There's a new battle brewing in the superhero universe, but it doesn't involve costumed crazies slugging it out. At least, not yet.
DC Comics has granted exclusive digital rights to 100 of its most popular graphic novels to Amazon for exclusive use through the online bookseller's new Kindle Fire tablet. And this is not sitting well with other bookstores.
Barnes & Noble has protested by removing all physical copies of the books from the shelves in all its brick and mortar locations. According to Jaime Carey, Barnes & Noble's chief merchandising officer, "[Barnes & Noble] will not stock physical books in our stores if we are not offered the available digital format. To sell and promote the physical book in our store showrooms and not have the e-book available for sale would undermine our promise to Barnes & Noble customers to make available any book, anywhere, any time."
Books-a-Million has followed B&N's lead and also removed the comics, which include the classic graphic novel The Watchmen as well as books featuring Batman, the Sandman and Superman, among many others.
While this looks like a battle of the booksellers, it's really a platform war. Much like Beta and VHS slugged it out back in the day, there are now multiple tablets vying for market dominance. Remember, B&N has to consider its own reader, the Nook, which used to have a major advantage by allowing content in color. But Amazon has made major upgrades to its tablet. Kindle Fire is in color and provides access to web browsing, games, apps, songs, and streaming movies and TV shows. Obviously, Amazon is competing with the iPad, as is everyone.
It should be noted that B&N will still be offering the disputed books online and customers can special order them from stores. So, B&N isn't crazy — just pissy.
Everyone knows the bookstore business is in bad shape, as demonstrated by the recent death of Borders. It seems rather shortsighted for B&N to lose sales on one front because it can't make sales on another — it's like losing money twice on the same product. And I'm not alone in this opinion.
Sandman author Neil Gaiman, in an email to The New York Times, said, "As the author of 12 percent of the books in question, I couldn't understand why Barnes & Noble's reaction to Amazon getting a digital exclusive was to effectively give Amazon and the independent [comic book] stores a physical exclusive as well, and then to publicize that."
DC Comics is claiming all the fuss is much ado about nothing. Jim Lee, co-publisher of DC Entertainment, said, "Just because we're starting with Amazon, this is not the be-all and end-all of our digital strategy and distribution." Apparently, the books will eventually be available on other e-readers — through the Kindle app — though DC can't disclose exactly when this will happen.
This whole mess is reminiscent of Netflix's exclusivity agreements with movie studios. In that situation, movie studios hope to sell more DVDs by keeping them off Netflix for a while — a move that seems myopic. As we all know, there are other options for the tech-savvy fan that wants access to content being denied by the establishment, be it film or print.
The New York Times quoted one comics fan who alluded to the fact that piracy is always an option. "What will me and my poor iPad do?" wrote someone called NinjaZilla. "I'm so sorry DC! Because it is not like I can download all those comics for free, oh wait yes I can, and now I guess I will and maybe I will download every comic DC produces while I am at it!"
This will eventually work itself out. But as is usual whenever there's a corporate battle, the true loser is the consumer.
