A1Books.com, a U.S.—based online bookseller, has teamed with Google Books India to launch what it claims is the first online bookselling and retailer marketplace aimed at the Indian book market. Beginning this past December, Indian readers can go to Google Books India (books.google.co.in) to search for English-language or Indian titles and then buy the books through A1Books India (a1books.co.in), Google Book's e-commerce partner for Indian online bookselling.

A1Books offers almost one million titles: 600,000 U.S. titles; 250,000 U.K. titles; and 75,000 Indian titles in Hindi and regional languages. Like Amazon. com, A1Books India also offers an online marketplace where Indian book publishers, distributors, importers and retailers can register and sell. The Indian marketplace service is open only to companies, not to individual sellers.

Shinu Gupta, founder of A1Books. com, said he is also working with Google to encourage Indian publishers to list their titles in Google Book Search. A1Books India also allows publishers to restrict the geographical sale of online books to prevent improper reselling back into the U.S. of titles licensed for publication and sale only in the Indian market.

Gupta described an Indian book market that is very different from the U.S. book market. "Indian publishers are like retailers," said Gupta. "Consumers can go to a publisher's warehouse and buy a single book, and there are no wholesalers like Ingram. Indian publishers and retailers have expressed a need for a site aimed at India that carries everything."

A1Books USA was founded in 1995. It is based in Netcong, N.J., and has 40 employees. Its U.S. book businesses (including remainder and wholesale units) had revenues of $20 million in 2006.

Gupta said that in the U.S. he's looking to expand into the college book market. He said he's also in discussion with several venture capital firms that are considering investing in A1Books India. "The Indian online book market looks good to investors," he said. "There's really no competition."