When Amazon offered in December to reward customers who scanned book bar codes in bookstores and then bought the book on Amazon instead, we wrote “Amazon’s strategy could backfire.”

“When Amazon’s sales reps call for an appointment to pitch their list,” we pointed out, “they may find the owners’ phones turned off.” (See Please Shut Off Your Cellphones. This is a Bookshop)”

They did. Barnes & Noble will not carry books published by Amazon’s publishing imprints.

“In a sharp answer to Amazon and its expanding publishing efforts,” writes the New York Times‘ Julie Bosman, “Barnes & Noble said on Tuesday that it would not sell books released by Amazon Publishing in its bookstores. The ban includes books released by New Harvest, a new imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt that recently struck a deal to publish and distribute books released by Amazon Publishing’s unit based in New York.

“’Barnes & Noble has made a decision not to stock Amazon published titles in our store showrooms,’ Jaime Carey, the company’s chief merchandising officer, said in a statement. ‘Our decision is based on Amazon’s continued push for exclusivity with publishers, agents and the authors they represent. These exclusives have prohibited us from offering certain e-books to our customers. Their actions have undermined the industry as a whole and have prevented millions of customers from having access to content. It’s clear to us that Amazon has proven they would not be a good publishing partner to Barnes & Noble as they continue to pull content off the market for their own self interest.’”

B&N’s decision may impact negatively on the authors and their agents contemplating selling their authors to Amazon Publishing.

Though some publishing executives may take a measure of satisfaction that B&N, now the victim of Amazon’s aggressive marketing strategies, is paying dearly for its own predatory practices when it was the ruthlessly dominant bookseller of the twentieth century, consumers will rally around it and its more helpless independent bookstore cousins. Publishing industry old-timers like to say “What goes around comes around” and for Amazon it has come around.  We hope however that Amazon Publishing will itself come around – to an open policy of mutual cooperation in the fragile ecology called publishing.

Details in Barnes & Noble Won’t Sell Books From Amazon Publishing

Richard Curtis

We’ve spilled a lot of E Ink projecting that 2012 will be the year that Amazon starts giving away the Kindle as they realize that there’s more money to be made from the content than from the gadget it’s read on. (See Kindle Wants to Be Free) We took our eye off Kindle’s rival, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, but it looks like the younger warrior has stolen a march on Goliath. The Nook is being given away, at least in one instance. But if there’s one instance, more are probably more on the way.

“When customers subscribe to The New York Times ($19.99 per month), they get a Nook Simple Touch for free,’ writes Dara Kerr on CNET.

Can B&N, Amazon, or any other e-reader manufacturer afford to give away its hardware?  Sure.  Because as time goes by, the value of the gadget declines and the value of the content bundled on it rises.  And in the case of the free Nook Simple Touch, it’s a way of giving away an e-reader that may be a bit of a drug on the market anyway.  Sales of black and white dedicated reading devices like the Simple Touch or the original Kindle are sagging as consumers opt for the color and hyperactivity of tablets.  This was confirmed early in January when E Ink holdings reported an 84% drop in sales. E Ink is the print technology that powers black and white reading devices.

Read Barnes & Noble offers free Nook with NYT or People subscription

Stephen Roxburgh, founder of a small press called namelos llc., has written a guest editorial in Publishers Weekly defending Amazon.com against accusations of predatory behavior and thanking it for its support, without which namelos might not have survived.

Besides the obvious boost in e-book sales, Amazon’s POD program made a huge difference for this embryonic press. “Our new company publishes titles simultaneously in hardcover and paperback using print-on-demand technology, and e-books. Because our books are nonreturnable, most booksellers will not carry them. Amazon does.”

Though Amazon may not strike many as being in need of friends, Roxburgh feels the behemoth has been excessively vilified. “Not since Hester Prynne walked out of prison with an infant in her arms and ‘a rag of scarlet cloth’ in the shape of the letter A has there been such public hue and cry as Amazon has provoked in the past few weeks,” he declares. “From the point of view of this lunatic fringe publisher, Amazon, with all its glitches and stumbles, is crucial to our success. And I, for one, applaud the innovation and transformation Amazon has brought to the publishing world.”

