With its new Amazon Pages service, Amazon.com Inc. plans to let customers to buy portions of a book - even just one page - for online viewing. A second program, Amazon Upgrade, will offer full online access when a traditional text is purchased.

Both services are expected to begin next year.

We see this as a win-win-win situation: good for readers, good for publishers and good for authors, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos told The Associated Press on Thursday.

For Amazon Pages, Bezos said, the cost for most books would be a few cents per page, although readers would likely be charged more for specialized reference works. Under Amazon Upgrade, anybody purchasing a paper book could also look at the entire text online, at any time, for a small additional charge, Bezos said. For instance, a $20 book might cost an extra $1.99.

Now here is a smart piece of marketing, Amazon has ben a leader in online marketing for years and this move is just another example of how they think a little outside of the square… Read more of this interesting article courtesy of ap.org