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Barnes & Noble vs Amazon
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Minerva



Joined: 05 Jul 2007
Posts: 153

PostPosted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 9:12 am    Post subject: Barnes & Noble vs Amazon Reply with quote

I love my Nook Touch. It is a fabulous ereader. I've been a devoted B&N customer for years. I also now have an iPad which means I'm starting to read more Kindle books. Which brings me to my point.....

Amazon is an easier (possibly better?) place to buy ebooks

1. It is easy to find free ebooks on Amazon.
A listing of the Top 100 Free ebooks is right on the main page. I can switch over to see the top free ebooks for any genre I want. B&N removed their free ebook pages from their main navigation pages. There is no simple way to find free B&N books.

2. Books tend to be cheaper at Amazon
I was recently looking at an author's backlist. At Amazon, her books were $2.99. At B&N they were $4.99. I don't know why they were cheaper at Amazon, but I know where I bought them.

3. B&N sometimes doesn't even have the book.
Broken by Megan Hart was $1.99 at Amazon. I went over to B&N to purchase the ebook - it wasn't available. Every other book by Megan Hart was available in ebook format. But Broken was only available in paperback. I don't know if B&N took the ebook down so that they didn't have to match the Amazon price. I've noticed this with several other books recently - B&N does not offer an ebook that Amazon does. I can understand this with self-pubbed books where Amazon will insist on exclusive rights to sell a book. But I find this a strange practice with books from big publishers like Harlequin, HarperCollins, and Avon.

Has anyone else noticed any of these issues? It certainly demonstrates to me that B&N needs to examine their ebook business model.
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Linda in sw va



Joined: 27 Mar 2007
Posts: 4713

PostPosted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 10:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Minerva, you make great points! I LOVE Amazon, I buy movies from them as well as a ton of groceries and they have great customer service and prices!

I just prefer the B&N readers so much over the Kindles. So I could switch to the Kindle and shop with Amazon, but I would constantly know what I was missing with the Nook, or I can keep my Nook and stick with B&N despite some of their shortcomings. This is what I have decided to do. And believe me I've gone over it many times but I just find th B&N readers superior, at least so far. If I had never tried the Nooks I probably would have been perfectly happy with the Kindle.

I have the Nook Tablet now and the Nook Simple Touch and love them. But I also know how to purchase books from Amazon and remove the DRM to read on my Nooks if I choose so it's like having the best of both worlds though a small hassle. You're not supposed to but I don't like being limited. I had the ipad but sold it, as I already have the ihpone and I figure that's enough. I didn't care for reading on the backlit ipad tablet.

If I could combine the B&N readers with Amazon's store it would be ideal, IMHO.

Linda
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PWNN



Joined: 11 Apr 2010
Posts: 912

PostPosted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 12:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Most pricing is the same because it's done by the publisher or the author releasing their backlist. If it's different its because the author maybe forgot to change it in both places. Or in some cases like Carla Kelly's new publisher bizarrely don't seem to have submitted the book to anyone but Amazon. Razz

Until recently most sales and freebies have been the same and they frequently match each other.

But with Amazon's recent KPD/Prime program there are now authors moving one or several books into the program and that program demands exclusive publishing by Amazon for at least 3 months so the books have been temporarily withdrawn from B&N, Sony, Kobo, Smashwords etc. as Amazon seeks to eat the book world. This just started which is why we're seeing now so many more Amazon freebies as authors take advantage of free pricing for a couple of days. I wonder though how many authors will re-up - if it's been a success or they're getting lost in the flood and losing sales by not being in other books stores and other formats.


If you want B&N's free books:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/Free-eBooks/379003078

Or use this method. Place 0.00 in the search field (or .99 or 1.99 etc) and all free books will pop up and you can easily sort by category and then most recent or popular

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/0-00?store=ebook

or Go to Romance and click on Discounted and sort by price (which eliminates the books that are always priced low):

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s?sort=PA&size=30&aref=1533&dref=2565&srt=sa&store=EBOOK&sze=10&view=grid


There's also a Friday Free book that's often high quality

http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/The-NOOK-Blog/bg-p/Unbound/label-name/free%20fridays

I do wish though that B&N would make all these links easier to access from the site by having the links in their pull down menus.


I really like Amazon's Top Free 100 for it's convenience but it's also limited in that it's only 100 and often books are not tagged or tagged incorrectly.

For instance, Amazon is a particular mess with sorting Gay Romance since they no longer list them with Romance as they used to (before the time they wiped all of the Gay books off all their lists and search results a couple years ago and which is one of the reasons I do not like Amazon's e-book operation) and many are now listed under gay erotica (which they're often not) or gay fiction or not at all.