Okay, that’s one. Anybody want to make it two?

We will. Without Amazon’s retail clout and marketing genius, E-Reads would still be in the dark ages of the 20th century (when it was founded).  We are also happy to shout out our other indispensable partners: BN.com, Ingram, LightningSource, Apple, Sony, Google, Kobo, Diesel, Content Reserve, Baker & Taylor and Fictionwise. In 2011 E-Reads sales exceed $1 million and we could not have done it without them.

For Roxburgh’s full editorial in PW, click here.

Richard Curtis

Coming soon to a bookshop near you: a sign that says “Cell Phones Prohibited.”

“Bookstore owners everywhere have a lurking suspicion,” writes Julie Bosman in the New York Times. “that customers who type into their smartphones while browsing in the store, and then leave, are planning to buy the books online later — probably at a steep discount from the bookstores’ archrival, Amazon.com.

“Now a survey has confirmed that the practice, known among booksellers as showrooming, is not a figment of their imaginations,” she adds, citing a survey confirming that a quarter of those who’d bought a book from an online store had scouted it while browsing in a physical shop.

As if that isn’t upsetting enough to the shops’ proprietors, Tricia Duryee, writing in AllthingsD.com, tells us that brazen showrooming is actually being incentivized: “Amazon is offering consumers up to $5 off on purchases if they compare prices using the online giant’s mobile phone application in a store.” The offer is for all kinds of products but it feels aimed particularly at bookstore owners. “While Amazon’s applications and its $5 incentive can be viewed as friendly to consumers, physical retailers will see it only one way — as an attack,” says Duryee.

Amazon’s strategy could backfire, however.  The company’s recently created publishing imprints will need the good will of bookstore owners. But when Amazon’s sales reps call for an appointment to pitch their list, they may find the owners’ phones turned off.

See Book Shopping in Stores, Then Buying Online.

Richard Curtis

As all frequenters of online bookstores know, read-inside-the-book features entitle e-tailers to publish a certain percentage of your book at no charge to encourage readers to sample the goods.

Content providers are given a choice ranging from a minimum of 20% to a maximum of 100%.  It’s a good policy, as it helps readers to browse.  In one case, however, readers were inadvertently given a window to get an author’s book free.

You probably don’t pore over the terms of your agreement with Kindle Direct Publishing, but if you did you would learn that one of KDP’s policies is that they have the right to lower the price of your e-book to match that of its competitors. This is an age-old marketing retail practice and far from extraordinary. However, the activation of this policy in the case of author James Crawford caused him serious inconvenience and potential losses in the thousands of dollars.

The problem occurred when KDP, believing that rival Barnes & Noble had dropped the price of Crawford’s book to free, changed its own price to zero as well. In point of fact, writes the author, B&N had not gone to zero.  It had merely offered the first three chapters at no charge as a come-on to customers.

Before he could straighten it out with Amazon he had lost revenues on more than 5100 copies given away at 100% discount.  We say “straighten out” but now that his book Blood Soaked and Contagious has been restored at his requested list price, Amazon has informed him it will not not refund revenues lost.  “We’re sorry, we’re unable to pay royalties for your sales when your title was listed at $0 on our website,” he was told in writing.  In writing because, as KDP users have discovered, “KDP does not have telephone contact with the outside world,” laments Crawford.

The complete cautionary tale may be read here. Two things you need to see for the following saga to make sense

Richard Curtis

Amazon and Barnes & Noble collided recently in a fearful clash. A lot of damage was inflicted but predictably the biggest victim was the customer.

The first shot was fired when Amazon acquired e-book rights to a trove of superhero graphic novels from DC Comics. Some one hundred volumes featuring Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Watchmen and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman were secured to promote Amazon’s newly released tablet, the Kindle Fire.

