Where’s the Nook In B&N’s “This Week”?

If Barnes and Noble has your email (and your spam protection isn’t very aggressive), then you most likely get Barnes & Noble “This Week” newsletter delivered to your inbox every seven days. My most recent edition of This Week had most of what I would expect in a holiday season issue– new products, sale items and gift ideas.

One thing that was conspicuously absent, however, was any mention of e-books or the Nook e-reader device. Instead, the email showcased pretty much everything but the much-hyped Nook. Why this might be I’ll get to later, but I find it interesting to take a look first at what B&N is marketing.

In-store events: Apparently, a Bob McGrath Christmas Sing-Along is taking place at my local brick and mortar B&N. Goody. I’ll give B&N credit for dutifully tracking down my current location, as I’m pretty sure my billing address as listed with them is at least six months out of date and roughly 200 miles away from where I sit now. Anyway, it is certainly fascinating that the first thing B&N throws at me is an in-store event.

The bookseller seems to be stuck vacillating between marketing its digital prowess and the in-store experience. B&N would probably be better off finding out how to leverage the strengths of both aspects of their business and then marketing the heck out of whatever that resulting product may be. Also curious–it is only when I clicked on the “see more events” link under the in-store events that I learned my location is one of the chosen ones that offers in-store demos of the Nook.

The main attraction: Deals on gift books! That’s right—good old fashioned, dead tree coffee table books. Maybe I am reading too much into this, but it is very interesting that B&N would push what is perhaps the type of book LEAST adaptable to any sort of e-reader: the big, shiny statement piece. Ansel Adams in Color, an example advertised in the email, is of little use on a black and white e-ink screen.

The remainder of the newsletter promotes products and services like in-store pickup of online orders, Harry Potter 6 DVDs and Beatles CDs.

DVDs and CDs for the holidays? This seems so 2003. Where are the Nooks? Why is the e-book store not even mentioned?

For one, it nearly impossible to “gift” an e-book. Second, the Nook has been sold out for the year for weeks, so B&N probably doesn’t want to bother wasting space and time on a product that has its own nice publicity buzz going for it already. Third, the e-mail reminds customers of the warm and fuzzy aspects of books and bookstores. Now I know that I can go into my local B&N this week to catch some free Christmas carols and browse some discounted coffee table books.

Still, this is the first piece of marketing material I’ve seen from B&N in quite some time that doesn’t mention an e-anything. Is B&N backing off of pushing their e-products because of demand backup? Maybe, but it seems more likely that B&N is taking a more holistic approach to marketing for the rest of the holiday season.

Simon and Schuster Fights the E-Book Tide

Publisher Simon and Schuster very publicly put its foot down today and made moves to reverse the now standard $9.99 price point for e-books and overhaul the existing e-book business model.

Some of the titles affected by the decision include a cookbook by “Real Housewives of New York” cast member Bethenny Frankel and Karl Rove’s upcoming memoir “Courage and Consequence.”

New S&S titles will only be released in e-book format four months after the hardcover debut date, in a plan intended to mirror the traditional publishing practice of releasing paperback versions only after hardcover titles have been available for some time.

Likewise, Simon and Schuster is looking to put the e-book edition price point somewhere between that of hardcover editions and paperback editions. What exactly the new price point will be is as of now unclear.

S&S asserts that this delay will:

“benefit the performance of all the different
formats in which these titles are published, and in the long term will contribute to a
healthier retail environment for the greater book buying public.”

Indeed, Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy told the Wall Street Journal today that “the right place for the e-book is after the hardcover but before the paperback. We believe some people will be disappointed. But with new [electronic] readers coming and sales booming, we need to do this now, before the installed base of e-book reading devices gets to a size where doing it would be impossible.”

Booksellers who distribute e-books are understandably uneasy with Simon and Schuster’s plans. In a statement to the Associated Press, Amazon spokesperson Andrew Herdener said that “authors get the most publicity at launch and need to strike while the iron is hot. If readers can’t get their preferred format at that moment, they may buy a different book or just not buy a book at all.”

If indeed the price for popular e-books rises to above that of paperbacks, it is conceivable that consumers that are on the fence about electronic content will stick with the dead trees for at least the near future.

It seems ludicrous to assume that simply because a new e-book title is slightly more than what has become the bestseller norm of $9.99 that readers will lose interest or buy a different book. For biographies especially, the prospect of there existing a substitute good seems unlikely. If a reader wants to know about Karl Rove’s life from Karl Rove’s perspective, they are not going to be happy reading much else.

