Comments on: In praise of indie bookstores: Just bring your Kindle to the nearest indie today for… http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/in-praise-of-indie-bookstores-just-bring-your-kindle-to-the-nearest-indie-today-for/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:02:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: pond http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/in-praise-of-indie-bookstores-just-bring-your-kindle-to-the-nearest-indie-today-for/comment-page-1/#comment-1075797 pond Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:32:01 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/06/08/in-praise-of-indie-bookstores-just-bring-your-kindle-to-the-nearest-indie-today-for/#comment-1075797 How is the expresso machine working out for them, do they get much demand? Has it jammed yet? Another play for indie bookstores is the symt.io card. This is I think a HarperCollins initiative, and has so far been going through Christian bookstores. The idea is that you buy the card for the ebook at the brick-n-mortar; when they take your money they activate the card. Scratch off the instant-lottery back, and you find your activation number for your book; log onto the site and get your ebook, in a number of formats. Or an audiobook. All without any DRM. So you could partner up with the bookstore to stock displays and ads for the books, with the symt.io cards alongside for those who like the ebook variant. Buy the card, then use your smartphone (or maybe the Kindle?) to buy it online, download it, and start reading before you're halfway across the parking lot. In the end, though, I don't see much hope for indie bookstores in a society that does not read for entertainment. And that seems the biggest bete noir we face. How is the expresso machine working out for them, do they get much demand? Has it jammed yet?

Another play for indie bookstores is the symt.io card. This is I think a HarperCollins initiative, and has so far been going through Christian bookstores. The idea is that you buy the card for the ebook at the brick-n-mortar; when they take your money they activate the card. Scratch off the instant-lottery back, and you find your activation number for your book; log onto the site and get your ebook, in a number of formats. Or an audiobook. All without any DRM.

So you could partner up with the bookstore to stock displays and ads for the books, with the symt.io cards alongside for those who like the ebook variant. Buy the card, then use your smartphone (or maybe the Kindle?) to buy it online, download it, and start reading before you’re halfway across the parking lot.

In the end, though, I don’t see much hope for indie bookstores in a society that does not read for entertainment. And that seems the biggest bete noir we face.

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