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Originally Posted by Fbone
It's possible but after 3 years one would think they would have plenty of time to work out a deal especially for a generic epub e-tailer. Diesel didn't sell The Hunger Games series by Scholastic a non-Agency publisher. Or it's likely Diesel (and BoB) didn't like the terms the publishers offered.
I also suspect that there is some hidden or unusually high cost to running an online ebook store. Something we aren't aware of for all these stores to close. How many ebooks does a site have to sell to cover costs?
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If the publishing world is still run the way it used to be, smaller outfits do not get the same deals as the bigger ones. Local, non-chain bookstores have complained about it for YEARS. They can't compete oftimes because they aren't given the same deals as a B&N.
I remember asking the local bookstore here in Austin if the would carry Jim Hines' books. Their answer was a flat out "No." They said I could order any book I liked and they would get it in for me, but they were not interested in carrying the series or in the bookmarks I wanted to drop off for him. Not that B&N was much better. They didn't want the bookmarks, but they did carry plan on carrying the series. I bought it from them rather than drive all the way to the independent.
In talking to several stories, including those who carry used and new, their answer was always the same: They don't get the same margins as the larger folks so they can't carry much inventory and they work their inventory differently.
I would imagine it was/is the same for ebooks. The smaller outfits may not have had the clout to work deals that made sense for them.
Eventually I suspect that publishers will be selling most, if not all, ebooks from their own sites. They need distributors a whole lot less than they used to. It's all a matter of whether they can reliably get people to their site to browse.
Even I buy direct from some publishers now--depends on the deals. It's gotten easier to shop anywhere, anytime and just in the past year I've started buying books multiple places. I don't even hesitate anymore.