Harpercollins joins Scribd in e-book subscription plan

THE IDEA HAS BEEN GAINING TRACTION OVER THE YEARS IN THE PUBLISHING WORLD BUT THERE HAVE BEEN FEW TAKERS SO FAR

NEW YORK: Harpercollins is the latest publisher to try a Netflix-style e-book subscription service, announcing Tuesday that it had struck a deal to make its backlist books available on Scribd, a website for sharing documents and books.

Scribd, with a base of 80 million visitors to its site each month, said it was positioned to become a prominent e-book subscription service, in which consumers pay a flat monthly fee for access to a large catalog of e-books.

Brian Murray, chief executive of Harpercollins, said he was encouraged to sign on partly because of consumer interes t in subscription models for music, television and radio. The idea has been circulating in publishing for years, but it has gained little traction. Oysterbooks.com, introduced last month, offers consumers access to more than 1,00,000 books for $9.95 a month. “There have been a few small pilots, but they’ve been really small startups,” Murray said in an interview. “Scribd has an opportunity to really become a player in the e-book space.”

With one major publisher on board, the service will be a tough sell for consumers accustomed Amazon.com or Bn.com. Scribd’s service already includes books from smaller publishers.