Books On Board Ceased Operations

[jersysman]

The more I think about it, the more pissed off I get. But I don't know where to vent my frustration. I still believe that Agency pricing was meant to get rid of the little guys because with less competition, prices do tend to rise. As stated above, the ones who are leaving the scene are the smaller ones that offered the better discounts.

[FizzyWater]

I liked BoB, but I will admit that it was the last place I checked for books because I thought the original navigation there just sucked. It wasn't a place to browse...although to be honest, I don't think any of them are great for browsing. In the early days, I relied heavily on Fictionwise's weekly list of new books, grouped by type, for my browsing.

[Yapyap]

This is sad news.

Without country-hopping, BooksOnBoard was generally by far the cheapest of the main shops for me - without a 40% off or bigger coupon, Kobo is quite a bit more expensive and Amazon is generally the worst (they still seem to apply the $2 surcharge to most books for me). So I've bought a considerable number of books there over the last several years.

I'm just glad I decided to apply the last of my reward dollars on the last purchase I did there, just a day or two before the closing.

[slex]

I've bought more than a hundred books from BoB. I would like to see them back in business - customers in USA may have more options, but I can't shop at BN and Diesel due to georestrictions, and Amazon charge $2 shipping fee + VAT - so their prices are not so attractive.

I used to buy e-books from BookDepository, but now they ship only paper books. Fictionwise is down, too. If BoB goes, this leaves me only with Kobo and Amazon (and occasionally Smashwords and Baen).

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by hwlester

The next paragraph after the one I quoted addresses the supposed benefits for the smaller stores, but as we've seen from Fictionwise and others, the consumer is the one who has ultimately suffered. I bargain shop for ebooks just like I bargain shop for other items. That's how I first found Fictionwise (originally for RocketBook, then multiformat), Baen (also originally for RocketBook, then multiformat), Kobo (for EPUB), and BoB (also for EPUB). When an ebook is priced the same at all retailers, I have LESS incentive to buy it from one of the smaller retailers, and in some cases, less incentive to buy it at all, especially if it's as much or MORE than a physical copy.

I agree it wasn't good for them, but what really hurt the independents with Agency was that they didn't have books to sell from Agency pubs for months and months after it started. Some never did get certain pubs books back and then you have Fictionwise who never got any. While Agency probably didn't really hurt Amazon or Kobo I think the one it probably helped at all was B&N.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

I agree it wasn't good for them, but what really hurt the independents with Agency was that they didn't have books to sell from Agency pubs for months and months after it started. Some never did get certain pubs books back and then you have Fictionwise who never got any. While Agency probably didn't really hurt Amazon or Kobo I think the one it probably helped at all was B&N.

Even that is debatable.
By their own claims they saw no growth in ebook share from 2010-11 and since then they've stopped bragging.
In a strongly seasonal business, they lost XMAS 2010 for lack of Pearl-screen readers, the 2011 STR tanked so badly they're still trying to clear inventory after 2 years, and
2012... well, we all know about xmas 2012.

The two years of the price fix were the time of peak ereader adoption rates--half to two-thirds of active ereaders were bought then--and because of Agency and the zero-margin hardware model that came with it the US market was foreclosed to everybody but the walled garden vendors.

All that the price fix achieved was to cement Amazon's market share. Apple's growing share is coming, directly or indirectly, from Nook, Kobo, and the indies. Plus casual readers, but casual readers are way less likely to even know of Kobo and the indies. The game isn't over for the Indie ebookstores but the further we get from the hobbyist/enthusiast era, the harder it gets for them to even get noticed.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

The game isn't over for the Indie ebookstores but the further we get from the hobbyist/enthusiast era, the harder it gets for them to even get noticed.

Agreed, not to mention the trust factor. Can I trust a small indie store that sells DRM to keep my books safe or are they going to disappear overnight? It's just safer to buy from Amazon or Kobo.

[hidari]

Even if you buy from Kobo or Amazon.....I have a Kobo mini and buy kindle books from time to time and plan to buy from Kobo in future.... I would (and do) strip all my ebooks for personal use to put on the machines I want to use (currently the pb360, Opus, Kobo mini, and Nexus 7). I just don't trust even the big ebook companies. Too many stories (no pun intended) about disappearing ebooks to stores closing down without notice just makes me not want to trust any company. As these stories tend to remind me of the dark side of capitalism....The underlying slogan for many a company is "Profit, not just people"...

Originally Posted by Blossom

Agreed, not to mention the trust factor. Can I trust a small indie store that sells DRM to keep my books safe or are they going to disappear overnight? It's just safer to buy from Amazon or Kobo.

[jersysman]

I don't depend on anyone being around for me to store my ebooks. I liberate all my ebooks and have control over where they are stored.

[Apache]

I have always unshackled my eBooks. My books shall never be slaves to another.
Apache

[tubemonkey]

I'm a slave to Amazon

[Ken Maltby]

I'm a slave to "Pandora One".

Luck;
Ken

[hwlester]

Originally Posted by Apache

I have always unshackled my eBooks. My books shall never be slaves to another.
Apache

Ditto. I lost a few .lit books (freebies) that were registered to a now defunct Live ID (an old hotmail account before they let you use other email addresses), but I used ConvertLIT to liberate most of them and have been liberating most of my ebooks since then.

[NETLOLA]

I am so sad about BOB. This was definitely my "go to" store for all my epubs. I too"liberate" every single ebook I purchase. It's the only way to ensure they will always be accessible to me, no matter what device/app I choose.

[Lush]

I can't even log in to my account today.
Wanted to check the status of a pre-ordered (& pre-paid) ebook.