Barnes & Noble Could Have Stopped Amazon Early On

Limited foresight and not being open to trying something new, lost them control.

The Publishers and Barnes & Noble could have defeated Amazon very early in the rise of digital books. I had sent several publishers and the B&N Board a “How To” on how to do it. One B&N board member even replied back and said it was an interesting concept.

So what was the concept?

(Remember this was in the beginning of eBooks, when people still wanted the physical but the eReaders from B&N and Amazon were starting to catch people’s attention.)

In the email, I outlined for the publishers and B&N how they could capitalize on this massive shift that was coming (like AI, the eReader Genie was not going back into the bottle, it was inevitable). It was VERY simple too:

• Whenever a B&N member/account holder (remember, at one time B&N had a really nice membership program) bought a physical book, that member would automatically get the eReader version in their digital library.

Had B&N done this, they may have lost out on double dipping and selling duplicates of physical and digital media, but they would have owned the book market going forward, and they would have also propped up the physical book market so that the publishers cold continue to rely on physical sales too. People would have been more apt to buy the physical for their current home libraries, knowing that they would also get the digital (easier to read on the go).

People don’t like splitting up their libraries. So early on, before eReading was yet a thing, B&N could have created massive digital libraries for their members/account holders that were only then buying physical books and when the time came and those readers decided to jump into digital, would you look at that… They would have already had a big library under their B&N account (I did state in the letter that the B&N account could be used as the starter but a free account (login) could be used to tie together the digital with the physical so that no individual was stuck paying a membership to keep their libraries. This way, it is a feature for the customers and they may resub a membership later for added benefits without losing their digital libraries if they un-subbed). If they already had a ton of their physical books in that digital library, they would keep buying from B&N to maintain it those collections, versus ever jumping to Amazon.

And before you say, this could never be done due to licensing, think again. Movies Anywhere was able to work licensing for digital movies where you buy on one platform, and you can watch on all the platforms you link to your Movies Anywhere account. Amazon even did this exact same thing with music and the digital locker. If you buy the CD, you got the digital album free. It is called Auto-Rip and it is still being used today. So to say that the licensing issues couldn’t have been worked out, is also a lack of foresight.

Alas… that did not happen and B&N and publishers selling print books are in the village, looking up at King Kindle, as he is waving from the Amazon High Castle.

Modern Lesson of the Day: Think about the above dynamic when you think about how AI is integrating into everything. AI is not a “maybe”. The Genie is out of the bottle and its not going back inside. So we adapt with it or become like B&N and the publishers of print books… There is no fighting against the inevitable shift here. Adapt and work with it.