Barnes & Noble stores won’t stock DC Comics’ graphic novels
DC Comics’ effort to expand digital distribution of its graphic novels has ignited a nasty battle between two bookselling giants.
Barnes & Noble Inc. said Friday that its stores will not stock hard copies of 100 DC books that the Warner Bros.-owned unit is making available exclusively on Amazon.com’s Kindle platform — a direct competitor of Barnes & Noble’s Nook e-reader.
Beginning with the launch of the Kindle Fire tablet Nov. 15, Amazon will have exclusive digital distribution rights for four months to books that include “Watchmen” and graphic novels featuring Batman and Superman. The deal gives DC’s books, which are being made available digitally for the first time, the advantage of being part of Amazon’s huge marketing push for the Kindle Fire.
Barnes & Noble said it has a policy against putting books in its 1,341 stores that are available on other digital platforms but not the Nook.
“We will not stock physical books in our stores if we are not offered the available digital format,” Jaime Carey, Barnes & Noble’s chief merchandising officer, said in a statement. “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.”
Customers will still be able to special order the books, however, as well as buy them from Barnes & Noble’s website.
In response, a DC Entertainment spokeswoman pointed out that the graphic novels will be available on not just the Kindle Fire but also any device with Amazon’s Kindle app, including Apple Inc.’s iPad.
“We are disappointed that Barnes & Noble has made the decision to remove these books off their shelves and make them unavailable to their customers,” she said.
DC will swallow the sales hit from Barnes & Noble for the four months rather than alter its Amazon agreement, apparently betting that it can make more money online than it would have in the retail giant’s stores.
