e-Books written by Australian authors are now available to be read by Australians with the launch of an e-Books store from Redgroup today, which runs the Angus & Robertson book chains and Borders Australia.

There are already over 100 local publishers signed up to supply their electronic books to the store which will launch with two million titles.

An e-ink e-reader branded Kobo was also launched by the group. The Kobo e-ink e-reader will cost about $199 and will be for sale online and in the Borders stores.

The device does not have wi-fi or the lend books to others and has a black-and-white screen while it costs much lesser than Apple's iPad (priced $629 when it launches next week in Australia) and Amazon's Kindle (basic version costing $315).

According to The Australian, the managing director of Redgroup, Dave Fenlon, asserts that most of the e-books available will be free and out-of-copyright titles.

The majority expected the charges by the group to cost between $10 and $15 per book for about 50,000 titles.

Children's authors Garth Nix, Helen Garner, Kate Grenville and Shane Maloney are among the local authors whose works will be made available in the electronic form.

Applications that allow people to purchase and read books on their computer, iPhone, and Apple iPad are also launched by the group. The applications for other smart phones will also be on track before long.