Can independents hand-sell e-books like they do print books? That's what Booksite, a provider of e-commerce tools, and several bookstores are about to find out.
Testing the theory that no one communicates better with their book-loving customers, a pilot program starts this week with four independent bookstores.
In addition to selling e-books from their online sites, the stores will be testing numerous methods to cross-market e-books with traditional forms, including in-store kiosks, author appearances and e-book demonstrations.
Participating in the test are: BookPeople in Austin, Texas; Brookline Booksmith in Brookline, Mass.; McGraw-Hill Bookstore in New York; and Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops in Milwaukee, Wis.
The test will be limited to books in the Microsoft Reader format (which can be read on a PC). The company wanted to keep things simple, Booksite owner Dick Harte said, explaining that the education process will be tough enough without adding multi-formats or dedicated reading devices to the mix.
Other efforts have been made to encourage traditional retailers to sell e-books, but those approaches forced the stores to join an associate program in which another dot-com site sold the books. "That is why retailers have been loath to support e-books," said Harte. "They are forced to turn their customers over to someone who is trying to sell direct. And they only get half the normal (price)."
The new program allows stores to sell direct to customers and keep the full amount. Booksite simply activates the download link at the end of the transaction.
"We don't send the customer anywhere; we send the e-book to the customer," Harte said. "The e-books are listed in the same databases, collected in the same shopping cart, so established businesses can support established customers with established procedures."
Readerville's online bookstore: Book lovers take heart. When Karen Templer opens Readerville.com's bookstore today, hand-selling and old-fashioned book business ethics will be live online.
As the newest addition to the Readerville.com site – a Web-based community for anyone who loves books – the new bookstore will combine the best of Web technology with the attitude of a small bookstore, where the proprietor knows not just your name but your tastes.
Determined to stay independent, Templer will take advertising dollars, but placement isn't for sale. If a book is promoted on Readerville, it's because Templer feels the work is of particular interest to members of the community.
Like many indies, Templer will rely on locals to buy the books she's offering. But while a small-town store has a limited clientele, Readerville's pageviews are topping 125,000 a week – proving visitors are passionate and constant.
Powered by Booksite.com, Templer remains responsible for the store's content and tone and Ingram will do fulfillment.
While brick-and-mortar stores offer readings and signings, Readerville.com counters with such original content as reviews, a monthly reading group and a front page full of literary links. It also has "The Forum" – a flexible space where readers, writers, librarians, publishers and critics discuss everything from favorite books to whether plot is a crucial element in fiction.
Readerville also offers bimonthly literary events, in which authors spend a week in an online roundtable discussion with readers.
"I just want to maintain the quality and grow the site and the bookstore slowly and carefully," Templer said. "I don't want it to be the biggest anything – just a wonderful place for people devoted to books."
Money to be made: Peanutpress.com announced last week the recipients of its Peanut Awards for 2000. What's surprising is not that Stephen King received four of those awards – but that the list accounted for almost $1 million in sales.
"There is a huge market out there," said Mike Segroves, marketing executive at Peanutpress. "And we are just at the very beginning of tapping it. "
According to Peanutpress, 49 percent of customers come back within 30 days to make another transaction, and the average transaction is three titles. "Our biggest problem is getting someone to make the first purchase. Once they do, they're hooked," Segroves said.
Other prominent award winners include Robert Ludlum, L. Ron Hubbard, Nelson DeMille, Dan Brown and Robert Silverberg.
(Editor's note – M.J. Rose's novel, Lip Service, was on the list.)
Publishers as booksellers: BookZone.com is the first U.S. application service partner offering publishers the opportunity to sell books directly from their sites utilizing Microsoft Reader, a leading software application for reading e-book documents, manuscripts and other digitally published materials.
In a deal finalized last week, BookZone will incorporate OverDrive's MIDAS Technology – a copyright protection system based on Microsoft's Digital Asset Server – into its own proprietary e-publishing system, the BookZone EDGE (Electronic Document Generation and Encryption).
Mary Westheimer, CEO of BookZone, said this alliance represents a big step forward in the company's mission to help advance the emerging technology and applications of e-publishing. But how many readers will go to publishers' sites to buy books?
While Westheimer acknowledges that few fiction readers go looking for books by publisher, she said this is not necessarily true for nonfiction.
Web authors on the move: Joseph Nassise, author of the thriller Riverwatch, was recently signed by Barclay Books. It previously published only in print-on-demand by GreatUnpublished.com.
Pauline Jones, meanwhile, is being published in print by Thorndike Press. Her first two novels, The Last Enemy and The Spy Who Kissed Me, have both just gone back to press and her newest, Byte Me, was just released.
Jones – currently nominated for a number of e-book awards – began as an electronic-only author published by Hard Shell Word Factory.
"Right now my books either sell for $25 or $5. There's no middle ground for the reader who wants a print version for a reasonable price," Jones said.
Nassise's first novel does not have agent representation and he negotiated the deal with Barclay himself.
"I had spent years reading how difficult it is to sell your book to a conventional house especially when you write genre fiction," Nassise said. "So I took a different road to get the attention of a publisher."
The author's plan was to generate sales through his own marketing efforts and use this track record to approach an agent to represent Riverwatch. But Barclay made him an offer before he got an agent.
M.J. Rose is the author of a new novel and nonfiction book about e-publishing.
