Barnes and Noble Continues to Shoot Itself

I continue to push people to buy from Barnes and Noble because I think it is important to have SOME sort of real alternative to Amazon and to have brick and mortar bookstores--even in a world where eBooks sell more than paper.

Yet, B&N continues to try and make it difficult for small publishers, as I know as part owner of New Libri Press (www.newlibri.com). Why, I continually ask, does B&N go out of its way to destroy itself? Yes, consumers are important. But, even Amazon realizes that small publishers (and the very smallest, the self-published author) are important. Now, I will also say that Amazon plans on crushing those in good time, with their own publishing and pushing of CreateSpace, but that is a different blog.

My complaint today is one I have made for 12 months. For nine months B&N has refused to open up its Enhanced Kids Books to small publishers, the the "promise" of "tools" in the future. Tech savvy small publishers don't need B&N tools, they simply need the standard published (obviously just a permutation on the ePub 3 standard) and the ability to add the finished product to the pipeline. B&N refuses to do this. In effect, acting like Amazon, but without the muscle of Amazon. In effect, yet again shooting themselves in the foot, nay the head.

Even Apple, notorious in its ignoring of small publishers and notoriously slow in reviewing product for entry into the iTunes/iBooks stores allows enhanced books based on the Apple permutation of ePub.

With Google sitting on the sidelines, but following standards, and with ePub 3 being now adopted, B&N is going to suffer for letting small publishers hang out for a year. I want B&N to survive, but lets face it even grass roots efforts cannot stop someone from committing suicide if they really want to.

Maybe when B&N sells off the Nook division and then goes bankrupt, we'll have an accessible standard and possibly even tools. Too bad we won't have B&N.