Barnes & Noble is no longer the only bookstore chain overreacting to the DC Comics/Amazon Kindle Fire exclusive digital deal, with Books-A-Million following in its footsteps and pulling all 100 titles that will be made digitally available to Kindle Fire users exclusively from its shelves. Publishers Weekly quotes CEO Terrance Finley as explaining that the chain “will not promote titles in our stores showrooms if publishers choose to pursue these exclusive arrangements that create an uneven playing field in the marketplace.”
As with Barnes & Noble, it’s unclear whether or not the titles will be returned to shelves when the four month Amazon exclusivity period finishes.
October 12th, 2011 at 12:25 pm
I don’t see how this is over reacting on the stores part. It’s a business decision and I agree with their reasoning.
October 12th, 2011 at 12:27 pm
Soon enough, if not already, publishers will have their books for sale in print and digitally, and I’m talking about non-comic book publishers here too.
So are B&N and Books-A-Million going to protest against these publishers too? Because if so they’re simply shooting themselves in the foot from a business-point-of-view.
Kudos for having an opinion and sticking to it though.
October 12th, 2011 at 12:30 pm
I concur. This is a fine thank you for retailers and fans who have supported these comic book companies for years.
October 12th, 2011 at 12:32 pm
Of course the problem is having an exclusive deal with someone else. If DC offered an exclusive deal for the nook then B&N or Books-A-Million they would jump at the chance
October 12th, 2011 at 12:38 pm
“Let’s refuse to sell things people may want to buy from us” is not a good business decision. lol
October 12th, 2011 at 12:41 pm
Okay, so where is the big push on the part of comic stores to band together in the face of this and shout with one voice, “HEY! WE CARRY THE BOOKS YOU WANT! BUY THEM FROM US IF YOU WANT THEM IN PRINT!!”
Who’s going to stand up and lead the retailers in this? Where is the statement from Diamond to the mainstream press saying, “Yeah, they pulled those books, but you can get them at these comic shops in North America.”
B&N and B-a-M have pulled their stunt. Let the comic book retailers benefit from it.
October 12th, 2011 at 12:42 pm
well, what else are they supposed to do? continuing to sell the product of a company that’s showing favoritism to your biggest competitor isn’t good business either.
October 12th, 2011 at 12:43 pm
These books have been in comic shops for far longer then before they hit the kindle fire. I don’t think comic shops give a damn right now. And its a DIGITAL exclusive that lasts only 4 months.
Good lord talk about crying over spilled milk.
Also all the support big retail bookstores have given the comic book industry? When? Where? Every retail chain like books a million and Barnes and Noble and Borders (when it was alive and i worked there 3 years) had small sections for american trades and ogns, but Manga, oh manga was given 10-20 times the amount of space.
American comics were all but treated like red headed step children in these stores.
Books a million is a joke. They support B&N’s nook of course they have a bias in this.
October 12th, 2011 at 12:45 pm
Hilarious.
“We hate that DC is making things so easily available through digital channels…so let’s make them ONLY available through digital channels! Yeah! That will show them!!!”
I can see why book chains are not pleased with the exclusive Amazon deal, especially if they have e-readers of their own to promote but this childish response doesn’t seem like it’s going to help matters.
October 12th, 2011 at 12:46 pm
I wonder if Barnes and Noble and Books a million will take the same stance when the Harry Potter series comes out exclusively with the new Sony Reader.
October 12th, 2011 at 12:50 pm
Hannibal: Digital publishing isn’t the main issue here, it’s the exclusivity. Amazon has been single-handedly trouncing the bookstore industry for years (I’m not criticizing; thems the breaks in the game of capitalism), and DC giving them a leg up can be seen as overkill and an indirect attack on these retailers that also sell digital product. Also consider the strides DC/Marvel have made with bookstore chains over the past 10 years as far as improving presence and placement of their graphic novels in physical stores. With flagging comics sales across the board, it wasn’t exactly a confident business decision on the part of those stores to invest in graphic novels, but they took (are taking) the risk, so for DC to turn around and take away something that could have given B&N a greater return on their investment (i.e. taking away potential Nook Color sales [Books A Million sells Nook titles as well]) I could see a CEO getting furious and making a decision like this because they KNOW that removing top selling DC titles will hurt DC (as diminished presence would hurt ANY comic publisher at this point) just as much as DC going exclusive with Amazon hurt them. And guess which format of graphic novel sells more.
Graeme: Just saying I would be curious to see a blog post (here or on Critics) where you explain why you think this is an overreaction.
October 12th, 2011 at 12:56 pm
I guess that I should have know that Mr. McMillian would continue his private war against DC Comics by posting something like this. Dude, give it up and posts on stuff that you actually like.
