Overstock.com adds books in time for holidays

Overstock.com is getting into he book business just in time for the holidays. The online discount and clearance merchant last Friday launched a book, movies and music department, stocked initially with 1,800 popular titles from the New York Times best seller list, Amazon’s top sellers, and other sources including some titles personally selected by Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne. Byrne says prices will be 10% below Amazon’s prices for the same titles, and that the assortment may expand later.

It’s the second major addition to the site in the past several weeks. Artisans of Worldstock, which sells handcrafted items from around the world at prices that limit Overstock’s net profit to no more than 5% of sale, launched in September.