Google's first consumer bookselling initiative is called Instant Online Access. Consumers can purchase a perpetual license to view the entire contents of a book online. Publishers set the price for Instant Online Access, and Google keeps a 30 percent commission on sales.
Because selling online access to books might cannibalize sales of physical books, Google seems to be promising publishers that it will deliver more impulse purchases than brick-and-mortar bookstores. The program could promise better profit margins for publishers by freeing them from printing and distribution costs. For example, publishers keep as little as 30 percent of a paper book's cover price, with the rest split among bookstores, wholesalers and distributors.