Friday News: Amazon trying to court indie booksellers; Why Google Reader really got the ax; and reader retreats
Publishing NewsAmazon / indie booksellers / Nook15 Comments
Amazon’s Wild Pitch to Indies: ‘Wanna Sell Kindles?’ – Apparently Amazon has contacted some independent booksellers and offered to partner with them on a program to sell Kindle devices in the store and be Amazon affiliates. Independent booksellers have scoffed at this and view Amazon as the devil trying to put them out of business. At BEA, one independent bookseller cautioned bloggers to leave their Kindles at home before stepping into her store because that was a market she was shut out of. It may be that partnering with Amazon would not make good financial sense for independents but it also might be worth exploring. Wouldn’t you rather get 8% of a business you had previously been shut of than nothing? Shelf Awareness
Why Google Reader Really Got the Axe – Based on an interview with Google, Wired explains why Google reader was canceled. Essentially Google wants to provide news related to your location and your searching and browsing preferences.
Google Now‘s approach is to leverage artificial intelligence techniques to learn your tastes and habits so it can deliver headline news you’ll want to read, when you want to read it. Since it’s on mobile, it can take advantage of device sensors to consider data like your location, the time of day, and whether you’re stationary or on the road. Over time, it will learn, for example, that you like to get the top headlines during your 8 AM commute, and that you prefer stories about politics and food. If this worked perfectly, it’d be an extraordinarily efficient way to get the news. But to start, it still has to learn your preferences, and — far worse — it’s not available on many Android devices yet (oh Android fragmentation, you rear your ugly head again). Gadget Lab | Wired.com
Nook Media Finally Responds to Kindle Singles – Launches Nook Snaps – According to Nate at The Digital Reader, Barnes & Noble is revamping it curated shorts much like Kindle Singles.The program is called Nook Snaps to be published every other month, five titles at a time and price at $2. It’s unknown at this time whether you can submit or B&N will just be selecting shorts to be included in the program. Most of the works published under this banner are by big name, established authors. The Digital Reader
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This weekend, readers and authors are gathering in Ohio at the Lori Foster Reader retreat. I’ve heard these are lovely times to meet up with other readers. In fact, I’ve heard that readers tend to spend so much time together the authors feel a little left out.
Who the heck told Google that the reader was primarily about reading news, much less “headline” news? :( I’m sure a lot of folks use it for news sites, but I use it to read blogs and web comics. I don’t read any news-primary sites at all on a regular basis; people whose blogs I read mention news items, and if I find something interesting, I click on a link, or Google it.
So Google is taking away something I’ve used for years, and in its place is offering me something that I have no interest in whatsoever. Wow, brilliant. [mutter]
Angie
I agree with Angie’s sentiments. I’ve tried other readers and I’m not too keen on them. It really shows a disconnect from their users. How many of us look at G+? Oh, well. I guess I’ll have a lot more free time starting July 1.
There are so many apps that want to get to know my habits. Usually, the motivation is not to offer me a perfect user experience, but to sell me lots of junk I don’t want. My willingness to invest in training them is low.
I would invest in training Google to recognize the names in my contacts list. On what universe do they think their limited database covers everyone, or even most people. If Condoleeza, Zbig, or Barack are on your frequent dial list, forget ever using voice dial.
I’ve been to Lori Foster’s RAGT twice. Both times I found it to be an amazing time to connect with other readers, but also to have LONG conversations with authors. I had the chance to go the year Nalini Singh was there, and her tireless patience answering any and every question I could think of was amazing. It’s also a wonderful chance to get to know new-to-you authors on a much more in depth basis than Twitter or FB provides. It’s a weekend that is well worth the money and time.
@AH@badassbookreviews: Not being snarky here, but I look at g+ almost daily. And several times a day when I do.
My spouse uses it more than I do, and about half my collection of “in touch” friends post to it regularly.
