Is Barnes & Noble Set To Push Back Against The DC/Kindle Deal? I'm hearing from a couple of places now that Barnes & Noble is either considering or has already put into motion a move against the DC Comics announcement that they'll be offering various books exclusively to Amazon.com's Kindle device. This could take the form of a removal of those books from the shelves of the B&N physical stores, with the company's logic being that if books are not made available to them on all platforms, they're not going to be offered through the stores. I imagine we'll know in a few hours. Even if this has since been aborted or it ends up being people chasing shadows, this kind of puts into relief what a drastic and dramatic move DC made this week with that Kindle announcement. Not only would the books' availability be a potential decision-maker technology-wise for some customers, but a trend towards exclusives with prose publishers or even individual authors cutting deals with one platform standard or another could lead to extreme volatility for a market that's not all the way healthy right now. One of the sources that contacted me indicates that this would be physical store removal-only, and that the works would still be available through on-line channels. We should know more in the next 24-36 hours.
I'm hearing from a couple of places now that Barnes & Noble is either considering or has already put into motion a move against the DC Comics announcement that they'll be offering various books exclusively to Amazon.com's Kindle device. This could take the form of a removal of those books from the shelves of the B&N physical stores, with the company's logic being that if books are not made available to them on all platforms, they're not going to be offered through the stores. I imagine we'll know in a few hours. Even if this has since been aborted or it ends up being people chasing shadows, this kind of puts into relief what a drastic and dramatic move DC made this week with that Kindle announcement. Not only would the books' availability be a potential decision-maker technology-wise for some customers, but a trend towards exclusives with prose publishers or even individual authors cutting deals with one platform standard or another could lead to extreme volatility for a market that's not all the way healthy right now. One of the sources that contacted me indicates that this would be physical store removal-only, and that the works would still be available through on-line channels. We should know more in the next 24-36 hours.
