convenient, user-friendly option for discovering, sampling and purchasing Simon & Schuster books,…