Google will not be entering the publishing ring, VAT on e-books is handicapping the European market and the future is not digital, delegates at the opening day of a Unesco conference on reading have heard.
The conference, The Book Tomorrow: The Future of the Written Word is taking place in Monza, Italy. In the opening panel discussion called The E-book Economy, Santiago de la Mora, Google Book Search’s partnership lead for Europe, Middle East and Africa, said Google would not follow its fellow internet giant Amazon in launching imprints. He said: “Google won’t become publishers, we are facilitators,” he said. “We work very closely with publishers across the world and place the role of trying to make books available as widely as possible; that is our role.”
Garnet on Publishing 