October 12th, 2011 at 1:02 pm
I agree with Marco about the shabby treatment of American comics in the bookstores, Borders in particular. There might have been maybe 3-4 shelves to manga’s 10-12, which was totally unfair. They would rather cater toward the here today, gone tomorrow, flavor-of-the-month, teenage emo/shoegazer “Twilight” crowd than to those of us who have loved our art form and its characters for decades.
As far as the pulling goes, I really could care less, since I’m one of those “old timers” who still likes to read actual comics, as opposed to reading them digitally. Nothing against those reading devices, but to me, there’s nothing like the feel of an actual book or comic in my hands. That is an aesthetic you just can’t replace.
October 12th, 2011 at 1:05 pm
Bias reporting. I don’t see this as overraction. These businesses are making a decision based on being cut out of a part of the market.
October 12th, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Who cares? If I want them in print, I’ll go to my comic shop or order them on Amazon.
October 12th, 2011 at 1:15 pm
Never even heard of Books-a-Million, and the exclusive deal is only 4 months?
October 12th, 2011 at 1:28 pm
Agreed with Brandon above. B&N and B-A-M both sell stuff via Nook and the Nook Color works just as well for digital comics. These guys are drawing a line in the sand for other publishers, and for good reason. Amazon is the biggest threat to these guys in-store and digital sales, and this is their way to show that publishers can’t show favoritism to the guys who might kill their businesses. Amazon already screwed over Borders years ago by offering to “run” their online presence and basically directing users to Amazon proper. Borders was never able to recover a strong digital presence after they cut off that bad relationship.
I have no issue with Amazon and, in fact, I already their Visa card, I’m a Prime member, and I have a Fire on preorder. However, with the bookstore chains having just watched the death of Borders at Amazon’s hand they would be insane not to send a message on this. Other publishers – not just comics, but all publishers – will think twice about any exclusivity offers.
October 12th, 2011 at 1:36 pm
You know, I’m no business man, but actively preventing your own customers from purchasing products you provide through your own shop, in an age where your market is declining, seems like a really dumb idea no matter how you spin it.
Sure, I “get” why they are doing it. It just seems stupid. How do they benefit from this?
–J.
October 12th, 2011 at 1:40 pm
I totally support the bookstores in this. They have every right to carry or not carry whatever material they choose, and this seems a perfectly reasonable way to respond to a supplier that (in their view) is not treating them fairly. BTW, I have a Books-A-Million relatively nearby and they have the largest and best stock of comics material I’ve seen in a chain bookstore ever, including B&N and (RIP) Borders.
October 12th, 2011 at 1:45 pm
Borders’ death wasn’t just due to Amazon. They made horrible business decision. As for BN and Books-A-Million, the fact that the exclusive deal is only for 4 months makes their “business decision” look petty.
October 12th, 2011 at 1:54 pm
People this another way for DC to kill the market place once again it happen before when they signed exclusive deals in the early 90s with comic distrubtion
October 12th, 2011 at 1:57 pm
As a consumer, my reaction would be, ‘Wait, so I came here for a print version, willing to spend my money. But you won’t sell it to me, because someone else is is the exclusive carrier of a digital copy? Well, I’ll go spend my money there, or find someplace else to sell it to me.’ The retailers get nothing out of this, but someone who wants that item will still track it down elsewhere.
October 12th, 2011 at 1:57 pm
Barnes is still providing these books to those requesting it they just aren’t going to advertise for them. They are also still available online
October 12th, 2011 at 2:13 pm
Considering Graphic Novels in Bookstores is a much bigger deal for DC than the actual bookstores, this isn’t a horrible move. First people aren’t going to rush to buy a Kindle to read a book on an undersized screen. Second, this is really the only move these big chains have to discourage the behavior in the future.
October 12th, 2011 at 2:14 pm
I read these comic blogs sometimes and I swear, these guys are clueless when it comes to gamesmanship in the marketplace. They sound like little fanboys they routinely mock.
October 12th, 2011 at 2:28 pm
I agree with Brandon and Brian Real above. It wasn’t an overreaction when B&N did it last week, and it’s not an overreaction now. It’s just business — a necessary, retaliatory strike. If they did nothing, they’re essentially telling ALL the major publishers, not just Time-Warner, that they’ll take whatever scraps Amazon is willing to leave them.
Ironically, the best way they can protest the DC/Amazon agreement, pulling DC’s books from their shelves, also potentially harms them as well. Their gamble is that they’re already being harmed by the DC/Amazon deal, so a little more pain is worth it if it makes their point that digital exclusives are bad for the book industry.
