Amazon to Offer Online Access to Books

Amazon plans to launch two services aimed at promoting the sale and use of e-books.

Amazon Pages gives readers the ability to purchase a few pages or entire chapters of a given title in e-book format, while Amazon Upgrade will allow the online retailer's customers to upgrade the purchase of a bound-book copy to include an e-book version. Amazon Pages allows its customers electronic access "to any page, section or chapter of a book as well as [purchasing] the book in its entirety," according to a company press release.