Nothing says more about changing times than the move of the book from the page to the screen. Now Tim Waterstone, the man who founded his bookshop namesake, has announced he is launching his own eBook service.
But the man behind Waterstones isn't just creating a Kindle rival. As its name suggests, Read Petite will be looking to provide shorter fiction aimed at those looking for quick consumption.
With its flat-rate monthly fee, the service is essentially the Spotify of books, an interesting way of approaching the evolution of eReading. It is said to be charging between £5 ($7.70/AUS$7.30) and £12 ($18.50/AUS$17.50) a month.
Serial thriller
"It worked for Dickens and it worked for us. If you are going to read on a laptop, or a smartphone or a tablet, [a short story] is about as much as you want," he told the Daily Telegraph.
He is, of course, referencing the use of 19th Century monthly serialisations of the likes of Anthony Trollope, which Read Petite is all about.
The service will launch towards the end of the year, and will be aiming to just offer little-known or unpublished works from popular authors.
We contacted Amazon on this to ask whether the new service might be available to Kindle users but it declined to comment.
We've also contacted some other eReader names to ask whether they're involved and will update as soon as we hear more.
