On May 19th, Amazon quietly released the Amazon Upgrade program. I stumbled upon the new Amazon Online Reader and saw the option to upgrade one of my previously purchased books for $11.99. Amazon hasn’t made an official announcement yet about the new program and the blogosphere has been pretty quiet so far.

Based on what I’ve seen, is Amazon Upgrade a good thing for authors? Unlike Safari Books Online whose programs are less than ideal for authors, Amazon Upgrade offers new revenue potential. Amazon Upgrade requires customers to have purchased the physical book from Amazon before upgrading. That means Amazon Upgrade won’t take away royalties, but can add to them.

It isn’t clear yet how the upgrade price is determined or how much publishers (and subsequently authors) get from it, but since Amazon requires the physical book to be purchased this can only help. In fact, it may help increase sales of the physical book because in order to upgrade, the book must be purchased directly through Amazon and not on the Amazon Marketplace. If customers want online access to a book, instead of buying a used copy on the Amazon Marketplace in which the author gets nothing, they have to purchase the book from Amazon directly and then purchase the upgrade. I like it!