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Originally Posted by AnemicOak
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Fascinating, how Amazon is guilty of "using e-book discounting to destroy bookselling" by releasing ebooks when the hardcovers come out. He compares it to Netflix releasing digital movies when movies are in the theatres... and fails to say, "publishers who think this is a bad idea were free to just not sell those ebooks yet."
Of course, trying that gets them flamed and boycotted. But that's not "because of Amazon;" it's because the public wants ebooks at the same time as hardcovers, just like they wanted cassette tapes at the same time as vinyl albums. Unlike the theatre/Netflix comparison, paper books aren't normally consumed in public and only once; they're brought home to be enjoyed at one's leisure. Just like an ebook.
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Our concern about bookstores isn’t rooted in sentiment: bookstores are critical to modern bookselling. Marketing studies consistently show that readers are far more adventurous in their choice of books when in a bookstore than when shopping online.
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Perhaps because *bookstores don't have enough stock* that people specifically want, so they have to try something new or go home empty-handed. John Locke's overnight success says that people will indeed take a chance on new ebook authors.
He mostly seems to be ranting about how ebooks are destroying bookstores, and that's why agency pricing is so important. Did I miss something? Have physical bookstores been thriving since agency pricing went into place?