All well and good – except that Amazon’s e-book rights were exclusive. Meaning that rival Barnes & Noble would be deprived of the right to carry the titles on its Nook e-reader.  B&N could still sell the print editions, however. But that’s a big however. B&N told DC that if they couldn’t have e-book rights they didn’t want anything. Whereupon they pulled the print editions of those DC graphic novels from 1300 stores.

The result was a lose-lose-lose-lose-win situation.  DC lost sales – as well as face for “placing greed over its fans.” in the words of New York Times‘s David Streitfeld. Barnes & Noble lost bookstore and Nook sales too, plus the nose it lost to spite its face.  Customers and fans lost access to the books in Nook (and Sony and Kobo and Apple iPad). And at least one author is unhappy – Neil Gaiman, who was blindsided by Amazon’s ploy. ““I was very excited when I heard that Sandman was coming out as an e-book, but was heartbroken when it was announced that I and my kids won’t have it on our readers.”

It will come as no surprise that the lone winner was Amazon, which nailed the exclusive and got a boost from B&N’s abandonment of the print edition.

This is just the first of many such battles. Says Streitfeld: “As Amazon seeks over the next few years to expand its tablet line, these collisions over content are likely to become routine.”

Details in In a Battle of the E-Readers, Booksellers Spurn Superheroes

Richard Curtis

Graph by Silicon Alley Insider

Years ago it became clear to us that we were heading for a Gillette Event.  That day may be only months away.

The Gillette Event is the day that the price of e-readers drops to $0.00.  The above chart shows that since 2007 the price of a Kindle has slid sharply from $399 to its current $79 (at least for one model). The slope is so steep it’s hard to avoid any other conclusion than that Free is inevitable.

The Gillette Event is named after King Gillette, the inventor of the safety razor and marketing genius who conceived the scheme of giving away the razor and selling the blades.  The analogy to e-readers is clear: give away the device and sell the content.

I’ve never believed that information wants to be free but it looks like the devices that provide it are just begging for gratis status.

Does it make sense for Amazon to go on charging anything at all for the Kindle?  There are compelling arguments in favor of taking the ball across the Zero goal line.

The first is that Amazon has never been afraid to sell the Kindle at a loss in order to undercut the competition. Some observers say that low-end models of the device are breaking even.  So, going into deficit to gain a competitive advantage would not plunge the company into trouble by any means. A million Kindles at $79 per is $79 million – hardly a ding in Amazon’s revenue armor. A free Kindle would give Amazon a decisive lead in the e-reader arms race from which rivals might never recover.

The second argument for free Kindles is that the amount of paid content carried on the e-reader has soared to the point where critical mass sustained by media sales is within reach. As an inducement to consumers the device would come pre-loaded with a starter set of rich content. No charge for your first set of razor blades.

These speculations were prompted by an interesting article by Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry in Business Insider Research, How Amazon Makes Money From The Kindle.

The author discusses the larger Kindle environment he calls the Kindle Ecosystem. At the headwaters of that ecosystem is the device itself.  A free Kindle could create a flood of business that would dominate the marketplace for the foreseeable future.

By the way, the Gillette strategy isn’t limited to Amazon.  Are you listening, Barnes & Noble?

Richard Curtis

Alfred Knopf coined the classic bon mot about returns in the book business: “Gone today, here tomorrow.” Having expended some of the best years of my career railing – in vain – against the ruinous practice of returnability in the book industry (See A World Without Inventory, Part 1 and Part 2), I greeted the advent of e-books with the ecstasy of a pilgrim beholding the shrine he has sought all his life.

But after extolling the zero returnability of e-books I am slightly abashed to report that -  at one venue at least -  e-books are indeed returnable for full refund, no questions asked.

How abashed am I? 1.15330021291%  That happens to be the rate of returns viewed on the retailer record of one publisher’s  sales database over a one month period.  The retailer was Amazon Kindle.

A 1+% return rate is infinitesimal compared to that of the conventional trade book industry, where returns of 50% are not uncommon and even 75% is not unheard of. So we are definitely not complaining.  But we’re curious to know how e-book returnability works and who besides Amazon offers it.

