Quote:
Originally Posted by rhadin
And to dismiss pbook buyers as luddites simply demonstrates a personal prejudice.
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Whoa!
Please read again; I wasn't saying pbook buyers are luddites!
I was saying the bookstore pbook buying market *includes* luddites, the people who will never buy an ebook. Doesn't mean everybody buying pbooks is a luddite. That is why I included the casual buyers as a separate category; a *lot* of people simply don't buy enough books to justify even a $79 reader.
My whole point is that any publishing venture for the next decade or two will have to account for the market splintering that is coming from the ebook evolution. Different buyers will be following different practices and the old sales models won't necessarily apply to everybody. (Just stacking books on shelves everywhere is hardly the most-cost efficient way to operate.)
And that is why Amazon is doing pbooks; they will be a secondary portion of the market but there will still be money there. And while it may not be immediately apparent, everything Amazon does scrapes a few nickles here and there. It's all about the money.
And yes, as I said; any author signing with Amazon Publishing (or KDP, for that matter) knows what they're getting into. Or they should.
But that whole "you can't be successful without selling everywhere" trope?
Not true.
Sorry.
There is a difference between theoretical customers and distribution and actual distribution and sales. Lots of products not only survive and prosper without universal availability, but actually benefit from it, by reducing distribution costs. You can find dozens of examples in everything from tools to video games.
Carpet bombing the market for a product, especially one that accepts retailer returns, is just increasing the average sale cost of that product.
Amazon Publishing doesn't need to sell their books to everybody; they just need to sell enough to justify the investment they and the authors are making. They are both in this. So as long as the books are publicized enough and are actually good enough (hardly a sure thing) they don't need to worry about whether they are available in every fruit stand in the land. In fact, isn't that kind of over-distribution at the heart of B&M book sales problems? One can argue that reducing distribution (and costs) is what all the BPHs should be doing.
Now, as I said; Amazon Publishing is betting on ebook first. They're not betting on ebook-only. And bets *can* turn out wrong. But Amazon bets, to the annoyance of their foes, turn out right more often than not. It doesn't usually pay to dismiss them out of hand.
In this instance, B&N may be saving Amazon the effort of printing/distributing pbooks to them and then finding a use for the ones that don't sell. Odds are, they can use that money to buy some publicity for their wannabe bestsellers.
Understand: I think that if Amazon Publishing offends B&N's sensibilities they should have the courage to *not* distribute them at *all*. Not in the store, not online, not anywhere. Which I'm sure is what a lot of the embattled indie bookstores are going to do.
But B&N wants it both ways: they want to be the injured party of Amazon aggression and *still* profit from selling their books.
That is hypocritical and why I think their "policy" is just a PR stunt.
Amazon is all about cold hard cash and straight impersonal business.
B&N is, lately, a lot about hystrionics and tantrums.
That does not give me a warm and fuzzy feeling about their prospects.
(As to the value of exclusivity, that is whole other story best left for another day in General Discussions.)