Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) has announced a new platform for selling electronic versions of books through its new Google Editions service. This will enable consumers to “read” e-books on a wide variety of electronic devices. So, maybe that’s why Google was scanning all those books….and we may all benefit from the “freeing” of books from print and single devices!

We’ve seen very, very interesting developments of late as the worlds of old and new media are converging right before our eyes….and often on our laptops and cell phones! Today comes word that Google is venturing into the world of books in a big new way, and the tech giant’s entry may indeed reshape the world of publishing and writing. At the 61st Annual Frankfurt Book Fair, Google unveiled a new offering, dubbed Google Editions. In a nutshell, as detailed in this article from The Huffington Post, Google will function as a wholesaler to provide a wide range of books in electronic format that will be readable not just on a single reader (as is true today with the Kindle from Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), but on a wide array of digital devices. While certainly, there will be a whole host of issues to be settled before the electronic dust settles (including issues of international copyrights and author protections, as have been vehemently raised over Google Books by the German government and others), consider how the world of publishing can be enhanced by freeing up books from not just their paper bindings, but from a single device. As we have seen with major moves of late to make all forms of media (television, radio, magazines, and those newspapers that are still in business as of today) viewable via web interfaces on not just PCs and laptops, but on smaller and smaller screens (increasingly being netbooks and smart phones, people all around the globe are consuming “fixed”media in new, portable formats. So, just as we are seeing broadcast and print media both be viewed in more and new innovative fashions, we are also seeing their creators, producers, and sponsors challenged to make money in these new distribution formats. However, in the end, the market – all of us with our crazy, hectic, tech-laden lifestyles – may just read – and buy – many more books in this new model. Finally, consider that for all the fanfare, e-books today make-up less than one percent of the U.S. publishing market! Although there are certainly many details to work out in terms of how the revenue pie will be sliced between authors, publishers, and Google as the electronic market (perhaps not the only one), the pie will undoubtedly grow over time – and we – as authors, as readers, as businesspeople, and as a society, will be better-off for having books on our iPhones!