Sony opens electronic bookstore to self-publishers

A pedestrian passes before a Sony showroom in Tokyo in 2008. Sony opened its electronic bookstore to would-be authors Tuesday in a partnership with two self-publishing companies.

Sony opened its electronic bookstore to would-be authors Tuesday in a partnership with two self-publishing companies.

"New authors can select a self-publishing path and get their work published and for sale on Sony's e-book store in as little as 10 days," the Japanese electronics giant said in a statement.

Sony said it had teamed up with Author Solutions and Smashwords to give independent authors and small publishers the possibility of making their works available for the Sony Reader.

"We're committed to providing our customers access to the broadest range of eBook content available and believe these collaborations will allow us to expand the store selection with a host of compelling works from independent sources," said Chris Smythe, director of Sony's e-book store.

"We recognize that it is important to provide independent authors and publishers the opportunity to quickly and easily bring their ideas and content to a wide audience of readers," he added.

Author Solutions chief executive Kevin Weiss said the company brings more than 20,000 new titles to market annually and "to best serve our authors, it is imperative that we make their content available digitally."

Smashwords founder and chief executive Mark Coker said all an author or publisher has to do is "simply upload their manuscript to Smashwords as a Microsoft Word document (and) select the price."

"We manage the conversion and distribution," he said.

Sony last month unveiled a new e-reader, the Reader Daily Edition, featuring a touchscreen and wireless connectivity in a bid to challenge Amazon's popular Kindle.