Google Books Actually Selling E-Books — Who Knew?

You may notice that, when I discuss the e-book publishing landscape on this blog, I’ll often talk about Amazon, and Barnes & Noble, and to a lesser extent Kobo, Apple, Smashwords, and even Sony. I’ve sold multiple e-books through all of those channels (in decreasing amounts in the order listed) — in quintuple digits (Amazon), quadruple digits (B&N), triple digits (Kobo), or double digits (the rest).

But, even though I’ve listed my books with Google (confusingly named Google Books, the Google Partner Program, Google Editions, and Google E-Books at various times) since they began back in 2010, I had yet to see one single, solitary e-book sale from them. As I predicted back then, it didn’t seem like Google had its act together in the e-book selling game (step one: pick a name) and they were pretty late out of the gate, compared to Amazon (which launched the Kindle Store in 2007) or Sony before that.

Well, I can admit when I’m wrong, and I’m pleased to announce that I just learned that I sold my first-ever e-book on Google. While it has a long way to go to catch some of the other sales channels, maybe it’s the start of something big.

So I’d like to offer a hearty thank-you to my first Google E-Book reader — if you’re from Australia, and bought Declination through Google on February 9, step forward and claim your prize! Of course, I had stopped checking sales through Google (fellow authors will understand the urge to check book sales on an hourly or even by-the-minute basis and understand what it means to not check for months), and only learned of last month’s sale by seeing the payment when I checked my bank statement.

Anyway, there you have it, Google is officially selling e-books (or should I say “e-book”?) and even paying royalties. My questions to my readers are: Have any of you bought any e-books from Google? Have any authors reading this sold any e-books through Google? And a final question: How can Google be so good at search and maps and VOIP phone service, and so terrible at other things?