To answer the second question first, it is not easy to ascertain the returns policy of Amazon’s rivals, but from what I have been able to ascertain, Barnes & Noble, Random House, Wiley and Simon & Schuster explicitly prohibit return of e-books. The policies of Kobo, Sony and Apple are not clear.

Amazon’s policy is stated clearly on its website:

Content you purchase from the Kindle Store is eligible for return and refund if we receive your request within 7 days of the date of purchase. Once a refund is issued, you will no longer have access to the item. To request a refund and return, click the Customer Service button in the Contact Us box in the right-hand column of this page to reach us via phone or e-mail. Please make sure to include the title of the item you wish to return in your request.

No strings seem to be attached to Amazon’s policy,  But I wondered why anyone would return an e-book.  Fantasy author Lindsay Buroker speculates that customers simply order the wrong book. “It’s very easy to buy ebooks (one-click) straight from your device,” she writes. “The Kindle also promptly asks you if it was a mistake and you want to return the ebook. My guess, based on the fact that my returns usually pop up simultaneously with corresponding new sales, is this is what happens most of the time.”

Other reasons include excessive typos, formatting issues, and the old standby: someone just didn’t like the book. The latter may not be as prevalent as you would imagine because of look-inside-the-book sampling that helps consumers judge a book before clicking the Buy button.

And of course, some people may download the book, read it before the seven day deadline expires, and return it.  The low returns rate suggests either that only a tiny percentage of Amazon customers are moochers, or more of them would be if they could only read faster.

However negligible Kindle returns may be, accepting them is good policy and another example of Amazon’s customer-friendly approach to retailing.

Richard Curtis

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced the launch of 47North, the seventh imprint from Amazon Publishing, focused on science fiction, fantasy and horror. 47North launches with 15 books, including “The Mongoliad: Book One,” the first in the ambitious, five-book, collaborative Foreworld series led by Neal Stephenson and Greg Bear. All of these books will be available to English readers in Kindle, print and audio formats at www.amazon.com, as well as at national and independent booksellers. 47North will publish original and previously published works, as well as out-of-print books.

“Amazon customers have a huge appetite for science fiction, fantasy and horror books, and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to introduce readers to new and established voices in these genres,” said Victoria Griffith, Publisher, Amazon Publishing, West Coast Group. “We are especially happy to have a diverse list at launch, and look forward to publishing across a wide range of subgenres.”

47North will launch with the following books & series:

* Together, Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin are the authors of “Successful Television Writing” and have written and/or produced scores of highly successful network television series, including Diagnosis Murder, Spenser: For Hire, Baywatch and many more. Their digital-first novel, “Face of Evil,” which will publish in October 2011, is the first novel in The Dead Man series. Protagonist Matthew Cahill gains new sight into the netherworld after a terrible accident, making each day a living nightmare. Four more installments will also publish in October, with a new adventure following each month thereafter. Additionally, a print compilation of the first three novels will publish in January 2012.
* Prolific science fiction and fantasy writer Dave Duncan’s “Against the Light” tells the story of a young, magical missionary’s arrest for heresy and treason in the land of Albi. Duncan is best known for fantasy series The Seventh Sword, A Man of His Word and The King’s Blades. “Against the Light” will be published in January 2012.
* Arwen Elys Dayton’s action-packed science fiction novel, “Resurrection,” centers on warring alien races and the two star-crossed pilots who hold the key to salvation. The fan-favorite novel has been out of print for years and will be brought back into print by 47North in January 2012.
* Aric Davis’ previous novel, “Nickel Plated,” was named by Booklist as one of the Top Ten Crime Novels for Youth in 2011. Now, Davis turns his attention to the macabre in the all-new “A Good and Useful Hurt,” in which tattoo artist Mike’s life is torn apart when a supernatural, psychopathic killer targets him and those he loves. “A Good and Useful Hurt,” Davis’ first adult novel, will be published in February 2012.
* A new edition of the first book in Evan Currie’s popular military space opera Odyssey series will be published in March 2012, now entitled “Into the Black: Odyssey One.” 47North will also publish its sequel later in the year.
* Best-selling UK author Stephen Leather’s new Nightingale series will be published by 47North starting in March 2012. “Nightfall,” “Midnight” and “Nightmare” are fast-paced supernatural thrillers that follow former cop and struggling private investigator Jack Nightingale who is forced to confront the possibility that demons exist after inheriting a supernatural mansion.
* Hugo and Nebula Award-winning authors Neal Stephenson and Greg Bear have teamed up with an ensemble of respected authors and newcomers to create the Foreworld series. The series will begin with The Mongoliad trilogy, an epic tale about the birth of Western martial arts. The Foreworld series will begin with the publication of “The Mongoliad: Book One” in April 2012.
* New York Times best-selling author Chris Roberson lends his ear for humor and the otherworldly in “Further: Beyond the Threshold,” to be published in May 2012. Roberson is best known for his DC Comics/Vertigo work in the Cinderella series and iZombie. “Further” is a novel about a space explorer who is kept in stasis for too long and awakens to a universe that is terrifying and unfamiliar.
* B.V. Larson has published over 20 novels in genres ranging from military science fiction, to epic fantasy, to paranormal romance. 47North will publish the next two novels in his urban fantasy series, Unspeakable Things, in June 2012. In the first book, “Technomancer,” Larson’s detective Quentin Draith is tasked with solving impossible crimes, and each clue leads him further into a world that exists between the raindrops of the known world.

