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Armed with the Barnes & Noble e-reader nook I gave to my 87-year-old father for his birthday, I went to my favorite Barnes & Noble store on Sunday morning. Not so long ago, I was a regular at this store. It was almost guaranteed that I never left without some kind of purchase.
Today, I left empty-handed, if you don't count the soy cappuccino with one pump sugar-free vanilla. Not only have I stopped going to this store, but my love affair with pBooks (physical books) is completely over. That is not what I expected when I downloaded Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals onto my iPod Touch last March.
At the time, I was just curious to see what it would be like to try to read a book on my iPod. What I didn't think was that it would be a life-changer.
Since March, I have been reading digital books, exclusively. That makes me, according to the latest research on digital readers, a small segment of e-readers -- 19 percent to be exact -- who say they now read eBooks exclusively.
The Book Industry Study Group, a not-for-profit U.S. book trade association, is conducting the study "Consumer Attitudes Towards E-Book Reading." The first findings of the study are being released to coincide with the first ever Digital Book World conference.
There are lots of firsts when you talk about digital publishing. According to BISG, this research is the first ever study of its kind.
Although much of the publishing industry is working hard to develop and implement digital strategies, there is little available research evaluating book consumers' actual interests in and preferences for digital content, or the factors that influence their reading habits and purchasing decisions.
The details of that study will be shared at the Digital Book World conference. It is being billed as, "the first-ever conference to address the radically changing commercial publishing environment from near-term challenges to long-term opportunities."
eBook sales are still a single-digit percentage of most trade publishers' sales and only creep into double-digits for some of the new titles coming out. Even so, digital change has already been disruptive, forcing many publishers to rethink their release windows, their sales terms and tactics, and their entire approach to marketing.
When news of the Barnes & Noble nook hit the media last fall, there were several features that differentiated it from the Kindle. One of those was the ability to come into the store and spend an hour reading any eBook for free.
Customers will be able to browse complete eBooks for free on nook at any Barnes & Noble store, whether or not the actual book is in stock, beginning later this year. Plus settle into the café and get exclusive in-store-only content, free eBooks, special offers and much more using Barnes & Noble's complimentary WiFi, provided by the AT&;T WiFi network.
Since I had not been in my favorite Barnes & Noble for a while, I had anticipated that they would have a new nook reading area with comfy chairs. Not only was there no nook reading area, the feature hasn't gone live.
The sales associate in the store told me that feature is expected when the nook gets its next software update. When that will be, no one seems to know.
I asked if they were going to add chairs for nook readers who wanted to come into the store to browse. If that is the plan, the news hasn't filtered down to the sales floor. I was surprised. What is the point in touting an hour worth of free browsing if you are not making your store browser-friendly?
If the good folks in the Barnes & Noble press relations department had answered my request for an interview, that would have been one of the questions I would have asked. But, my request for an interview was not acknowledged.
Amazon did respond to my request, sort of. In my e-mail requesting an interview, I outlined some general areas of business strategy that I wanted to discuss. Cinthia Portugal answered the questions. Her first answer was a show-stopper.
Me: I am interested in how having a strong competitor in the sector is influencing your strategy?
Amazon: We're not focused on other companies, we are focused on providing our customers with a great reading experience.
I appreciate that Ms. Portugal took the time to answer my e-mail. Having said that, why would any business say it is not focused on "other companies"? That's insanity. Any company that hopes to succeed
