Why is Barnes & Noble dictating what authors should have on their websites?
In today’s technology-driven, social online world, authors need a website to promote themselves and their books. Without an online presence, an author risks being thrown into obscurity. An author website should be primarily of an author’s own making (except for the design, that should be left to professionals). Their publisher (unless they are an indie author) might help them optimize their site to promote their books – that never hurts.
What about bookstores, especially large chain stores? Should they have a say in what an author has on his/her site? That might seem like an odd question to ask, but I read a disturbing blog post from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, a romance novel site, that mega bookseller Barnes & Noble is doing just that:
For not having Barnes and Noble sales links on their sites for their books. Authors were informed that if updates to their sites were not made immediately Barnes and Noble would not be ordering their books.
The post continues by saying:
And why is a bookseller mandating authors maintain point of sale links – often at their own expense since many web management firms charge per update (which is something that already irks me but that’s beside the point)? Referrals are earned commodities, not mandated by threats.
I agree, a large bookstore chain like Barnes & Noble has no business dictating what authors have on their sites. And threatening to not order an author’s books if they don’t comply? That’s just downright wrong. I wonder if the Federal Trade Commission or other pertinent government watchdogs would have something to say about this. Probably not. I just hope this doesn’t become a trend among mega bookstores.
To be fair, however, I have not confirmed this story from any other sources. I will be scouring the intertubes looking for third-party verification. If anyone out there has more information about this, please leave a comment below or contact me.
Update: This story is gaining attention across the blogosphere. I came across this post from Teleread and this post from GalleyCat.
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