Tag Archives: business

Bookstores, Media, News

Amazon.com: the big bully

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Amazon.com has announced that they will no longer allow Print On Demand books to be sold on their site… unless they are printed by Amazon’s own POD service BookSurge. It’s no secret that the big A has been struggling to gain a foothold in the booming POD world. But they haven’t been able to. Many of the other services out there just do it better (something about focusing on your core business…)  and they offer a better community.

So, for once, Amazon can’t walk in the room and sweep away business from its competitor fast enough. What’s the answer? Take away your competitor’s avenues of distribution! Just don’t allow other businesses to play in the same room as you. Way to go Amazon, ya big bully!

All I can hope for is that this sets the stage for some really smart enterprising person to step in and make a strong business out of opening the doors Amazon just shut and locked. Hmmmmmm….

{via Publisher’s Weekly}

Book Talk, News

A jab at Jobs

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The flash-in-the-pan that was Steve Jobs’ statement about reading and books was wide spread and still getting batted around on conversations.

Well, today the NY Times ran a piece that tries to balance out the numbers and logic (or illogic) in Jobs’ thinking. I agree with most of the piece, except when they get to the numbers part. For some reason, “the numbers argument” never holds water for me. I mean just because hundreds of millions of books get printed doesn’t mean they’re any good or that people are reading all of them. That just seems like a bad metric. We need to measure the other end of the process.

But I like the thinking here about “reading is not a product”.

{via  Reed Next}

News, On the Web

New online bookservice

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There’s a new book “lending” service in town… PaperSpine.com

It’s just like Netflix, except for books. That’s right. The monthly plans start at $9.95, you click which books you want to read, they mail them to you, you read and return, then they mail you the next one on your list.

It’s sounds a lot like a library, except this one you pay for. I guess there are some places in the country that have limited access to books, but I find it hard to believe that this new business will actually make any money. It just seems like a really bad idea. Some of this discussion has already crept up on PaperSpine’s blog.

Libraries, local bookstores, Amazon, chain bookstores, etc. they have a pretty good track record for getting books, cheaply into people’s hands. I just don’t see the “it worked for Netflix and movies, so it’ll work here” argument holding any water.

{via GalleyCat}