Amazon continues to take the lead in digital sales. The online retail giant has announced that it will offer buyers of printed books a copy of the text in digital form for free or at a discounted price. The program, called Matchbook, will be available to any title bought from the online store since it opened in 1995.
Amazon said the program will launch in October and would include more than 10,000 titles. Publishing giants Harper Collins and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt are on board, and Amazon is working to add other publishers and authors as well.
Amazon said that Matchbook pricing would be between $2.99 and free.
The move is designed to further draw in readers who have had qualms about buying an e-reader, as well as differentiating the Kindle from other e-readers, such as Barnes & Noble’s struggling Nook.