TeleRead posted earlier about an idea that was floated by Victoria Barnsley, a HarperCollins CEO, during a recent NPR interview: the idea of charging people for the privilege of browsing in bookstores. The idea was that they'd pay to browse, and then go home and order online from the vendor of their choosing. The analogy Barnsley gave with this was that of a high-end clothing store—say, for wedding dresses—charging a nominal trying fee that is taken out of the cost of your purchase. But I think that analogy is a faulty one, and I think the true analogy demonstrates why 'pay...

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Did you buy any e-books this Cyber Monday? All the major bookstores had big sales going on, with Amazon offering 1,000 books at huge discounts. I was tempted. But ultimately, I did not buy. Why not? Because I'm tired of how much work reading e-books has become for me. I bought from Fictionwise for years in the pre-agency days and never had a single book with a typo. But this year, I don't think I have read a single book from a Big Six publisher that hasn't had at least a dozen. I do go through and mark them for correction because...

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