The idea is to give readers the chance to sample books online in much the same way they would if they were in an actual physical bookstore. "This is analogous to removing the shrink wrap from a book," said Jane Friedman, President and CEO of HarperCollins Worldwide.

"The advantage of our digital warehouse is that we can securely, quickly and easily change what content is available, whether it is to meet an author’s request, to preview a title before it is on sale, or to promote backlist books."

Starting today, readers who visit the HarperCollins Web site will be able to view the complete contents of  "The Witch of Portobello" by Paul Coelho; "Mission: Cook! My Life, My Recipes and Making Impossible Easy" by Robert Irvine; "I Dream in Blue: Life, Death and the New York Giants" by Roger Director; "The Undecided Voter’s Guide to the Next President: Who the Candidates Are, Where They Come from and How You Can Choose" by Mark Halperin; and "Warriors: Into the Wild" by Erin Hunter.

Brian Murray, president of HarperCollins, said the free electronic editions would be available for only one month, and readers would not be able to download them to their PCs or an electronic reader like Amazon’s Kindle, according to the New York Times. The print function will also be disabled, but readers will be able to link to retailers to purchase copies of the books.

Freidman said she did not believe most people would read the complete versions online, but HarperCollins would monitor the editions to see if they increased sales. "We will know very soon if we sense any kind of cannibalization," she said.
 

Harper says it is an interactive community for teen readers to read authors blogs, connect with each other, post photos, communicate on message boards and participate in HarperTeen contests, programs and online polls. Starting in January 2008, HarperTeen authors will regularly interact with readers on MySpace through chats.

The MySapce/HarperTeen profile will feature user generated content tools where users can "Create and Share" by submitting their own writing and receive feedback from their peers in the community.

Users will be able to participate in the first "Create and Share" writing contest through January 7, 2008. Original short stories, poems and songs will be accepted. The winning writer will receive $5,000 and a phone call from their favorite HarperTeen author. A panel will select ten of the best entries and MySpace users will vote for the winner.

"With millions of teens spending their time online everyday, it makes perfect sense for us to partner with MySpace to build the HarperTeen community," says Diane Naughton, Vice President of Marketing at HarperCollins Children’s Books.
 

Browse Inside is an application that allows readers to sample pages of HarperCollins titles online. LibreDigital adapted the Browse Inside application for the iPhone. The company is a partner in the development of HarperCollins digital warehouse.

iPhone users  visiting HarperCollins mobile site will be able to read the first 10 pages of chapters one and two of 14 books in the initial offering. They can then click to buy or pre-order books from a list of retailers.

"Reaching consumers on mobile devices and the Internet is increasingly important for publishers," said Brian Murray, President of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide.

"Our digital warehouse gives us the unique opportunity to quickly offer access to our titles on the newest technology, and we encourage people to provide feedback about their experiences."

Some of the tiles available include "The Art of Power", by Thich Nhat Hanh, "Winning", by Jack Welch & Suzy Welch and "Now and Forever", by Ray Bradbury.

"HarperCollins is leading the market in providing readers new ways to browse books," said Craig A. Miller, general manager of LibreDigital.

"The Browse Inside feature for the iPhone is part of the ongoing effort to advance technology and allows mobile consumers to tap into the power and convenience of online book discovery. We are excited to be a part of it."

Several prominent libraries have already signed up to be a part of the Google Book Project, but the online search giant’s ambitions have some publishers turning up their nose in disapproval.

Both Random House and HarperCollins have stepped out in defiance of the book search initiatives of Google and others by announcing plans to implement their own proprietary technology that will allow prospective book buyers to peruse snippets from titles currently distributed by the respective publishing houses.

I guess they aren’t big fans of free publicity.

More on this story from Techdirt:

The question, really, is why bother? All these publishers are creating limited, expensive, fragmented searches for books, when Google (and others such as Yahoo and Amazon) are more than willing to do the work for them, while bringing all the offerings together. There are very, very few people in this world who think about books in terms of who published them.

No one wants to know that they need to go to a certain place to search for a Random House book and another for a HarperCollins book. Instead, let the search engines do the work (and spend the money), and the search engines will bring in the people and help drive sales. Building separate, fragmented book searches hardly seems like a compelling or cost-effective plan.

I really couldn’t have said it any better myself. The whole move seems almost prideful in a way. Do Random House and HarperCollins really believe that can manage this whole thing better than Google, a company that has built its entire brand on the backbone of the prowess of its search technology?

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