Books, books, books. Finally the market and the key players have matured enough to develop a whole new ecosystem around printed media.

As predicted, Google will be at the forefront. Google Editions, the conglomerate’s foray into e-book sales, is set to launch by year’s end — and could overtake Amazon’s Kindle Market for the following reasons:

• not hardware specific (browser, mobile device, tablet — they’ll all work)
• millions of FREE books
• appealing to the “long tail” of book publishers and consumers (like the iTunes platform, independent authors now have a mainstream commercial outlet)

Like most entertainment distribution ventures, acquiring the “majors” (in this case, the big book publishers) is key to the success of the platform. Google likely had no trouble securing these deals — as stodgy as the publishing business is. The big question still up in the air is what will bridge the gap between digital and brick & mortar commerce? Will Barnes & Noble survive? Will indie authors take a significant piece of the market similar to the music biz circa 2003?

For me, this signals the impending fusion of transmedia entertainment. Immersive cross-platform storytelling has never been more fluid. Books, television, film, music, magazines, theater, sports, and live attractions are inching closer towards the fusion of a story across a multitude of distribution and consumption platforms.

Convergence. A truly exciting time to be involved in entertainment.

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Update (12/6): Google launched the platform today and in the processed renamed it to “Google ebookstore”. Looks like Mashable even gave it a thumbs up. Going to test out on my devices tonight.