47North, whose name is based on the latitude coordinates of Seattle, joins sister imprints AmazonEncore, AmazonCrossing, Powered by Amazon, Montlake Romance, Thomas & Mercer and the New York imprint in the Amazon Publishing family.

For more information on 47North and upcoming titles, visit www.amazon.com/47North. For more information about all imprints of Amazon Publishing, visit www.amazon.com/amazonpublishing. 47North is a brand used by Amazon Content Services, LLC.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. The new latest generation Kindle is the lightest, most compact Kindle ever and features the same 6-inch, most advanced electronic ink display that reads like real paper even in bright sunlight. Kindle Touch is a new addition to the Kindle family with an easy-to-use touch screen that makes it easier than ever to turn pages, search, shop, and take notes – still with all the benefits of the most advanced electronic ink display. Kindle Touch 3G is the top of the line e-reader and offers the same new design and features of Kindle Touch, with the unparalleled added convenience of free 3G. Kindle Fire is the Kindle for movies, TV shows, music, books, magazines, apps, games and web browsing with all the content, free storage in the Amazon Cloud, Whispersync, Amazon Silk (Amazon’s new revolutionary cloud-accelerated web browser), vibrant color touch screen, and powerful dual-core processor.

Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.cn, www.amazon.it, and www.amazon.es. As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.

Forward-Looking Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management’s expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com’s financial results is included in Amazon.com’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.

See full article from DailyFinance: http://www.dailyfinance.com/rtn/pr/amazon-publishing-launches-science-fiction-fantasy-and-horror-imprint-47north/rfid492813492/?channel=pscope&icid=sphere_copyright

Last May, in connection with the launch of its romance line, Amazon exec Jeff Belle said “We also know our customers enjoy genre fiction of all kinds, so we are busy building publishing businesses that will focus on additional genres as well.” We all knew that meant a science fiction line was coming. We just didn’t know when or what it would be named.

Today we know.

Amazon’s science fiction, fantasy, and horror imprint is now up and running. It’s called 47North.

Among the featured titles in the launch of the line are Against the Light, an original fantasy novel by Dave Duncan, and the first work in The Mongoliad by Neal Stephenson and Greg Bear. Duncan and Bear are represented by Richard Curtis Associates.

If you were wondering about the meaning of the name, go to your googlemap and see what Pacific Northwest city is located at 47 degrees of latitude. Hint: Amazon is headquartered there. Here’s another: it’s the home of the Space Needle.

Here’s the full article.

Richard Curtis