In addition, the price point of $9.99 has not been so deeply ingrained in consumers that any sort of revolt against price change will occur. E-books aren’t on the same level as iTunes, not yet at least. There is still time now to maneuver the business model so that it will work for authors, booksellers and publishers alike.

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Full List of Upcoming Simon and Schuster Titles

JANUARY
YOU: ON A DIET REVISED EDITION by Michael F. Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet C. Oz,
M.D. (Free Press)
STAR by Peter Biskind (S&S)
THE HIGH SCHOOL REUNION DIET by David A. Colbert (S&S)
DARING YOUNG MEN by Richard Reeves (S&S)
THE SKINNYGIRL DISH by Bethenny Frankel (Fireside)
HAVE YOU SEEN MY COUNTRY LATELY? By Jerry Doyle (Threshold Editions)
FEBRUARY
CONSPIRATA by Robert Harris (S&S)
WILLIE MAYS by James S. Hirsch (Scribner)
POINT OMEGA by Don Delillo (Scribner)
WILD ZONE by Joy Fielding (Atria)
MY FOOTPRINT by Jeff Garlin (Gallery)
GONE by Lisa McMann (Simon Pulse)
MARCH
THE LEADER WHO HAD NO TITLE by Robin Sharma (Free Press)
THE SPELLMANS STRIKE AGAIN by Lisa Lutz (S&S)
THREE STATIONS by Martin Cruz Smith (S&S)
FALLING APART IN ONE PIECE by Stacy Morrison (S&S)
HOUSE RULES by Jodi Picoult (Atria)
DAISY MORNING, NOON, AND NIGHT by Daisy Martinez (Atria)
COURAGE AND CONSEQUENCE by Karl Rove (Threshold Editions)
KILLING WILLIS by Todd Bridges (Touchstone)
APRIL
THE ALOHA QUILT by Jennifer Chiaverini (S&S)
THE SHADOW OF YOUR SMILE by Mary Higgins Clark (S&S)
PAULA DEEN’S SAVANNAH STYLE by Paula Deen (S&S)
GET CAPONE by Jonathan Eig (S&S)
THE WALK by Richard Paul
Evans (S&S)
SARA’S EVERYDAY FAMILY DINNERS by Sara Moulton (S&S)
WRECKED by Carol Higgins Clark (Scribner)
THE MOONLIT EARTH by Christopher
Rice
US by Lisa Oz (Free
Press)
FRENCH WOMEN DON’T GET FAT COOKBOOK by Mireille Guiliano (Atria)
DISTANT HOURS by Kate Morton (Atria)
SHAMELESS by Karen Robards (Gallery)
UNWRITTEN RULE by Elizabeth Scott (Simon Pulse)
MORPHEUS ROAD by D.J. MacHale (Aladdin)
IT’S NOT SUMMER WITHOUT YOU by Jenny Han (SSBFYR)

Quick to Market, Slow to Read

The nook was quick to get off of the drawing boards and into customers’ hands, but the payoff may be that the device itself runs relatively slowly.

While recent orders for the device have been back ordered indefinitely and the nook won’t be available in-stores until next year, eager consumers have already put the first demo units of the device to the test. Apparently, waiting is the name of the game even once the device has been delivered.

A review in Business Week noted that the page turning functions lagged expectations, with the start-up process in particular being “achingly slow.”

The BW review also noted that the nook’s flashier features (the ability to flip through titles’ covers on the lower color touch screen, for one) are offset by the fact that these diversions are a major drain on battery life. The battery life, B&N claims, should be upwards of 10 days when the device’s WiFi is turned off. The author of the review, however, noted that the battery reserves dropped to only 40 percent of capacity after a day of heavy usage.

Operational issues coupled with supply chain problems could prove problematic to future device sales and publicity. However, seeing as the device is already sold out until next year, these early reviews are unlikely to prove a death-knell for the device. Likely, many of the early purchasers of the device are of the “early adopter” mindset that will be more likely to accept a product’s shortcomings in exchange for being part of the technological vanguard.

E-reader Content v2.0

Barnes and Noble released its second quarter earnings report on November 24th. However, at this point the earlier October 27 investor presentation contains some intriguing information about B&N’s digital strategy that deserves another look in order to help predict what the future holds for digital content product development.

According to the investor presentation, B&N is looking to build a nook “eco-system” with accessories, warranties and additional content. Accessories and warranties are easy enough to imagine, as this is a standard production cost subsidization strategy for many electronics retailers. However, the focus on “additional content” suggests that long term product developments will focus more on enhancing what content is delivered as opposed to how it is read.

