Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Goodbar
I could also see a store scenario where you are browsing and next to the book is a fictionwise checkout slip. You take that to the counter, give them your FW id, pay for the book and it's emailed to the email address on your FW account. They would only need to integrate their POS systems between B&N and FW. I know, not as easy as it sounds, but still a viable approach.
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That'd require drastic overhauls of FW's software. They don't currently email books; you log in and download them.
Attaching it to a brick-and-mortar purchase would mean disclosing identity aspects that FW doesn't currently require. (I use Paypal; FW doesn't know my legal name.) Which is probably not much of a concern, but would bother some people. Switching from "login and download" to "email" is a much bigger hassle; they'd have to find a way to add your purchased-in-person books to your account's bookshelf, so you could download it later. For Multiformat books, if the were emailed they'd need a filetype option.
I suspect that integrating FW & B&N sales would take a long time & serious coding issues--having a kiosk available in the store (or a laptop with USB cable) is much more likely. It'd be easy to encourage people to buy ebooks online while they're in the store; it'd be a lot more complicated to merge the two stores into a single financial operation.
Although I suppose they could sell a Fictionwise *coupon* that was good for a single specific book. Or they could sell a coupon for Micropay dollars.