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Thursday, January 31, 2013

Laura Hazard Owen, Reporter for paidContent on Barnes & Noble at Digital...



Digital Book World posted an excellent article today about the Barnes & Noble elephant in the room at DBW 2013.

The big takeaway from this article was this statistic:
“According to the most recent Codex survey, online selling accounts for 61 percent of book sales, but only 7 percent of discovery.”
That’s huge. I’m one of those 61 percent. Sure, I buy all my books online, but I find new books and authors by browsing my local Barnes & Noble. And what happens if that local Barnes & Noble goes away? It’s not looking good for them as a business right now. Well, I’m confident readers will figure out a way to find books, but there will be a gap until then.
Another good quote comes from Peter Hildick-Smith, CEO of Codex Group:
“Physical retail works if you protect it … Movie producers do [protect movie theaters]. I would argue publishers are not doing enough to help bookstores.”
I completely agree. B&N and the publishers have a vested interest in keeping the company alive and healthy. Earlier this month, I wrote about this on our sister site, GadgeTell.
So …. why  doing as much as they could? (Or, as Hildick-Smith suggested, as much as they should?)





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