The B&N investor presentation calls digital content a multi-billion dollar market, and makes some tantalizing allusions to potential developments in e-book features. Among the suggestions for future innovations are: supplementary content, alternate endings and collaborative writing. These suggestions move digital content strategies beyond simply reproducing existing book content in electronic form towards a form that leverages the fact that it is being delivered on a wireless device that can be tied in to subscription style services.

Here are some ideas for what exactly the products could entail:

-Supplementary content post-publication: an add-on subscription service could automatically load new prologues, notes, corrections and other updates to electronic content. In the long run, this could make for a much more interactive book- subscribers can sign on for automatic updates in new book series, and running author commentary can provide a long-term value add for non-fiction titles. Another option would be to develop a feature that allows users to choose what upgraded content they want to purchase as an add-on to the original book.

For example, the popular title Freakonomics was re-released with added content including Q&A with authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman is on version 3.0 that includes two new chapters and the author’s response to reader FAQs. It seems far more likely that readers would pursue a sort of a la carte option that would allow them to pick and chose what new features interest them as opposed to simply buying an entire new version of a book that is still comprised mostly of “1.0” content. User feedback can also allow authors and publishers to determine what sort of add-ons are most valuable to readers, and what add-ons are regarded as unnecessary fluff.

-Alternate endings: for fiction titles, this can hold a big appeal for a loyal fan base. Imagine books such as the Twilight series being able to offer a variety “choose your own endings”. Fan fiction enthusiasts would have a field day with this sort of content, and most likely would be inclined to pay extra for access to premium content on top of the title’s base price. The model would be all the better if booksellers can finagle a way to sign on authors to provide them with exclusive content.

-Collaborative writing: this is perhaps the most open-ended suggestion, but while ambiguous still provides for some intriguing ideas. A blurring of the lines between periodical and book can produce content that is regularly updated and commented on by a group of contributing authors. Books can also incorporate user feedback as well as editorial input. This sort of content delivery and enhancement is perhaps most useful for authors who may be using self-publication platforms such as Smashwords (an indie ebook distribution platform that revealed recently that it partnered with Amazon to supply content to the retailer’s Kindle Store, following in the footsteps of other distribution deals made between Smashwords and Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Shortcovers) to bring their books to the electronic content market.

Kindle Gets an Auto-Upgrade

The second-generation Kindle is getting a boost in battery life as well as new native PDF capabilities. Amazon indicated today that the Kindle’s battery life during wireless use will be extended by 85 percent by way of an improved battery management improvement program that is part of Kindle software update version 2.3. The firmware upgrade will also allow users to read and resize unconverted PDFs.

Enhanced PDF capabilities will catch the Kindle up with existing competitors such as the Sony Reader which currently handle unconverted PDFs, and add to Kindle’s guard against upcoming readers such as the QUE which will be marketed as “business oriented” due to its document-oriented capabilities. Longer battery power will help the Kindle against upcoming devices such as the Alex reader that will be powered by the battery-efficient ARMADA 166E.

The upgrade will automatically be delivered to Kindle customers via the device’s wireless connection, and the automatic installation will not require users’ consent. While the wireless meddling by Amazon in this case seems to be for the greater good of Kindle users, it nonetheless evokes unpleasant memories of this summer’s 1984/Animal Farm fiasco.

B&N nook is Officially Sold Out

Orders placed after November 19th for the $259 nook device won’t make it into readers’ hands until next year, according to reports that surfacedlast Friday. Shoppers who missed the boat on securing a holiday season nook can instead have a “holiday certificate” shipped to the would-be gift recipient.

Opinions appear split as to whether this run on nook demand is a welcome B&N buzz-builder or instead a symptom of a rushed attempt to get a product out on the holiday market. Indeed, an analyst with Forrester Research told the Financial Times on Saturday that “supply is short because the companies rushed the announcement of these two products, and the reality is they’re not ready for holiday primetime.”

E-Reader Shortage Builds Hype for Sony

Last-minute holiday shoppers who may still be on the fence about adding an e-reader to their gadget collections now have more reason to second guess their purchase.

Shipments of Sony’s new $399 Daily Edition Reader may not make it home in time for Christmas, according to a report in today’s Wall Street Journal. Likewise, pre-orders placed over the next few weeks for Barnes & Noble’s nook device may not secure a holiday delivery date. Kindles, however, are as of now good to go for December 25th deliveries.

