[calibrated]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

The fact that you even bring up "but I have a Nook app on the Kindle Fire!" makes me think that you do not understand that Amazon Encore is refusing to sell their e-book versions anywhere except the Kindle store.

I understand that perfectly well, which is why I think Amazon is being pigheaded.

If B&N helps Amazon Encore, they hurt Nook store purchasers.

If B&N sells paper Amazon books in their stores, they're providing a service to their paper-book customers. If they refuse to carry them, they may or may not be denying those customers the opportunity to buy the paper editions, but they sure as h*ll aren't giving people a reason to come into their stores and spend their money with B&N. Put another way, if they sell the paper books, they do a disservice to their Nook customers, and if they don't, they do a disservice to their paper book customers, so they have to decide which set of customers is more important to them. Apparently, it's the Nook customers.

However, the Nook edition isn't going to be available either way (which is Amazon's fault, and remember, I'm not in favor of Amazon's stance here), so they can either make some money selling the paper version, or make no money. It's their choice. I happen to think it's also pigheaded, but it's their company, not mine.

Meanwhile, if authors choose to publish through a service that denies them the opportunity to sell their paper books at B&N, then I think they have some responsibility there as well.

If B&N expends resources to buy up Amazon Encore paper books to place in their b&m stores, thereby making Amazon Encore look like a good prospect for e-publishing indie authors, then B&N is directly helping to keep e-books off the Nook Store for their readers.

As opposed to keeping paper books out of the brick-and-mortar store for their readers.

I'm confused as to why this is confusing to you. I will answer the bolded part of your comment in bold letters:

BOOKS PUBLISHED BY AMAZON ENCORE CANNOT BE GOT ON THE NOOK. BECAUSE OF AMAZON.
Hence the Tinkers Dam being given.

Oops.. That's what I get for trying to follow this thread at work, type out replies and still be moderately productive. I had a momentary lapse. Sorry.

As for your suggestion that B&N should make its OWN publishing arm and do the same thing... *shudder* That would be reprehensible to me. The last thing we need is author exclusivity wars.

You know, I actually think we want the same thing here, we've just been talking at cross-purposes. I don't much care for author exclusivity, platform exclusivity, or any other exclusivity. I want open formats, more choice, and Books Available Everywhere. That's a win for authors, publishers, and consumers.

However, I think that if you're going to go to war (as Amazon and B&N appear to be), then you should bloody well go to war. Don't just throw a tantrum, do something to go on the offensive and take back some of the ground you've lost. Until B&N offers a better way, an alternative to Amazon's tools--and they don't need to be B&N-exclusive, BTW--then they're just being reactive, not proactive, and I don't have a lot of sympathy for them.