Andrea’s Amazon Bits

Andrea James has a nifty blog that covers Amazonand has a couple of interesting bits on it lately. One of them looks at the new Amazon “window-shopping” experience, that’s at http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/amazon/archives/152723.asp. The other one looks at Oprah’s endorsement of the Kindle and discusses the possibility that Kindle may be a better buy for women.

I don’t know about that. I do own a Kindle, however, and know that my expectations of what a book should offer me has been much changed since I got my Kindle (which I love and which I use constantly.) I also find myself very irritated if a paper book on Amazon is not available on Kindle. Now do I still read paper books? Heck yeah. But Kindle books are cheaper for the most part, there’s no waiting for delivery, and I do believe that reading on the E-Ink screen is just as comfortable (possibly more comfortable) than a paper book.

Pirate Bay Hoists the Lawsuit Flag

I don’t know if I’m more bemused by the role-reversal or the pure-D ballsiness. A Wired Blog notes that Peter Sunde, a co-founder of torrent site the Pirate Bay, is accusing a group of Swedish book publishers of illegal scraping, and is threatening a lawsuit, saying Pirate Bay owns the copyright to its database of torrents which the publishers violated.

Once you get past the surrealism, there’s a pretty astonishing statistic you might want to make note of. The book publishers, who were doing all this scraping for a study, noted that 85 percent of the best-selling books in Sweden are available on the Pirate Bay. And Sunde is quoted by TorrentFreak that he’s “a bit sad that it’s not 100%.”

KB Toys Gets Into “Super Value”

KB Toys announced on September 16 that they’re offering new three “Super Value” lines — Super Value Video Games, Super Value Family DVDs, and interestingly, Super Value Previously-Played Video Games (one more major retailer gets into the used market.) The Super Value program is described as carrying games (new games) starting at $9.98, while the used line didn’t have prices described. The press release noted only that the used games would offer guarantees. You can get the full press release at Marketwatch.com.

Research and Market Releases Book Stores Retailing Report

The good news is that Research and Markets has released the “2008 Worldwide Book Stores Retailing Industry Report”, which includes information on establishments, employment, and sales totals (with forecasts for 2009), 5-year trends, and coverage of many many countries. The bad news is that the cheapest copy is a PDF for $266. Details at http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/2c50fe/2008_worldwide_boo .

Nintendo Goes for the “Women Who Rent Handbags” Demographic

Nintendo has teamed up with From Bags to Riches, an online handbag-rental service, to include Nintendo DS systems and games with some rentals. That’s right, rent a Prada bag and get a nice DS to put in it. (The idea is to match the DS color with the bag color, I guess.) And instead of getting a little chihuahua to carry around, you can amuse yourself with Nintendogs.

From the press release: “With the addition of the stylish Nintendo DS, Nintendo brings to fashion accessories what Prada brought to stylish messenger bags.”

You can get more information about the new partnership at the From Bags to Riches Web site: http://www.frombagstoriches.com/rentbag/pc/nintendoDS.asp.

Overivew of the NEIBA

Publishers Weekly had a brief update on the 35th annual New England Independent Booksellers Association Trade show, which include the little nut that independent booksellers comprise about 10% of the book market. I’m glad; frankly I’m amazed it’s still that high.

Attendees discussed print-on-demand as well as the possibility of selling Sony Readers in their stores (Seems to me Kindle has got to get a bricks-n-mortar retail outlet or get buried. Circuit City’s market cap is now 230 million!)

From the article: “Moderator Roxanne Coady, owner of R.J. Julia in Madison, Conn., noted the need for independents to monetize what they do. ‘Here’s what’s becoming a problem,’ she said, ‘we don’t charge. You can talk with our staff, and there aren’t even tip jars. We see people spending an hour in our store and then leaving and buying the books where it’s cheaper. Is there another way of paying for being that filter?’” Yes ma’am: let the people order the books online THROUGH YOU. Be one of those assistant shopper kinda deals. And put your recommendations online. And hell, put out some tip jars.

I Want to Sell Digital Music with the Idea Box!

Best Buy is going to buy Napster for $121 million in cash. The purchase is seen as a move to compete with iTunes, the 600-million pound gorilla of online music sales and number 1 music retailer in the US.

I’m not surprised that they’d fork out $121 million cash for Napster. Even now it’s still one of the better-known names on the Internet and it’s a quick way into the online music sales market. What I am surprised about is what they’re not spending their cash on. I mean, what is Circuit City’s market cap right now? $275 million?

Target to Start Carrying Sony Reader

Sony has announced that Target is going to carry the Sony Reader starting September 14th. That’s today, boys and girls. The model in question is the Reader Digital Book PRS-505. If you buy the reader at Target, you’ll also get a coupon for a free e-book. The store will also carry a selection of accessories and accouterments; the Reader will retail for about $300. You can get a few more details at this PC Magazine article.

FTC Makes Some New Rules for Robocalls

I totally missed this announcement from the FTC about new rules for robocalls — you know, those prerecorded calls that try to sell you all kinds of stuff (I especially like the ones that start out with “This isn’t a sales call!”)

The new rules will prohibit robocalls unless the seller has the recipients SIGNED, WRITTEN agreement to get these kinds of calls (unfortunately the new rules also permit sellers to get this permission electronically pursuant to the E-SIGN act.) Very nice is that December 1, sellers and telemarketers will be required to provide at the beginning of all recorded messages an opt-out mechanism.

Check out all the new rules at the URL above. I’m seriously looking forward to these new changes…

A Look at Borders’ New Concept Store

Canada.com has an article about Borders new concept stores. The new stores have a “digital center”, where customers can download both ebooks and music. That’s not surprising, but the concept stores also have a travel section where shoppers “can buy maps, portable DVD players and GPS navigation systems. And there is an interactive computer kiosk where customers can research, plan, and even book a trip in the store.”

Borders wants to go through a Christmas season before they make any determinations about how profitable the new stores are. But something like this has to happen sometime…