Scribd To Offer Simon & Schuster Books Online

Simon & Schuster is preparing to ink a deal that will offer nearly 5,000 titles to be distributed through Scribd Inc.'s Website, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Scribd, which bills itself as the world's largest social publishing company, acts as a platform that allows authors and copyright holders to publish work. According to the company, the Scribd Website receives over 60 million views a month, making it an attractive platform for both aspiring writers, as well as established publishing houses such as Simon & Schuster, who's stable of authors include horror master Stephen King.

The prices for titles sold by Simon & Schuster on the Scribd Website will be set by the publisher, allowing the company to price its content as it sees fit, reports the Wall Street Journal. Unlike Amazon.com, which sells Kindle-formatted, best-selling books for $9.99, Simon & Schuster will be able to sell its electronic content for the same prices it gets for its print books. Users who get the titles from the Scribd store, however, will be eligible for a 20 percent discount.

"It means new revenue on the sales side and lets us experiment with various pricing models," Ellie Hirschhorn, chief digital officer at Simon & Schuster told the Wall Street Journal. "They [Scribd] have a large audience, which is important to us, and they've made an effort to install anti-piracy measures."

Content from the Scribd store can be read on a computer or downloaded as a PDF and then printed out. Scribd also has plans to launch an app for the iPhone, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Last month, Scribd launched an online store which allows writers and authors to set the price for their own work. According to the Wall Street Journal, two publishing houses have already signed up, including O'Reilly Media Inc., a technology publisher, and Lonely Planet, which publishes a line of travel guides. Scribd takes a 20 percent fee on the sale of each title.