LOS ANGELES - Even as Google Inc is struggling to convince publishers and authors alike that its Google Library Project in no way infringes upon their copyrights, other online giants including Microsoft and Yahoo are moving rapidly into the race to digitize all of the world’s printed books.

And in this race between the top three, it looks like Amazon.com has struck gold. The Internet’s best-known book house has introduced two plans to allow online access to books. According to the plans, customers can access any page of a given book for a fee. “We have had so many discussions with so many different publishers that it isn’t practical to keep it under wraps,” said Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, who announced the initiative. “Too many people know about it.”

Analysts say that if this move pays off, then Amazon could do to books what Apple did for music. Because in much the same way as Apple allowed people to buy a single song through the iTunes music store, Amazon will allow people to buy only the pages that they are interested in or at best allow them to buy a book in installments.
The Amazon Pages program lets the publishers choose the price at which access is to be allowed, “We believe that over time this could turn into a significant business for Amazon, significant revenue stream for publishers and authors and a helpful customer service for readers,” said Bezos. The second plan called Amazon Upgrade, allows a customer online access to a book that he/she has brought in the print form for an extra fee.

The plans have the approval of the people who matter- the authors and the publishers. Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild, which represents 8,000 writers said, “This sounds like the way to go. If there is a new way to extract value from a book, then the author and the publisher should share in this income.”

In the backdrop of the announcement and the favorable response from authors, Amazon shares climbed 2 percent to $41.65 in early trading on Nasdaq.