Danish book stores to sell ebooks in physical stores

[Ea]

News story translated with Google Translate

Apparently Danish book stores are going to try to boost ebook sales by selling ebooks through physical stores. The books are to be sold as a download code, printed on a replica of the cover. This way ebook could also be sold as gifts.

I'm not sure how this will work - I think prices also have to go down and you have to convince the primary buyers of fiction, 40+ women, to invest in ebook readers. But I guess it's worth a try. At least it might make potential buyers aware of ebooks by actually market them in the shops they visit.

[Catlady]

I would definitely like to see something like this in U.S. bookstores.

I used to impulse-buy paper books, I'd impulse-buy e-books if I could get them at the bookstore.

[Giggleton]

There could be flash book stores, set up in the middle of a busy intersection with a couple of traffic cones and some couches, a few decorative plants and a coffee cart. Then start inviting the digital literati to partake of whatever ebook you're currently offering. We're talking about starbucks of course.

I do wonder if the bookstore in the article is actually the primary distributor of the book or if they are an Amazon affiliate or something.

[Bikeridr]

Seems that the comments are reflecting the same as in Norway, namely the price rather than the visibility and access.
I have been complaining at the Norwegian e-books costing NOK 279,- (~US$ 50,-).
Well, perhaps I shouldn't complain as the Danish e-books have an RRP of DKK 299,- which is about US$ 57,-

So, in my opinion, I actually hope this approach fails badly until the e-book prices come down to a sensible level. As "accepted" in US with $9,99 we Scandinavians would "accept" a price of NOK/DKK/SEK 99,- per e-book. (And probably €9,99 for Finland).

[Ea]

Originally Posted by Giggleton

I do wonder if the bookstore in the article is actually the primary distributor of the book or if they are an Amazon affiliate or something.

The article mentions three book store chains and they are all primary distributors.

Originally Posted by Bikeridr

Seems that the comments are reflecting the same as in Norway, namely the price rather than the visibility and access.
I have been complaining at the Norwegian e-books costing NOK 279,- (~US$ 50,-).
Well, perhaps I shouldn't complain as the Danish e-books have an RRP of DKK 299,- which is about US$ 57,-

So, in my opinion, I actually hope this approach fails badly until the e-book prices come down to a sensible level. As "accepted" in US with $9,99 we Scandinavians would "accept" a price of NOK/DKK/SEK 99,- per e-book. (And probably €9,99 for Finland).

I think I could accept up to 150,- more or less the level of paperbacks. Saxo.dk (online retailer) sells ebook at cost price because they thought the prices set by the publishers were unreasonably high (at least for some books).

[Bikeridr]

Heh, well I also have indicated an acceptance of a price set to NOK 149,- per e-book in earlier posts.
Anyway, seems that Saxo will be my deliverer of Scandinavian language e-books. Very few DRM'ed books. Only watermarked or nothing.
I also like their attitude. "You may copy/convert *your* book to fit *your* device(s), just don't distribute it."

(For the danish speaking OP):
Så, takk til Æbeltoft for at dansk er så lett forståelig for oss "fjeldaber"

[mikaelalind]

I read somewhere that a similar project is about to start in Sweden. I wish that more publishers looked at Piratförlaget. New books is 130-120 SEK, then the prices gradually drop until they reach the lowest price that is 49 SEK. I get the books I want from the library, though.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by Ea

News story translated with Google Translate

Apparently Danish book stores are going to try to boost ebook sales by selling ebooks through physical stores. The books are to be sold as a download code, printed on a replica of the cover. This way ebook could also be sold as gifts.

I'm not sure how this will work - I think prices also have to go down and you have to convince the primary buyers of fiction, 40+ women, to invest in ebook readers. But I guess it's worth a try. At least it might make potential buyers aware of ebooks by actually market them in the shops they visit.

I would love this - it allows you to get the cover (a lot of fantasy ebooks don't come with the cover rights ). There is some author (can't remember her name) that was giving away postcard like copies of the cover art as a promo for her latest book. A lot of people mentioned that they were buying it just because of that.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

I would love this - it allows you to get the cover (a lot of fantasy ebooks don't come with the cover rights ). There is some author (can't remember her name) that was giving away postcard like copies of the cover art as a promo for her latest book. A lot of people mentioned that they were buying it just because of that.

This is interesting. I was just recently thinking that, if ink weren't so darned expensive, I would love to print out some of my ebook covers to have some kind of an album of my favorites. Some of the cover art is amazing.

[Salgueiros]

What a wonderful idea!

Even though i read ebooks, i do prefer to browse for new books (or ebooks) to read in a physical store. It is so much more easy to find something you like. I find all the search and browse functions of all the webstores i use so annoying and time consuming. I really hope that idea comes to other stores around the world.

[Sweetpea]

It was also introduced last month in the Netherlands. One publisher (we do have some publishers that will follow the flow and take the ebook serious!), PixelPerfect, has introduced the "scratchbook". This the cover of the book, printed on heavy paper, with a blurb, that contains a scratchcode, with which you can download the book. The same publisher also already brought the usb-bookstick.

The advantage of this is manyfold. First, you can actually give an ebook as a gift. Both in physical and virtual form. Second, bookshops can sell ebooks too. And you can still see what book you have but they do take a lot less space in your book cabinet!

[jbcohen]

From what I understand one of the fundamental barriers here is that US book stores think of electronic books fundamentaly different then their dannish counter parts do. Its obvrious here that dannish book stores think of electronic books as simply anothe product they re-sell where as US book stores look at electronic books as sort of a step child. There are two halfs to a Barns and Nobles business: the book store and the electronic book store. The bricks store is considered to be the core of the business and represents the majority of the development time and budget for the company. Electronic boosk are a sort of after tought added on becuase B&N does not want to loose out on that business. That differes from Borders current strategy, post reorganization where the web site and electronic books comprise 75% of the business and is where the comapny management focuses on for development of the company. Amazon is the same thing to more of an extreem, since there are no Amazon stores the web site is the business and is where the management concentrates.

The only US company that would be remotely interested in the Danish model would most likely be BN since its the only one of the group of US book re-sellers that have physicall stores any more. And since the company is more concerned with physical store sales, a fact that I have derived from reading their anual report, they are not likely to make any additional initatives in electronic books.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

From what I understand one of the fundamental barriers here is that US book stores think of electronic books fundamentaly different then their dannish counter parts do. Its obvrious here that dannish book stores think of electronic books as simply anothe product they re-sell where as US book stores look at electronic books as sort of a step child. There are two halfs to a Barns and Nobles business: the book store and the electronic book store. The bricks store is considered to be the core of the business and represents the majority of the development time and budget for the company. Electronic boosk are a sort of after tought added on becuase B&N does not want to loose out on that business. That differes from Borders current strategy, post reorganization where the web site and electronic books comprise 75% of the business and is where the comapny management focuses on for development of the company. Amazon is the same thing to more of an extreem, since there are no Amazon stores the web site is the business and is where the management concentrates.

The only US company that would be remotely interested in the Danish model would most likely be BN since its the only one of the group of US book re-sellers that have physicall stores any more. And since the company is more concerned with physical store sales, a fact that I have derived from reading their anual report, they are not likely to make any additional initatives in electronic books.

I do agree with you thoughts on how the US treats ebooks - but I would think that even online retailers would be interested in this concept (I would think, doesn't mean that they would ). One of the major issues with ebooks (besides lending) is the inability to really gift an ebook. Currently we can give gift cards but not an actual book. The Danish model would allow customers to buy and give ebooks.