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Scribd Launches Scribd Store,Online Marketplace for Original Written Works
Sellers Include Lonely Planet, O’Reilly Media, Berrett-Koehler, World Bank Publications and Best-Selling AuthorsSAN FRANCISCO – May 18, 2009 –
Scribd, the world's largest social publishing company, today announced the beta launch of Scribd Store, a first-of-its-kind e-commerce destination and publishing marketplace where anyone – from professional publishers and authors to students and enthusiasts – can upload and sell their written works to a readership of more than 60 million.  The Scribd Store (www.scribd.com/store) expands Scribd’s library of free original documents to include for-purchase works, many of which are new, exclusive or hard-to-find anywhere else on the Internet. In a radical departure from industry norms, the Scribd Store offers a generous revenue sharing agreement that gives sellers 80% of revenue. Prices are set by the seller and currently range from $1 for a graphic novel to $5,000 for an in-depth China market research report. Sellers can also choose Scribd’s automated pricing option, which generates an optimal price tag based on a cost-sales analysis of similar items in the Scribd Store. “Our goal has always been to democratize the publishing process for everyday people who have so many great ideas to share,” said Trip Adler, Scribd CEO and co-founder. “Adding e-commerce capability gives all our users – professional and non-professional publishers – even more options in recessionary times, when every dollar counts.”“Scribd’s announcement is a sign that competition is alive and well in the eBook market,” said Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media. “We're seeing exciting new developments every day. Any publisher who isn't paying attention will regret it!"“The Scribd Store has the potential to revolutionize book publishing by allowing readers the opportunity to pay only for the content they need – a model that offers real value in this down economy,” said Johanna Vondeling, Vice President, Editorial and Digital, Berrett-Koehler Publishers. “It also gives book publishers a promising new marketplace
 
to sell short and unique content, as we are doing with our new Fast Fundamentals whitepaper series.”  The company will soon launch an iPhone application to give readers and buyers access to documents across multiple platforms; the mobile-optimized version of Scribd.com is already very popular. At launch, the beta version of Scribd Store will be open to buyers and sellers in the United States, with international launches to follow.
Choice and Flexibility for Buyers and Sellers
 The range of written works available on Scribd reflects people’s actual reading habits, including recipes, articles, novels and research reports for school or work. At launch, the Scribd Store will include: never-before-released novels from best-selling authors Tamim Ansary, Joe Quirk and Kemble Scott; Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein's “The Twitter Book,” available before print editions; books from the World Bank and Lonely Planet; and much more.With Scribd Store’s flexible pricing, publishers have complete control over price and packaging. Sellers can specify selling whole documents, a chapter or an exact selection of pages, or in installments. They can also choose whether to serialize their books for $1.00/chapter; now, instead of having to purchase a country guide travelers can buy a standalone city chapter from Lonely Planet. Documents can be read on Scribd.com, downloaded to a PC, printed, or made accessible through web-enabled mobile phones. “We are thrilled to be partnering with Scribd to bring Lonely Planet information and advice to a new set of travelers on a tailored basis,” said Matt Goldberg, CEO, Lonely Planet Publications. “Our goal is to empower travelers to get to the heart of a place, whether they choose a Guidebook, a Mobile Application or a Digital Chapter from Scribd.”
Quick, Easy Publishing to Millions
Scribd makes it easy for anyone to publish and sell original written works – books, essays, comics, presentations – and make them discoverable by the world via major search engines or the more than one million searches per day on Scribd.com. Sellers on Scribd Store must own the digital rights to the works they wish to sell and provide detailed information about their ownership of those works in order to sell their works through Scribd Store. Sellers can also easily manage their digital rights – choosing viewing/reading options such as “View on Scribd only” “Download PDF,” “Download PDF with DRM” or “Download ePub with DRM.” Sellers have the flexibility to make real-time changes to pricing and preview options for their works
 
at any time.Scribd Store sellers also benefit from Scribd’s existing Copyright Management System (CMS), an industry-leading technology that helps prevent the upload of unauthorized works onto the site. Every document uploaded to Scribd is compared to the CMS database. If someone tries to upload a document that the system identifies as one of the tens of thousands of works in the database, that document is automatically removed from Scribd. All works sold in the Scribd Store are added to the CMS automatically.
Getting Started
Scribd Store is available immediately. To start selling, please visit http://www.scribd.com/upload/store. For more information about the store see http://www.scribd.com/store/about or www.scribd.com/store.
About Scribd, Inc.
Scribd is the world’s largest social publishing company with more than 60 million readers each month. Scribd is changing the way people discover, share and sell original writings and documents on the Web. Its innovative document reader technology, iPaper, enables anyone to easily upload PDF, Word, PowerPoint and other document types and share on Scribd.com or embed on thousands of other websites. Scribd is backed by Charles River Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Paul Graham's Y Combinator, the Kinsey Hills Group and several prominent angel investors. For more information about Scribd, visit www.scribd.com.
Media Contact:
 Kathleen Millerpress@scribd.com

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