Ok, so I’ve mentioned a few times, I own a Nook eReader. I went through some flip flopping debate when I chose the Nook but I decided on the Nook. It’s notable that, the only other option was the Kindle. There are other eReaders but, frankly, I would only trust one of these two readers.
I chose the Nook because I prefer the design. The Kindle’s main draw was better battery life, but it has this ugly keyboard mess on the bottom of it that the Nook does not. Also, I like Barnes and Noble as a business even if I don’t shop there as much as I’d like to. If I ever pick up a Fire or a Nook Tablet, I’ve pretty much already decided on the Nook Tablet. Not because I have a small library of Nookbooks already, though that is a factor, but the Nook Tablet seems to be a superior device performance wise and, honestly, I’m going to root it anyway.
The real debate comes in with the eBook stores. I’ve pretty much duped the idea of pirating things. It’s a hassle, stuff doesn’t always work right, it’s full of offensive advertising, etc etc. Also, I prefer to support people and businesses when I can. This is not a piracy debate, so enough on that. This is an eBook Store debate.
My preferred source of ebooks is Barnes and Noble. They sync directly to my Nook, I like supporting B&N as a seller. It’s convenient as it’s supposed to be. However, Barnes and Noble makes this extremely difficult by almost never ever having sales or coupons for eBooks. A sale is a very effective sales tool, and yeah, the per item intake is less but the volume has been proven though many models to pick up dramatically. Hell, I have hundreds of Steam games I’ve never played that I bought because “oh man, 50% off”. Would i have bought these games otherwise? No. Do I occasionally buy things like DLC and Sequels, at full price due to a sale on a game? Yeah, sometimes.
Granted, I don’t want writers to start selling book chapters out piecemeal in DLC style anytime soon. Though, this is a rather interesting idea. Want more backstory on some 3rd tier character? Buy chapter 10.5 for 99 cents and read about his past!
I wonder how well that would work.
Anyway, back on topic, Amazon, has loads of sales on eBooks. They also have a larger number of exclusive eBooks. Unfortunately, unless I want to use my Pc or my phone, I can’t read Kindle books. If i could read Kindle books on my Nook, I’d probably already have spent more on Amazon than I have at B&N. Granted, B&N doesn’t like this but hey, competition, get some sales going to bring me back. Make me want to shop you more!
Then there are third party options, like Kobo Books. Kobo comes in a format I can put on my Nook, which is great. They also have pretty regular coupons. Hell, the existence of Kobo all around makes the closed ecosystem of Kindle and Nook seem stupid. Hey, you don’t care if I buy from this 3rd party but you care if I buy from your larger competitor?
This is assuming there is a lock down because Amazon and Nook don’t want you to put 3rd party books on their devices, which clearly is not the case.
So the flip side of the argument is, they want you to buy their device. They want you to buy the Nook and Kindle exclusively. Except, I could read both on an iPad, or my phone, or any number of android tables, or even on my PC. So that argument quickly becomes invalid as well.
The overall point here is, that this exclusivity lockdown is stupid. The result is that people are just going to strip your DRM off and do it anyway, and now, you’ve got DRM free copies of your files floating around. If you’re worried about losing customers, work harder to keep them interested in your side of things. Work what you have got. Amazon has their lending services for one. Nook lets people get from libraries.
All I want here is a choice.
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