For Instance Josh Lanyon's beautiful gay Romance Mystery is listed not under Romance or Mystery but

Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Gay & Lesbian


Like Linda, I own a NOOK and think the hardware is superior. I also prefer dealing with B&N as a book store. I buy movies, electronics etc from Amazon but only buy or get free books there when I can't get them at B&N or elsewhere and when I do I free them up to use on my e-reader.
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Minerva



Joined: 05 Jul 2007
Posts: 153

PostPosted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 1:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you can't tell from my post, I usually shop around at other places and then go to B&N to buy my books. It has just been in the past few months that I've started to noticed discrepancies between B&N and other places. That's why I started this post. I wanted to know if I'm crazy or if others are noticing some of the same issues.

I do have the link to look for free books on B&N, but I miss the time when they had those links on their main Nook page.

As with both of you, pretty much my entire library is on my Nook, no matter where I bought the books in the first place.

B&N customer service is great (especially since I can talk to a real person at the store!). When my Nook STR screen went wacky a month after I bought it, they replaced it right there in the store at no charge. (Which was good, I don't think I would have survived the 24 hrs it would have taken to overnight a new reader!).
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robiform



Joined: 04 Apr 2007
Posts: 249
Location: Florida

PostPosted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 5:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This week, Barnes & Noble announced that they were considering spinning off NOOK to a separate company--don't know how this will affect e-books and how we who have NOOKs buy them!

And if you have an iPad, you can download a NOOK app for that device--the app is periodical-friendly, which is why I'm probably going to get the iPad as an upgrade for my first-generation NOOK, rather than the NOOK Tablet.
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Linda in sw va



Joined: 27 Mar 2007
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 7:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

robiform wrote:
This week, Barnes & Noble announced that they were considering spinning off NOOK to a separate company--don't know how this will affect e-books and how we who have NOOKs buy them!

And if you have an iPad, you can download a NOOK app for that device--the app is periodical-friendly, which is why I'm probably going to get the iPad as an upgrade for my first-generation NOOK, rather than the NOOK Tablet.


I don't see a problem ahead buying ebooks, I'd be more concerned about their physical stores closing.

I use my Nook tablet for apps and magazines mostly, its a quilty pleasure in that it's really more of a fun toy.

Linda
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ChrisReader



Joined: 05 Sep 2009
Posts: 772

PostPosted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 1:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have always been an Amazon customer- I have a Kindle and a Kindle Fire but I liked occasionally browsing and shopping at a B&N.

With the way things are going I am really afraid there will be no physical book stores left. I was hoping that after Borders (very sadly) closed, B&N would pick up enough of their market to stay profitable.

While I dearly love Amazon, their products, and their customer service I don't ever want there to not be competition in the marketplace and a physical store for books. I've seen pretty much every other book chain either be eaten up or fail and it's making me nervous.

With the demise of the independant book stores over the past 15 years or so I would hate the Warehouse stores, Target and Walmart to be the only sellers of books left.
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Linda in sw va



Joined: 27 Mar 2007
Posts: 4713

PostPosted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 8:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

ChrisReader wrote:
With the way things are going I am really afraid there will be no physical book stores left.

With the demise of the independant book stores over the past 15 years or so I would hate the Warehouse stores, Target and Walmart to be the only sellers of books left.


I agree, though I am part of the problem becuase I prefer reading on the ereader now. I love to browse bookstores though and that would be a sad loss to have them all disappear.

The last remaining music store we had at the mall went out of business, seems there are very few left of those at well. People either download from itunes or get CD's in places like Target or Walmart. It looks like bookstores could be headed that way as well.

Linda
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Kristie(J)



Joined: 23 Mar 2007
Posts: 1163
Location: Southwestern Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 7:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've experienced the exact same thing with Kindle vs Kobo. Kindle books are often less expensive, easier to load, available when books aren't through Kobo and quicker to open. Though I have books on both (I also have an IPad) I much prefer getting them at Amazon. And I also compare for just about every book I buy and unless I have a product code to use, I always get it through Amazon.
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xina



Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 6635
Location: minneapolis

PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 10:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Linda in sw va wrote:
[



I agree, though I am part of the problem becuase I prefer reading on the ereader now. I love to browse bookstores though and that would be a sad loss to have them all disappear.



Linda



Agree. I love bookstores, and hope that they will be around in one form or another. I realize change is in the future, but I can't see paper books going away completely. For one thing, beautifully illustrated books and children's books wouldn't be the same on a reader. Curling up with a child and a paper book vs. curling up with a reader?? Not the same, or even better. I read 90% off my ipad, but do buy paper at times. I've never had a problem with Amazon and pretty much stick to ordering from there.
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Linda in sw va



Joined: 27 Mar 2007
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 6:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

xina wrote:
[Agree. I love bookstores, and hope that they will be around in one form or another. I realize change is in the future, but I can't see paper books going away completely. For one thing, beautifully illustrated books and children's books wouldn't be the same on a reader. Curling up with a child and a paper book vs. curling up with a reader?? Not the same, or even better. I read 90% off my ipad, but do buy paper at times. I've never had a problem with Amazon and pretty much stick to ordering from there.


