Hey—we've moved. Visit
The Keyword
for all the latest news and stories from Google
Official Blog
Insights from Googlers into our products, technology, and the Google culture
From Alaska: Old Harbor Books, the 250th indie bookseller of Google eBooks
May 9, 2011
(Cross-posted from the
Google Books Blog
)
From time to time we invite guests to post about topics of interest and we’re pleased to have Don Muller join us from Old Harbor Books. Don is a co-founder of Old Harbor Books, an independent bookstore where he has worked for 35 years in Sitka, Alaska. Through our partnership with the
American Booksellers Association
and its
IndieCommerce
e-commerce platform for booksellers, Old Harbor Books is now able to sell
Google eBooks
from its
website
. In this post, Don talks about the significance of this milestone to his bookstore and—most importantly—his customers. - Ed.
Based in
Sitka, Alaska
,
Old Harbor Books
was opened 35 years ago last week by a group of devoted book lovers including myself. Old Harbor is an independent bookstore specializing in
Alaskana
, Native American and Alaska Native, children's, ecology, travel, natural history, philosophy and, of course, nautical books. And starting today, we also sell Google eBooks on
our website
. In fact, we’re the 250th
independent bookseller
to start selling Google eBooks since the service launched
last December
.
In a town with a population of less than 9,000, we’re proud to provide personal service to the readers and explorers who visit our store. We wanted to give our customers a way to buy books from us in whatever format they want—including ebooks. So whether you want to read books on your computer, tablet, smartphone or e-reader, you can now choose from hundreds of thousands of Google eBooks titles we offer.
Some of my current favorites are are
Freedom
by Jonathan Franzen,
A Visit from the Goon Squad
by Jennifer Egan and
Confession of a Buddhist Atheist
by Stephen Batchelor. Searching by title, subject or author in our online ebookstore, you can find just about anything you’re looking for—and you can buy from us no matter where in the U.S. you are.
Old Harbor Books customer and manager with me in the middle
We hope you’ll shop for Google eBooks in our newly expanded online bookstore—the 250th of its kind. If you do happen to live near Sitka, the first 40 visitors to Old Harbor Books at 201 Lincoln Street today get free Google eBooks T-shirts. We’ll also show you how to sign up for an online account and get started with ebook shopping. If you can’t make it to the store,
this funny video
made by fellow independent bookstore Green Apple Books in San Francisco, Calif. does a great job explaining how to buy Google eBooks from the independent bookseller of your choice and read them on gadgets you already own.
We’re deeply grateful to Google eBooks and the American Booksellers Association for making this possible by connecting our IndieCommerce-powered website to the Google eBooks platform that lets us focus on merchandising books, rather than building the technology on our own.
Posted by Don Muller, Co-founder, Old Harbor Books
Labels
accessibility
41
acquisition
26
ads
131
Africa
19
Android
58
apps
419
April 1
4
Asia
39
books + book search
48
commerce
12
computing history
7
crisis response
33
culture
12
developers
120
diversity
35
doodles
68
education and research
144
entrepreneurs at Google
14
Europe
46
faster web
16
free expression
61
google.org
73
googleplus
50
googlers and culture
202
green
102
Latin America
18
maps and earth
194
mobile
124
online safety
19
open source
19
photos
39
policy and issues
139
politics
71
privacy
66
recruiting and hiring
32
scholarships
31
search
505
search quality
24
search trends
118
security
36
small business
31
user experience and usability
41
youtube and video
140
Archive
2016
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2015
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2013
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2008
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2007
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2006
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2005
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2004
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Feed
Google
on
Follow @google
Follow
Give us feedback in our
Product Forums
.
Follow
