While we applaud innovation and all that nonsense, we also live in the real world. Thus we believe that traditional booksellers don’t need to worry overmuch about direct-to-consumers sales by publishers. The entire premise centers around ensuring the customer knows who publishes a specific book, in addition to title and author. That’s a lot of information for the poor soul who just wants something to read. And while it may hurt to know this, who actually produces the book is the least important part of the equation.
We think publishers should sell directly to consumers because we believe that every avenue of distribution should be exploited. You never know how someone will find your book. In the meantime, we wait with fascination to see how publishers, owners of some of the worst websites we’ve ever encountered, incorporate commerce functions into the machine.