Just saying, there are some people it suits fine. You don’t have to like it, but its not the “failure” that’s often portrayed in offhand remarks. :D
I honestly do not understand why print book retailers aren’t selling digital content to existing or–brace yourself–new customers. B&N does in their stores, but of course you’re limited to their format. I would love to see an indie willing to sell me books I’ve found in their store in my preferred format. And if they’re offering coupons (yeah, in my dreams), so much the better. As a former indie employee, I would be all over such an opportunity.
@DB – I’ve tried G+ and it just didn’t fit my needs. Most of my friends have tried it and are not using it so investing the time in it just doesn’t work for me. I’m glad that you are using it and liking it – different strokes for different folks.
@DB Cooper – a lot of organizations use Google Hangouts, which is one of the best parts of Google Plus. I did it with the Al Jazeera interview/discussion. I know Felicia Day uses it for her book chat. I think it will become even more popular in use as it becomes more mainstream.
@Darlynne: I don’t know exactly, Darlynne, but I think the costs for indie booksellers of setting up online are prohibitive for some.
In the UK, a fabulous service called Hive operates as a hub for indie booksellers. You order through their website and either have the (print) book delivered to you or (without paying postage) to your local indie shop. Or you can buy ebooks directly from them. There isn’t a bookshop near me that is part of Hive, so I haven’t seen how it works in stores, but it would be easy to have a terminal set up for shoppers to use to purchase ebooks in store.
@Jane:
It’s ironic. Hangouts is one of the features I use least…though I think its one of the Best.
Also, not disagreeing with AH completely, as Google has made several moves that I thought “weren’t listening” …or at the very least I personally disagreed with. In that light, I’m happy to see that Hangouts is being broken off and developed more robustly. I hope to see that effort payoff handsomely.
@Angie: Exactly! I don’t want news related to my location or searching and browsing preferences. I want to track feeds I’ve particularly selected. This was part of the problem I had when selecting a Reader substitute – everything was about following news and popular sites. Sheesh.
@Darlynne: Kobo is offering indie bookstores something similar. If the bookseller will sell Kobo devices in their store, people who buy a device there can register it to the store, and they (the store) will get a percentage of every e-book the user buys through that device. Loyal customers who buy their Kobo device online or through an electronics store or wherever can also bring their device in to their favorite indie bookstore and register it to the store (if the store participates in selling the devices), so they get that percentage; it doesn’t cost the customer anything.
We think of Kobo as a third-tier device, but they’re actually the biggest e-book retailer outside the US. When Borders collapsed, Rakuten bought Kobo and they retreated to… well, the entire rest of the world. :) They’ve gotten big out there and they’re in the process of coming back into the US. It’ll be interesting to see how much traction they can get here. But despite howls that bookstores are being destroyed, indie bookstores have actually been growing in numbers over the last few years, and that’s where Kobo’s looking to get a foothold, by partnering with those brick-and-mortar stores. It’d be cool if the partnership could work out for both of them, although of course it depends on some significant fraction of Americans who use e-readers choosing to use the Kobo device.
I agree that it’d be great if the store near me (which is a B&N, but whatever) would sell me an e-book in my preferred format — and to you in yours, and to everyone else in theirs. Until the format wars settle out, though, I have a feeling everyone is going to continue being stubborn. :/
Angie
I agree with Angie, as well. I used Reader for discovery, for things that *wouldn’t* show up in location- or interest-related news. If I want that, I have Google News, which I do use for that purpose.
I hate online services and shops trying to guess or tell me what I’m supposed to be interested in. For example I’ve basically stopped using Kobo because they don’t allow me to browse the English version of their shop just because I happen to have an IP from another country. Hello?! I can decide on my own if I want to view a site or a shop in language A or B. And I want to be the one to choose what content I look at whenever.
Also, while I do understand the difficult situation of Indie bookstores in the US, it just raises my hackles if anyone starts off with “leave your Kindle at home”. If my reading habits aren’t good enough for some shops, well, I guess I’ll just keep ordering my nice hardcovers from Amazon, too.