Quote:
Originally Posted by Fbone
Who wants to look at 2878 different publishers websites for their reading material?
|
Harlequin survived on subscriptions long before most publishers even considered selling direct to readers. They still sell them; they may be the only publisher with ebook subscriptions & bundles. Their site is designed to be welcoming to readers, not just an advertisement for stuff to buy elsewhere--they have serial updates and bonus materials.
Standard subscription, with 2 free books at signup:
4 eBooks a month for $15.30/month
6 eBooks a month for $20.25/month
Can't get the subscriptions through Amazon; the books are $4 or $5 each there. Harlequin's subscriptions are *exactly* what most ebook people want--only, they want them in their chosen genres, not pop romance.
Not every publisher can follow Harlequin's model, but Harlequin could indeed leave Amazon, take a likely-temporary cut in profits, and just increase their branding efforts to draw customers to their own site instead. Any sharply defined genre publisher with a known demographic of readers could successfully drop Amazon and cater to its core readers instead of competing with the swarm at a larger store.