The US based document sharing website Scribd is set to open a commercial channel this week.

Scribd, one of the world’s foremost document sharing websites, is a service that has run for more than two years offering users the opportunity to download or view books, essays, magazines and more for free. In fact TechSmart and Retreat magazines are both available on Scribd.

Now Scribd will offer publishers and authors the opportunity to sell documents online for a mere 20% share of each sale. The good news for authors however is that they can actually make more from selling a copy of their book for $2 on Scribd than they can by selling their work for more than 10 times that via traditional channels- offering readers far cheaper prices in the process. 

Scribd’s primary selling point is that purchased documents will be readable on multiple platforms from PCs to smartphones and ebooks. The best bit about this news is that neither TechSmart nor Retreart will be documents that you need pay for on Scribd.