With the Monday launch of the online document-sharing service Scribd's 'commercial channel', authors and publishers can look forward to a boost in their sale opportunities, and the book-lovers can look for better bargains!

The opening of the Internet store will turn the two-year-old Scribd into somewhat of an electronic vanity publisher, giving a means for anyone to upload a document to the Web and charge for it. The 'sellers' can set their own price for their respective works, and retain 80 percent of the revenue generated. In addition, they can also program their documents with security software to avoid free downloaded or free copying of their works.

Until now, the San Francisco-based Scribd was providing free access to all the material - permitting users to read documents; entrench them; and share links. The site has reportedly stockpiled 35 billion words in an assorted blend of books, essays, PowerPoint presentations, legal briefs and other documents.

Though the Scribd 'commercial channel' concept is quite like other publishing sites, such as Lulu. com, the Scribd store apparently has singular potential to cause ripples in the market.

According to analyst Allen Weiner, of Gartner Inc, though the success on the store will depend largely on the number of authors and publishers taking the Scribd route, the venture can turn "into a really big deal!"