Comments on: Is B&N bullying writers to link to its online store?

By: Steve Jordan

Steve Jordan — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 01:39:09 +0000

They have a U.S. lockdown, too? Oh, I give up… can’t anyone get it done right?

And I was just now actually impressed with the e-book buying process at B&N… at least it didn’t force me to download and use a new reader (though the book was DRM’d to my CC, of course).

By: Blue Tyson

Blue Tyson — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 01:22:38 +0000

Steve,

B&N only sell to the USA – so it wouldn’t matter if they sold plain text files, still not going to increase their reach.

By: Steve Jordan

Steve Jordan — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:59:52 +0000

@David, if both offer your book, go ahead and list them both. The more outlets, the merrier. Of course, if one is out-performing the other, you can always use that as leverage to get some concessions from the loser…

@Brad, I’m sure it will turn into exactly that… open rivalry between the two “e-book giants” (sort of bypassing Sony, but that’s another matter). But that might be a good thing, especially as B&N will have ePub-capable readers, plus eReader (and therefore more non-dedicated devices), making their books available for more people worldwide. That could push Amazon into widening its scope into other readers and formats. We might even see some healthy price competition.

By: Robert J. Sawyer

Robert J. Sawyer — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 23:44:33 +0000

I’ve always thought it prudent to link to all major online retailers AND remind readers that they can buy books locally; see the bottom of this page for an example of how I do it: http://sfwriter.com/exff.htm

By: Mike Perry

Mike Perry — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 20:13:05 +0000

Do what you want and ignore any pressures. I list both on my website and plan to add The Book Depository soon. B&N’s problem is that linking doesn’t pay. My Amazon links pay about twice a year. I’ve never gotten a penny from my B&N links.

By: Brad Vertrees

Brad Vertrees — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 19:47:37 +0000

I wrote about this today as well. Sadly, something like this doesn’t surprise me. I just hope it doesn’t turn into a rivalry between Amazon and B&N about who has the most control over authors. They are both big enough that they wield a lot of power in the publishing industry.

By: Don Linn

Don Linn — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 19:25:12 +0000

I’m all for giving B&N hell if this is true, but so far, to my knowledge, nobody’s produced any documentation to back this accusation and B&N has aggressively denied it.