Comments on: B&N to provides online store for Plastic Logic, supports EPUB; offers 6% affiliate comm.—but faces major challenges

By: Eugene

Eugene — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 11:00:46 +0000

It looks like B&N has some kind of DRM on the ebooks.

If I buy a bunch of ebooks, and then B&N goes out of business, will I still be able to access my books, or will they be lost?

By: Paula B.

Paula B. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:18:44 +0000

Will authors be able to sell material at the B&N store the way we can at the Kindle store?

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 22:49:18 +0000

Many thanks for noting the nuances, Alan. To be on the safe side, I've changed the head to make clear that B&N is providing the BOOKSTORE, so people don't confuse an online bookstore with a brick-and-mortar store selling PL machines. Of course that may yet happen. It probably would be no big deal to add the eReader format of the kind that Fictionwise uses. Also please note that eReader itself will be using ePub as a core format, under the DRM. Meanwhile the news release about the B&N/PL deal is here. Thanks again! - David

By: Alan Wallcraft

Alan Wallcraft — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:23:03 +0000

Rita Chang assumes that B&N will be selling the Plastic Logic Reader. Neither company has said that this will be the case.

Plastic Logic does not include eReader in their list of supported formats. They announced (in February) licensing Adobe technology to provide PDF, EPUB and Adobe DRM/eBook support on the device.

B&N (FictionWise) will be creating and running Plastic Logic’s ebook store. B&N seem to be dropping support for Windows Mobile (available for eReader but not for B&N ebooks), and so its Reader software may not run on the WinCE-based Plastic Logic device.

By: kerry

kerry — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:33:01 +0000

@Rich: thank you for doing that legwork. My first question was whether their epub books would work on my Sony. Sad to see that probably isn’t the case.

As for B&N’s claims at being first, they were selling PDF-based ebooks at least 10 years ago, if not longer, back when they were the biggest online bookseller (before Amazon.com took off). It was a miserable failure. Peanut Press, I think, started in about 1999, so B&N may have beaten them at starting an ebook business by a very small margin.

By: otropogo

otropogo — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:43:03 +0000

Having “agreed” to the Ebook Reader license agreement without being able to properly read or copy it, I started the installer.

Out of curiosity, I tried clicking on the “Disk cost…” tab, and that locked up the installation. I then accepted the default installation path, and let it install.

Once Installed, I had a generic shortcut icon on my desktop, and when I click on it a windows opens, listing the two free e-books, and “nothing selected”, after which a Winodws pop-up informs me that BN ereader “…has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down”.

In my scoresheet this software rates a “D” for documentation. I’m guessing that the reader will only work when the PC or other device is connected to the B&N website. If so, then this should be called a WEBbook reader, not an “eBook reader”.

In any case, I’ve uninstalled the program. Hopefully, that action will also nullify my “agreement” to the licensing terms, whatever they were…

By: Rich Adin

Rich Adin — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:29:10 +0000

Based on what I have read, B&N will not provide books readable on my Sony, which indicates to me no ePub. I looked at the official announcement and didn’t see anything to indicate ePub support. I am a long-time B&N customer and am not pleased about B&N’s approach to ebooks. I have expressed my dissatisfaction in an email to B&N.

By: Felix Torres

Felix Torres — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:33:08 +0000

Cat Faber Says:

Lynch is claiming Barnes and Noble was first? Didn’t Peanut Press have them beat by a considerable margin?
________________________________________________
Peanut press is the ancestor of eReader.
Which was bought by Fictionwise.
Which was bought by B&N.

Sorta like “New” GM taking credit for the work of Ransom Olds, but hey; its not like anybody in the media bothers to check facts anymore.

By: ficbot

ficbot — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:08:11 +0000

Barnes and Noble has already released, as an iphone app, a crippled version of eReader. Only available in the USA. Colour me unimpressed. Sony seems to be the only major player right now who cares about the non-Americans. I am sticking with them.

By: Binko

Binko — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 05:24:16 +0000

I’m done buying ebooks altogether until:

1) DRM is either standardized or done away with entirely.
2) I retain standard rights of re-sale to ebooks I buy.
3) Publishers start making an effort to make ebooks nicely formatted and pleasant to look at. I’m sick of crappy formatted books that look like they were shoved through a scanner as quickly as possible and never proof read.

This probably means I won’t be buying anything for a few years.

By: Cat Faber

Cat Faber — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:01:55 +0000

“We were the first to enter the e-book market in 2001, but the demand wasn’t there,” said William J. Lynch Jr., president of Barnesandnoble.com, on a conference call.

Lynch is claiming Barnes and Noble was first? Didn’t Peanut Press have them beat by a considerable margin?

By: Greg M.

Greg M. — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:37:36 +0000

Until the day B&N actually can offer an ereader device, the iPhone screen too small to really count, this is a lot of smoke and mirrors, but maybe there will be enough fire behind the scene to start a real ebook retail war. In the end maybe it will be like PC or Mac people: will you be an Amazon or B&N?

By: Felix Torres

Felix Torres — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:20:43 +0000

http://gizmodo.com/5318896/barnes-and-noble-announces-worlds-largest-ebookstore-upcoming-ereader

Okay, now that’s more like it.
Seems Dignan needs to do some editing.

1- B&N will offer up to *hundreds* of Best-sellers at $9.99.(Wow!) Not everything. (Yeah, right!)

2- Half a million of the 700,000 are Google’s books so while they probably intend to charge for them, they probably *won’t* be silly enough to think they’ll get $10 for PD books. (They’d better not.)

Competition is good: maybe B&N will actually do something competitive between now and next year. But hundreds (wow!) of bestsellers at $9.99 won’t hack it. A licensed reader next year (wow!) won’t hack it. And another flavor of ePub DRM? (Actually, that one I favor; the chaos that might ensue should actually help kill DRM.)

Lots of sound and fury here but very little substance; sounds more like a statement of intent than anything that will impact the market any time soon.

But it does seem like the publishers have found a spear-carrier for their crusade for higher prices…

By: Aaron Pressman

Aaron Pressman — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:11:41 +0000

Just to clarify one glaring error in Dignan’s piece, B&N did NOT say all books would be $9.99. They said only a small few:

“Barnes & Noble’s eBookstore offering its customers seamless access to more than 700,000 titles, including hundreds of new releases and bestsellers at only $9.99, making it the world’s largest selection of eBooks available in one place.”

See press release at http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com/press_releases/2009_july_20_ebookstore.html

By: Aaron Pressman

Aaron Pressman — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:09:09 +0000

This is great news for consumers. Amazon is far from perfect as their recent missteps indicate. As a huge Kindle fan, I’m psyched that this may create some genuine competitive pressure on Amazon to keep ebook prices low, add more features and cut back on crazy DRM nonsense. Maybe this hastens the day when publishers stop insisting on DRM, as happened in the music market? I also hope this will prompt publishers to think smarter about their pricing strategies and recent complaints about the $9.99 price point.

Still, there is a lot of vapor and hype in the B&N announcement. We have no date of availability, no pricing and no set feature list for the Plastic Logic Reader. By the time it finally arrives, Kindle may be several more steps ahead. And pricing in the B&N online store may be a concern — only “hundreds” of ebooks will be priced at $9.99. Will it be so limited as to advance the cause of higher ebook prices? I sure hope not.

I’ve blogged some more thoughts at http://gravitationalpull.net/wp/?p=1033