I don't think paper books will disappear completely either, we still have CD's. But I do think where we go to buy our paper books will continue to dwindle. Dedicated booksellers can't compete with the prices at Amazon, Costco, Target, Walmart, etc.

Linda
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ChrisReader



Joined: 05 Sep 2009
Posts: 772

PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 7:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Linda in sw va said
Quote:
I don't think paper books will disappear completely either, we still have CD's. But I do think where we go to buy our paper books will continue to dwindle. Dedicated booksellers can't compete with the prices at Amazon, Costco, Target, Walmart, etc.


That's what I think and what I'm afraid of. I do find it funny that B&N can't compete with Target etc because even though there are more Target stores B&N must buy more books overall as Target has a much smaller selection.

I haven't read any studies but most people must be primarily bestseller readers or places like Costco couldn't cut into the book market so much with their very narrow selection. Almost everything I read is usually NOT a bestseller so trying to get by on just what Costco offers would be a nightmare for me.
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Linda in sw va



Joined: 27 Mar 2007
Posts: 4713

PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 7:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ChrisReader wrote:
Almost everything I read is usually NOT a bestseller so trying to get by on just what Costco offers would be a nightmare for me.


Yeah me too, lol.

Have you ever looked up Amazon on Wiki? They own so much more than I thought they did. They even own the IMDB. Shopping sites like Endless, Zappos and Shopbop. Audible.com, fabric.com, Shelfari, ABEbooks. etc.

From what I can see (and I'm no expert) anytime a company has all their eggs in one basket as far as items they sell they cannot get by with discounting as much. Perhaps Target sells so much of everything overall they don't have to rely only on their booksales as a dedicated bookseller like B&N, Borders, BooksaMillion do.

As much as the agency pricing ticked me off, I realize that B&N couldn't have competed with Amazon if the prices did not have to be set. I like Amazon, I shop from Amazon, but I don't ever want them to be my only choice for ebooks or ereaders.

Linda
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xina



Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 6635
Location: minneapolis

PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 11:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Linda in sw va wrote:
[

I don't think paper books will disappear completely either, we still have CD's. But I do think where we go to buy our paper books will continue to dwindle. Dedicated booksellers can't compete with the prices at Amazon, Costco, Target, Walmart, etc.

Linda



I was reading some posts on a few romance blogs, and some of the posters insist that paper will disappear. I think they are secretly hoping they will so they will be proved right (LOL), but realistically, I don't think that they will. I was in our huge Barnes and Noble last weekend, and it seemed to empty and a little forlorn, or maybe it was just me. Anyway, I had a book in my hand that cost 23.00 and put it back deciding to download it, even though it would probably be over 10.00 for the download. A lot cheaper, anyway. Also, my Barnes and Noble seems to be filling the sides of the store with toys and games for children and adults. The other side of the store is the coffee/tea/cookies/sandwiches...and that is getting larger too. It saddens me somewhat. I do love bookstores. I don't want to browse books just in Target or the like. How uninteresting is that?
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Linda in sw va



Joined: 27 Mar 2007
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 12:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

xina wrote:
[I was reading some posts on a few romance blogs, and some of the posters insist that paper will disappear. I think they are secretly hoping they will so they will be proved right (LOL), but realistically, I don't think that they will. I was in our huge Barnes and Noble last weekend, and it seemed to empty and a little forlorn, or maybe it was just me. Anyway, I had a book in my hand that cost 23.00 and put it back deciding to download it, even though it would probably be over 10.00 for the download. A lot cheaper, anyway. Also, my Barnes and Noble seems to be filling the sides of the store with toys and games for children and adults. The other side of the store is the coffee/tea/cookies/sandwiches...and that is getting larger too. It saddens me somewhat. I do love bookstores. I don't want to browse books just in Target or the like. How uninteresting is that?


Sad and uninteresting both. Crying or Very sad I heard that B&N was trying to venture into toys, kids parties, etc in an effort to try and salvage things. I can't imagine myself enjoying coffee and a book next to a table of partying kids with mother's yelling...Don't eat that off the floor, leave the nice woman alone, LOL! Please don't turn B&N into Chuckie Cheese, haha. I don't see that as the answer but what do I know.

When I drive to town I used to be able to choose from Walden's books (bought many a romance there), BooksAMillion and Barnes and Noble. B&N is the only one of them remaining. There are two colleges nearby and the kids like to come and sip coffee and study in the cafe, I'm sure that's helped them some.

Linda
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