The bookstores have to send a strong signal that they won’t accept publishers playing favorites with Amazon. With B&N and BAM both now making this move, their message just got a lot louder.
October 12th, 2011 at 2:35 pm
@Hannibal King
B&N and Books-A-Million aren’t upset that DC is selling digital copies of their graphic novels, they are upset because DC won’t allow B&N and Books-A-Million to SELL those digital copies.
They aren’t doing this so DC will stop making digital copies, they are doing this so they can sell those digital copies. If anything, DC is shooting themselves in the foot with this exclusivity deal. Downloadable comics for e-readers is still relatively new for most people, what benefit do they gain by limiting the amount of people who can buy them by making it exclusively through Kindle?
The reason Diamond is the only distributor for print comics is because of an exclusivity agreement that ended up killing all the competitors.
October 12th, 2011 at 2:38 pm
These bookstores are over priced book houses anyway catering to the publishers instead of the consumers. They need to wake up and learn a lesson from Amazon selling books at a price range that people can afford. The comics on the shelves are few and and far between. Those that are on the shelf are so wrinkled and sometimes torn why bother to sell comics there in the first place.
October 12th, 2011 at 2:40 pm
I work at Books-a-million and i have to say this is a load of bullshit. Our store barely supports DC as is (for the 9 rows of Marvel we have, we have 3 DC)
The Nook is barely any of our sales, (i’ve sold 1 in the time i’ve worked there) so i see no point in us backing B&N’s decision by doing it ourselves. Especially since we dont have a LCS
October 12th, 2011 at 3:12 pm
Well at least Barnes & Noble is helping out the sale of Marvel & DC floppies.
http://www.spidermanfan.com/2011/09/barnes-and-noble-breathes-life-into.html
October 12th, 2011 at 3:36 pm
Thanks to Brandon & Lawrence for their responses to my post. I appreciate getting a bigger picture on this topic.
All the best!
October 12th, 2011 at 5:25 pm
I think comic book shops are doing a fine job of running themselves out of business as it is and not having titles that readers want. For Independent comics at least if shops go out of business it might be the best thing for them, because it will force them to go outside of the box, and anything is better than the system that is in place right now.
As it is with Independent books a book comes out, then retailers don’t order as high on issues 2, and 3, and they strangle almost every Independent book this way. Most readers who want Independent books can’t get them because their retailers are too lazy to reorder. So shops are getting bad will towards them because any solution should be better.
I hope that digital comics take off in a big way and that shops and the current print distribution model go the way of the dodo bird.
October 12th, 2011 at 7:09 pm
As much as I’m for getting comics to the public, I don’t think this is going to make an ounce of difference. Our local B&N locations are CRAMMED full of comics in a very small section of shelf space and you can even see any covers. You have to really already want to rifle through them to even see what books are in there. They’re crammed that tightly.
There’s nothing there to attract a casual or first time buyer.
October 12th, 2011 at 8:58 pm
Good for B&N and Books-A-Million. Exclusive agreements may be good for the businesses who enter into them but they are bad for the consumer. I realize B&N and Books-A-Million are not boycotting for the consumer but the effect remains the same. Considering the poor state of the comic industry I would think limiting your audience was a dumb idea and that is what DC is doing for a short term dollar.
October 12th, 2011 at 9:20 pm
This is why Digital Distribution sucks. I can go into a comic store and buy any comic or trade by any publisher. But with digital if I want DC trades I need an Amazon Fire, to read comics on Comixology I need an IOS or Andriod device.
It is beyond stupid.
Good luck DC with you day and date stuff on one platform and you trades on another. I hope it is a huge failure because you are failing the consumers.
October 12th, 2011 at 10:02 pm
OKAY, BECAUSE A LOT OF YOU ARE WORKING ON SOME VERY FAULTY DATA, I’M GOING TO TAKE A SECOND TO CORRECT SOME GIANT MISTAKES.
1. Kindle Fire does not have an exclusive on DC comics: Amazon is releasing a new version of the whispersych app with the Kindle Fire which will allow specially modified DC comics, that will run on a 7 inch screen. After the initial 4 months of the release (what is sometimes called the “Grace Period” in software circles), the software will be released as a downloadable app, downloadable across multiple platforms. However this grace period allows Amazon maximum exposure to the market (which is good for both DC & Amazon), an also allows for the immediate fixing of teething problems with the initial release before it goes cross platform.
2. This pulling of products in no way effects DC: DC has already sold these products to the bookstores in question. They have already made there money off these sales. The books in question are not overly popular (even though they are perrenial sellers), nor would they have sold out quickly. DC is not going to lose any recognisable income off these books not being on sale in those stores (especially when you can still order them through those stores). At worst, the people looking for a specific title on the 100 list will just go to a local comic store & failing that go online to purchase it (an the number 1 online bookseller being… you guessed it, Amazon).
