Comic books on tablets are great. They’re one of the best parts of owning one, actually. But the backlash from DC making a bunch of its most popular graphic novels exclusive to Amazon could muck things up for everyone.
After the deal went public, Barnes & Noble and Books-a-Million (the third-largest bookseller) pulled the 100 graphic novels that went digital-exclusive from the shelves in their physical stores. And that sucks for everyone.
As a consumer, it stinks all over the place. For one, if you’re on any platform other than Kindle, you’re screwed if you want to read popular books like The Watchmen, The Sandman and Y: The Last Man. But then if you say screw it, I’ll just pick it up at the store, you won’t find it in the physical stores either. And if you’re just a comics fan, there’s a chance that comics being off the shelves in bookstores could stunt the growth in a small-margin industry enough to get some of your favourite books cancelled.
And it doesn’t even make great sense for Barnes & Noble. For years, comic publishers bent over backwards to get their books into the brick and mortar stores, but with digital doing so well, they’re actually driving more people to physical stores than ever before. So B&N is basically just turning away business (maybe yours) to fire a warning shot at Amazon and other publishers considering exclusive deals. In the meantime, you can (and should!) go to your local comic shop for your books. Or, ironically and not unexpectedly and gosh-Barnes-&-Noble-is-dumb-ly enough, get them from Amazon. [NY Times]