Company executives at both Sony and B&N were quick to hold up the delay as an example of their devices’ retail success. However, there is no way to know how many units were actually pre-ordered. It is possible that both companies low-balled their estimates due to the general opacity of the e-reader demand landscape. On the other hand, they also may have built in this “run on supply
strategy purposely to build product hype. It may very well be that each company is trying to make their respective device this year’s Tickle Me Elmo, envisioning media hype-friendly images of consumers overwhelming their websites on Black Friday or selling nooks and Readers on eBay to the highest bidder.

It seems especially odd that Sony, a long-time electronics maker that should be reasonably well versed in electronics supply-chain planning is struggling with demand issues. Barnes and Noble as a bookseller is arguably less familiar with the strategy of determining electronics demand and distribution, but is still a retailing giant who should have been better prepared.

Hype machine or no, the very prospect of holiday delivery date pressure may be enough to influence some consumers to wait it out until the next best thing comes along.

Selling Content, Not Devices- Even When the Content Is Free?

Amazon today rolled out a PC platform that essentially will turn personal computer screens into giant Kindles. The free “Kindle for PC” application allows readers to view Kindle e-books on personal computers, and adds another dimension to the existing viewing options of Kindle, Kindle DX, iPhone and iPod.

Does this mean that Amazon has given up on (or is at least moving away from) pushing the Kindle? Not necessarily, as CEO Jeff Bezos has stated that his goal is not simply to move as many e-reader units as possible but rather to get people reading Amazon content on as many screens as possible. Instead, it seems that the application is designed as a complementary device for those who have already become hooked on reading e-books via their mobile devices. A similar strategy has long been available from B&N, who displayed the opposite distribution strategy by first introducing a PC and mobile based download platform before trying their hand at their own, branded e-reader device.

By not tying the distribution of e-books necessarily to expensive, limited purpose electronic devices, booksellers seem to be counting on the fact that they can continue to profit from sales of their content. What happens, however, when the majority of content being downloaded is free?

A quick look at Amazon’s Kindle Bestsellers List shows that only 8 of the top 25 downloads are paid titles. Of the 8, only two sell for $9.99. Prices on others range between $4.99 and as little as one cent.

The free downloads of books certainly won’t hurt companies and may even spur the purchase of paid electronic book content. However, the devotion of e-book readers to downloading deserves to be separated into two categories: those who pursue gratis content and those who habitually pay for electronic books . Sales of e-readers and downloads of other distribution platforms may increase traffic, but the impact on sales may very well be overstated.

New Chip To Bring Faster Reads In A Cheaper Device

Marvell Technology Group revealed a new platform yesterday that may usher in a wave of faster, cheaper e-reader devices.

Marvell has partnered with E-Ink, the technology developer responsible for the e-paper technology that powers existing readers such as those manufactured by Amazon, Casio, Sony, iRex and Samsung. The two companies have developed an integrated application processor that will be featured in devices such as the Alex reader and Plastic Logic’s QUE that are slated to launch early next year.

The company claims that the technology will allow for cheaper manufacturing of e-readers—lowering the price to around $150 from the existing starting point of $199. The ARMADA application processor is designed to make high resolution PDF documents available in smaller, faster devices while also prolonging batter life. The technology upgrade, Marvell claims, will improve the reading experience for newspaper and magazine layouts and will allow faster downloads of complex content.

What does this mean for the e-reader market? This technology will add another dimension to the price wars that have already broken out between e-reader sellers such as Amazon and B&N. While Amazon lowered its price in an apparent response to B&N’s cheaper soon-to-be-launched offering, a new price war may soon appear between old and new technology. If manufacturers can deliver a faster reading experience at a lower manufacturing price, the old e-readers already on the market may face no chance in competing on unit price alone. Perhaps tie ins such as free books or accessories can make up for the price difference in the short run, but manufacturers of older, slower technology may very well be fighting a losing long-term battle.

E-books and Romance Novels: A Love Story

Reading by e-book offers consumers a benefit that has perhaps been underestimated until now: that of title anonymity.

MyRomanceStory, an imprint of Arrow Publications, today revealed that it has seen a roughly 200 percent increase in sales of graphic romance novels from August to October. This growth is attributed to the popularity of the publisher’s iPhone app.

As hinted at by the publisher, this growth points to the fact that e-books offer a particularly strong benefit for those who want to read on-the-go in public areas such as subways and airports without displaying to the world via paperback cover what exactly they are reading.

MyRomanceStory.com made its library of books available via Apple’s iTunes App Store August 25.