3. B&N are not just overreacting, they are butthurt: B&N has a competing product; the Nook Colour. Unfortunately the Nook Colour has had major teething problems, the main one being that no one cared. They are butthurt that DC did no choose them for the digital roll out. B&N are also pissed that there own “exclusive” deal, which doesn’t allow the amazon app into there store, has backfired & bitten them on the arse, now that Amazon is releasing content that could benefit B&N.
4. DC is not going for short term cash in by being restrictive: This idea that DC is somehow restricting there audience by going with just the kindle is ridiculous. As of this month no digital service exists, as of next month a digital service does exist. You’ve gone from having no service to having a restricted service, to 4 months later having a huge service across multiple platforms. Thats not restrictive at all, that is by definition the exact opposite of being restrictive.
5. DC made a deal with Amazon because it benefited DC: DC’s deal benefits DC, just as much as it benefits Amazon. DC chose Amazon because it had the highest visibility, the largest network, the best up ‘n coming tech & generally had the visibility to make the digital release viable: B&N had none of those things. All those things actually benefit comics across the board.
OKAY, SO THOSE SEEM TO BE THE MAJOR POINTS PEOPLE SEEM TO BE MISSING. PLEASE READ THEM BEFORE COMMENTING.
October 13th, 2011 at 1:21 am
“PLEASE READ THEM BEFORE COMMENTING.”
I did, and you lost me as soon as I realized you apparently don’t know the difference between “there” and “their” nor the difference between “effects” and “affects.”
October 13th, 2011 at 1:29 am
@HeyOhYeah: Ah yes, the “you spelted there rong, so U is not right” fallacy.
I can spell “there” as purple-monkey-dishwasher, it doesn’t make the information any the less accurate. Seriously, the “you spelled a word wrong” argument is second only to the “run away analogue” argument, for inanity.
October 13th, 2011 at 7:31 am
@Matthew Lane –
I’m not the one yelling “READ MY POST BEFORE YOU COMMENT!”, pal.
October 13th, 2011 at 7:41 am
For DC, it’s a major supply chain to their audience that’s been disrupted.
For B&N & Books-a-Million it’s 100 products in a store of millions of products.
Can’t see how B&N or Books-a-Million are going to hurt over this.
October 13th, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Maybe if Barnes and Noble and Books-A-Million actually had a decent Trade section again……I’d care. Everytime I go to there stores, the trade section looks like crap, the books are worn beyond belief, and they never have a complete run of any series available.
(besides, most people I see read at the store NEVER buy the trades, they sit on the floor, read them and put them back).
What I find silly, is that Barnes and Noble has had “exclusives” in the past.
I bought the amazing and cheap hardcover Ultimate Spider-Man collection they had (and ONLY they had) which contained I think the first 40 issues of the series.
And I know I have caught them doing exclusives other times too (ONLY at Barnes and Noble) so really….Pot, meet Kettle.
October 13th, 2011 at 11:53 pm
@bmays They wont hurt… But neither will DC, as DC has already sold them the products. Frankly it was a pointless butt hurt publicity stunt, made to draw attention to there own min tablet product.
October 15th, 2011 at 10:05 am
There’s a flaw in the whole “B&N already bought the books, so DC’s not hurting” argument. Bookstores, unlike comic shops, operate on a standard returnability model. So B&N can always send their stock back, I’m sure.
Still, it doesn’t quite make sense to me why they’d consciously try to limit sales.
October 17th, 2011 at 3:38 am
@Anon: “Bookstores, unlike comic shops, operate on a standard returnability model”
but they wont reutrn them mate, because even though they’ve pulled them from shelves you can still purchase through there website & even in store if you ask for a specific title.
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June 6th, 2012 at 11:01 pm
Once you lose a customer and they use another medium (one 30% cheaper) you tend to LOSE them forever if the experience is the same or better.
The major winner here is Amazon who gets new customers forever. Remember this isn’t about comics only. This is about getting people comfortable buying comics online and digitally so you go to their site every month, comics don’t need to make a cent.
Once you start to do that, you tend to buy other stuff too. Amazon could care less about one purchase. This is about forcing you to use them so you feel comfortable buying other stuff from them.
Add to this storefronts and comics shops can’t compete since comics are where they make their money. Clearly DC feels Amazon is a more important partner than the rest. They might be just see the writing on the wall before we do.
July 7th, 2012 at 3:01 pm
Haha! B&N would be the last place I would go to buy comics!