Quote:
Originally Posted by jdege
At this point B&N is my fifth choice, when it comes to buying ebooks.
- The author's own site, if s/he has one
- Baen, if they sell it
- Google Play Books, if they carry it
- Amazon, which is a pain in the ass
- B&N, which has been, since they stopped allowing download of epub, just as much of a pain in the ass as Amazon, but usually costs more
It's been a couple of years since I bought from B&N - which means a couple of hundred books since they stopped being my preferred vendor.
But if I can no longer use Nook for PC to download the epub files, they won't be at the bottom of my list, they will have fallen off it entirely.
I will not buy an ebook if I cannot download the file.
I wonder, sometimes, how much business B&N is losing, because of this, and has lost.
I can't think that people like us represent a large proportion of their customer base, but I have to think we represent a more significant proportion of their sales.
I was buying 100 books/year, until they decided to screw us. Since then, none. |
Good post. Also my list of ebook sources is similar to yours except I use Kobo at times, rather than Baen.
I suspect this isn't the only or even the primary thing that is causing B&N to go down. But I bet this is a symptom of their malaise. They've lost all momentum, they are in trouble, and one of their 'last gasp' actions is to try and circle the wagons, make things even more restrictive, and squeeze a little more profit out of their customers. I don't think they understand that reducing customer choices/freedom almost always backfires, a lot of people will just take their business elsewhere.