http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/technology/internet/21book.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
Barnes & Noble Plans an Extensive E-Bookstore
By MOTOKO
RICH<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/motoko_rich/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
Published: July 20, 2009
The New York Times
Four months after acquiring an e-book retailer, Barnes &
Noble<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/barnes-and-noble-inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org>,
the world's largest chain of bookstores, is starting its own mega
e-bookstore on its Web site, BN.com<http://BN.com>.
In an announcement on Monday, Barnes & Noble said that it would offer more
than 700,000 books that could be read on a wide range of devices,
including
Apple<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/apple_computer_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org>'s
iPhone<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/i/iphone/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>,
the BlackBerry and various laptop or desktop computers. When Barnes &
Noble
acquired Fictionwise in March, that online retailer had about 60,000 books
in its catalog.
More than 500,000 of the books now offered electronically on BN.com can be
downloaded free, through an agreement with
Google<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/google_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org>
to provide electronic versions of public domain books that Google has
scanned from university libraries.
Sony<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/sony_corporation/index.html?inline=nyt-org>
announced a similar deal in March to offer the public domain books on its
Reader device.
Barnes & Noble is promoting its e-bookstore as the world's largest, an
implicit stab at
Amazon.com<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/amazon_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org>,
which offers about 330,000 for its
Kindle<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/k/kindle/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>
device. Currently, Google's public domain books cannot be read on a
Kindle.
The number of e-books available on BN.com compares with 1.2 million in
stock
that can be bought in print form from the company's Web site.
A further one million books can be ordered from BN.com in the
print-on-demand format.
William J. Lynch, president of Barnes & Noble.com, said the company would
continue to sell e-book versions of best sellers and new releases -
defined
as a new e-book for the first six months of its availability - for $9.99.
That charge has become the de facto e-book price since Amazon.com set it
for
Kindle sales.
E-book pricing has become one of the most delicate topics in book circles.
Publishers are concerned that by selling new books at such low prices,
e-book retailers will undercut sales of hardcover editions, which average
about $26, and eventually erode publisher margins.
"The pricing policies won't remain static," Mr. Lynch said in an
interview.
"We're working with our publishers on various pricing models. As the
pricing
model evolves over time, we will adjust."
David Young, chief executive of the Hachette Book Group, the publisher of
blockbuster authors like James Patterson and Stephenie Meyer, was cautious
about Barnes & Noble's latest step.
"I'm thrilled that another major player is entering the fast-emerging
e-book
market," Mr. Young said. "But I remain deeply concerned that our most
valuable front-list titles are being sold at mass-market paperback
prices,"
he said, referring to the small format paperbacks that usually come out a
year after a hardcover is released.
Barnes & Noble also announced an upgraded version of its eReader software
that users could download free from its Web site, making it possible to
read
any e-book bought on BN.com on various devices. Electronic books bought at
BN.com cannot be read on Sony's Reader or on the Kindle.
The retailer also said that when Plastic Logic released its electronic
reading device in early 2010, Barnes & Noble would operate a bookstore for
e-books that would work on the new device. Mr. Lynch declined to say
whether
Barnes & Noble would sell the actual device.
Sales of e-books remain small , but are growing fast. According to a
survey
by the Codex Group, a book marketing research company, 4.9 percent of
books
sold in May were in digital form, up from 3.7 percent in March.
Sarah Rotman Epps, a media analyst with Forrester
Research<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/forrester-research-inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org>
in Cambridge, Mass., said BN.com was unlikely to dent Amazon.com's Kindle
sales.
"I don't think they will be stealing market share from
Amazon<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/amazon_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org>,"
Ms. Rotman Epps said. "If anything I think they are contributing to the
growth of the whole category of digital reading."
She added that as more consumers begin reading digital books on phones and
other mobile devices, it made sense to market to those readers as opposed
to
those who are buying dedicated reading devices like the Kindle or the Sony
Reader.
------------------
from the guy that knows nothing about everything,and everything about
nothing
K4NKZ Jim Ardin email: k4nkz@xxxxxxxxxxx
Check out the TABI resource web page at
http://acorange.home.comcast.net/TABI
to unsubscribe send a message, containing a subject line of the word
unsubscribe, to tabi-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
if you'd like to unsubscribe you can do so through the freelists.org web
interface, or by sending an email to the address
tabi-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject.
