Buy O'Reilly books by the chapter 18 Jun 2007

Inspired by the digital music revolution, O'Reilly is now selling its books by the chapter:

"One of the compelling lessons of the digital music revolution was that people wanted to acquire and share songs, not albums. The analogies to books are imperfect, because books tend to be more of an essential organic whole than albums, but even with books, especially reference or tutorial books, it's certainly possible that someone wants only part of a book."

Sounds like a good idea to us. While this move presents obvious benefits for consumers, it's also great for O'Reilly and its stable of authors. The resulting sales data will give them some great feedback on which chapters are killer and which are filler, allowing them to improve the overall quality of their books with each new edition.