Amazon Offers Cut of Ebook Sales To Book Stores Selling Kindle 80
nk497 writes with this excerpt from PC Pro "Amazon plans to give independent booksellers 10% of the takings from ebooks bought on Kindles they sell, the online giant has revealed. The new Amazon Source program aims to encourage independent bookstores and small retailers to sell Kindle readers by offering commission for the first two years of the device's life. As an alternative to the 10% kickback from book sales, retailers opting into the Amazon Source program can choose instead to receive a larger discount up front when buying the devices for resale."
Seems right.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Seems right.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Watch as devices sold slowly render your main business dead
Which is going to happen to that retail store whether or not the devices are bought through them. Why not get a piece of the action while your business is failing anyway? Sell e-readers, and use the proceeds to tune up your coffee lounge area.
Re:Razor Blades (Score:4, Insightful)
Exactly ... isn't this basically "we're going put you out of business anyway, but here's a little cash if you help us do it." ?
Book stores don't sell every book that's available on Kindle (you'd need a big store to sell >1,000,000 different books). People who buy books on Kindle may well prefer buying paper books at their local book store when they are available there, so they don't have to wait for Amazon to deliver.
So, while it's not an obvious win for the stores, there are potential benefits.
Re:So a commission to cut your own throat? (Score:0, Insightful)
Why not accept Jewish gold from the Nazis - someone will - why not you?
Not a dead model at all (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't understand why the new model for local book stores is not clear to everyone. It is this; local bookstores are essentially places to browse books to see what you want, then thy can earn money either of direct sales from the location (which is very much going to happen in the cases of gifts) or from affiliate revenue.
Gifts alone are not enough revenue to cut it; buying a Kindle from your local affiliate is a whole new stream of revenue that is likely enough to keep a store afloat. All the store has to do is figure out a way to entice people to buy Kindle's from the store and they get two-three years of recurring revenue as the owner buys books even if they never return to the store!
Book stores would also be smart to place QR stickers on each book that provided an affiliate link to purchase the book on Amazon.