Slashdot Mirror
B&N Yanks DC Titles After Exclusive Amazon Deal
theodp writes "In response to DC Entertainment's agreement to exclusively offer digital versions of certain titles in Amazon Kindle format, Nook maker Barnes & Noble has begun pulling DC Entertainment's graphic novels off its shelves. Confirming the decision, B&N said in a statement, 'To sell and promote the physical book in our store showrooms, and not have the eBook available for sale would undermine our promise to Barnes & Noble customers to make available any book, anywhere, anytime.' Nice to see the pair is still able to keep their feud fresh on the 11th anniversary of the 1-Click patent infringement lawsuit."
That novels, specifically graphic ones, are just about the only form of media I would prefer to buy in a physical form. My ebook reader is reserved pretty much exclusively for datasheets, and that's only so I can search them.
Without knowing what's really going on, but it seems that someone there has decided that a principle is more important than the quarterly report, and I applaud that. It will probably benefit them in the long run (e.g. leverage in the next negotiations), but it's always interesting when a company gives a reason other than "it was the profitable thing to do".
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
I think the rule of thumb that monopolies are bad and competition is good applies here. Barnes & Noble's decision shows integrity from my point of view. I think this sends a good message to publishers; in order to be successful in the digital world they should provide customers with more option, not less.
.: Max Romantschuk
What is that exactly a solution to? Because it doesn't change the fact that B&N are removing physical copies from all their physical stores due to an exclusivity deal the publisher made with a competitor...
On the other hand, did the B&N spokesman clarify how removing books from sale helps B&N to fulfill the prose "to make available any book, anywhere, anytime"? Surely its counter productive to that promise?
Better solution. Don't buy or support them. Exclusivity deals take away consumer choice.
Gone!
By removing these books from their stores entirely, they're discouraging other publishers from giving Amazon exclusive access to their ebooks. Hopefully keeping closer to "any book, any time, anywhere" than just rolling over and letting Amazon get exclusivity.
Insert wit here.
I can only imagine that computer books are kind of a pain in the butt for bookstores. They get obsolete really fast these days; I'd probably want to reduce my inventory of them, too.
(Disclaimer: I haven't set foot in a Barnes & Noble in five-plus years. There just aren't any at the malls I go to.)
Exclusive deals of any sort should be illegal. They artificially limit the market resulting in opportunities to raise prices (and who is not going to do that) and are anti-consumer.
For those that don't like the intrusion of laws into "free markets" then anyone engaging in exclusive deals should lose the protection of other laws like copyright protection. So go ahead and Region Encode and DRM protect that content but it loses all copyright or other legal protection.
DC is in the middle of relaunching their entire line, all 52 titles. Pulling all those DC graphic novels at a time when new readers have an interest in DC titles and might be looking to dig into their back catalog is just throwing away potential sales. Especially now that Borders is gone, BN is the only major book retailer left in a lot of areas so BN would have gotten those sales by default.
From what I've heard, this relaunch is in part aimed more at a "first time" younger audience than the current stereotypical- and now ageing- adult comic collector. (This makes sense- it would be unwise to rely on the grown-ups for their long term future. They have to get fresh blood in, and after all, it was this younger market that was the primary one for comics in their heyday.)
But since this is a "first time" market, you have to get them interested first, and if they're not already interested they're not going to be reading diehard comics fans' sites, nor queuing up to buy.
I assume that, had this incident not happened, that B&N would probably have been happy to promote this relaunch in-store and possibly in their windows, giving it more mainstream attention. How much this kind of mainstream attention and publicity is worth nowadays- particularly with a younger audience- is unclear, but I don't think it should be dismissed out of hand.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
It's a simple question, really. How much does DC comics does from B&N floor sales, and how much did Amazon pay for the deal?
Unless DC is run by idiots, they are not losing money on this, I'm sure.
And B&N forgot something. Doing a stunt like this is actually free publicity... I didn't know DC was an Amazon had signed this exclusivity deal... But now I do. Thank you for telling me, the consumer, where I can buy DC.
B&N doesn't lock users into using their ebooks on only B&N sanctioned products, which is ultimately what this is about. I happen to have a Nook and Amazon is the only major ebookstore that doesn't allow me to buy from them and use the books without conversion and possibly stripping the DRM. B&N uses the same protection scheme and format as most of the ebookstores and so if I get sick of using a Nook, my next ebook reader could be made by somebody else entirely.
Ultimately, I have a feeling that it's more about Amazon using this deal to prevent their customers from using the books legally, remember B&N isn't just a book seller now, B&N sells ereaders and I'm guessing that they want to protect that as well.
I cant even buy their nook outside the US. Dear god let this walled garden crap be over soon.
How are you locked into using a Kindle device? There are kindle apps for iPhones, iPads, Android devices, BlackBerries, PC's, Macs, WinMo devices, etc.
There is even an HTML5 based Kindle app.
Well, I guess I'll just continue to buy my DC graphic novels at my local, neighborhood comic book shop... The place where the proprietors are enthusiasts and chit-chat about the topic when I go in and can offer suggestions and good discussions about them, making a much more pleasant shopping experience.
...any book I see on the shelf at their stores is one that I can buy for my Nook, or really any other device that supports epubs.
This is not true. B&N does have a vast ebook library and seem committed to expanding it as much as possible. But it's not even close to their full library. Many books are completely unavailable as ebooks from anywhere. Most new fiction is available in ebook format, but older titles (such as the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson) are not. Non-fiction titles seem even less likely to be available as ebooks. (And when you watch individual titles, the pace of ebook adoption is painfully slow. Dune took forever.)
The problem with reference books on an ereader is that navigation can be so cumbersome. Sure, finding what you want can be quick, but going back and forth between pages (or between books) is tedious compared with a physical book. So yeah, those computer books you can get in ebook format are great, but I prefer to have them in addition to the physical books, not in place of them.
The thing is, I usually buy those physical books in the store, rather than the website, because if I want one, I want it right now. The only one I can even remember ordering online any time recently was a pre-order for a new edition of a book I already had.
There seem to be two definitions of ereader in general use. To some, myself included, and obviously the GP as well, the term 'ereader' means a dedicated device, not just "any device on which you can read an ebook." Despite Apple's best marketing efforts, the iPad is not a Nook or Kindle competitor.
Actually, the creators don't get a choice, the publishers do. Neil Gaiman is pissed at both DC and B&N for letting this get to the point that his Sandman books are being pulled off the shelves at B&N.
My sister opened a computer store in Hawaii. She sells C shells by the seashore.
Or: "Hmm, B&N spending money advertising The Watchmen. Let me go buy it for my Nook. Oh they don't have it. One step closer to switching to a Kindle for me."
They'd be reaching more people than /. and telling them their eReader selection is inferior to that of Amazon's.