Scribd launched its e-commerce publishing marketplace in May as a complement to its free content-sharing platform. Scribd boasts more than 60 million readers a month.

"Simon & Schuster is a major force in book publishing and is again leading the industry by recognizing the power of the social Web to influence reading and buying behavior," said Trip Adler, CEO and cofounder of Scribd. "We are thrilled to offer our users a one-stop solution for discovering, sharing and buying written works of all kinds, including best-selling books by one of the world's top publishers."

Banking on Best Sellers

Nearly 5,000 Simon & Schuster e-book titles will be available on Scribd at launch. Book lovers can purchase, download and read the books on Scribd.com, on a computer desktop, and on a selection of mobile devices.

The Simon & Schuster Scribd storefront will showcase best-selling books from authors like Stephen King, Dan Brown, Mary Higgins Clark, Chelsea Handler, and Steve Martin. Simon & Schuster will also make thousands of printed titles available for preview with links to purchase from the Simon & Schuster Web site and other retailers. Specific titles include Steve Martin's Born Standing Up and Jimmy Carter's We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land.

"With millions of visitors and an extraordinary number of posted documents, Scribd has become an important destination for readers seeking written information that is relevant to their lives," said Ellie Hirschhorn, executive vice president and chief digital officer of Simon & Schuster. "We are pleased to offer them this convenient, user-friendly option for discovering, sampling and purchasing Simon & Schuster books, any time and anywhere."

An Also-Ran?

In terms of copyright protection, all works in the Scribd Store are added to Scribd's Copyright Management System. The CMS offers technology to help prevent the upload of unauthorized written works and shows publishers how works are read, including settings for "read only on Scribd.com," "download" and "download with DRM." Scribd also lets publishers experiment with pricing, which can be changed easily and at any time.

Users can search content by browsing Scribd's categories such as books and business; through keyword searches on Scribd and popular search engines; and recommendations made by friends using Scribd's many social features, including Twitter and Facebook integration .

Despite the new deal and the high-tech capabilities, some analysts are predicting Scribd will be an also-ran.

Simon & Schuster may prefer Scribd because it offers a better revenue split, but Amazon is the force behind the e-book market today, according to Phil Leigh, a senior analyst at Inside Digital Media. He compared the Amazon.com-Kindle combination in the e-book market to the Apple-iTunes combination in the digital music market.

"If the Kindle becomes analogous to the iPod, then most people are going to end up buying it from Amazon.com because their hardware is associated with Amazon.com," Leigh said. "It makes sense for Simon & Schuster to try to make Scribd leapfrog Amazon.com, but the chances of that happening are about as likely as a Cherokee Indian getting elected pope."