Barnes & Noble had a commerical for the new NOOK pad during every break of last night's A Very Gaga Thanksgiving. (Yes, I forced the boys to watch Gaga. Since most of the songs were acoustic, ex-musician DH was suitably impressed with her vocal range, but I digress.)
For Black Friday, B&N has dropped the price of the basic NOOK to match Amazon's basic Kindle--$79. It's supposed to be 'today only while supplies last'. I'd lay money that this sale will crop up again before C-Day.
Overseas, Kobo has a new e-reader for the U.K. market. Bookseller Kyobo launched its own reader in Korea. And Amazon continues its fight for world domination with the soon-to-open Amazon India.
B&N, Amazon and Kobo, among other e-reader/pad dealers, are making their products available at big box stores like Best Buy, Wal-mart and Target. With all these device sales, personally I cannot wait for January because these new users will want content for their new toys.
Why do I say that? My sales have been a little blah through October and the first half of November, and I've been hearing something similar from other indies. But I've seen an uptick in just the last couple of days, so the fingers are crossed.
While the e-reader/pad battles for Christmas supremacy were expected, the content cold war is turning hot as well. Last week, both Penguin and Random House withdrew their e-books from library lending to patrons with Kindles (that's LIBRARY lending, not Amazon lending) because of the whole Amazon Prime book lending kerfluffle. Penguin relented earlier this week, but Random House is digging their Manolo Blahniks into the dirt on this issue.
Speaking of Amazon Prime, Amazon is reaching out to indie published authors with massive sales and asking them to allow their books to be part of the Amazon Prime lending service--for a price. It'll be interesting to see how many indies jump on this band wagon.
In the meantime, is Macmillan in deep trouble? Rumors of another "reorganization" (that's corporate code for kicking employees to the curb) by the end of the year are drifting through the air like snowflakes in October's nor'easter.
Can things get any crazier in the publishing industry this Christmas? The Magic 8 Ball says--Definitely!
