Although Amazon has been selling downloadable e-books for years, in 2006 it added a new twist. Amazon Upgrade provides buyers with online access and searching of physical books they've already purchased. To upgrade their books, readers pay about 10 percent to 20 percent of the book's original price, and Amazon splits the revenue with publishers.
Amazon Upgrade is designed to appeal to buyers who want to receive a physical copy of the book, but are also willing to pay a bit extra for immediate online access and searching. Buyers view the book online through the Amazon Reader, the same interface used for Search Inside the Book. Amazon Upgrade users can print pages, but publishers can set the number of allowable printed pages.
Amazon users can view which previous purchases are available for Upgrade by browsing #Your Media Library#:
#http://amazon.com/gp/library#
Another place to view your list of upgradable books is:
#www.Amazon.com/gp/sitb/ purchasing/booklist#
Amazon hopes Upgrade will appeal to publishers concerned that online access to books might cannibalize sales of physical books, cutting publisher revenue. With Upgrade, any purchases result in added revenue for publishers, since readers have already purchased the hard copy.
To be eligible to purchase upgrades, readers must buy the book directly from Amazon. Upgrades aren't available for books bought used or new from third-party Amazon vendors.