Total Boox, an unusual e-book delivery service based on metered reading, is making its library of 20,000 e-book titles available to the public to read entirely for free during the week of April 13 to April 20. Total Boox is targeting libraries with its platform and the offer is timed to coincide with National Library Week.
Total Boox is a metered reading platform that turns the usual commercial book transaction on its head. Instead of paying for a book and then reading it, Total Boox allows users to set up a credit-card account and pay only for how much of a book they actually read. If a reader only reads half of a $10 e-book, they are charged $5.
Total Boox looks to attract individual consumers but also targets the library market, offering its platform as a way for libraries to offer e-book lending services. Total Boox is designed to allow libraries to offer a carefully budgeted e-book lending service that track pages read and charges patrons on that basis.
The company currently offers a database of about 20,000 e-book titles across an array of categories from a number of publishers including FW Media, Sourcebooks, Open Road Media, O’Reilly, Other Press, Red Wheel/Weiser and others.
