Even back in the “dire predictions” phase of digital publishing when critics argued that ebooks would be the death of book stores, Barnes and Noble showed itself to be ready to embrace the new technology while still maintaining its substantial interests in its physical stores. More than two years ago, B&N launched a series of initiatives aimed entirely at bringing its customers into its brick-and-mortar stores, even those customers who were quickly embracing ebooks via the Nook. Some of these steps involved incentives like in-store coupons that would appear on the customers’ e-reader screens upon logging on with in-store wi-fi, the ability to read the full version of any ebook in the B&N catalog as long as the customer was in the store, and more.
Now, B&N has once again jumped to the front of the promotions line by being ready for the DoJ settlement with the Big Six publishers. Beginning December 20th and running through the 24th, customers who make an approved ebook purchase while actually in a B&N store can gift an additional ebook off the list to someone else. This list includes titles from several publishers who recently settled with DoJ’s anti-trust lawsuit, and the terms of that settlement allow retailers a lot more leeway in terms of discounting titles; in this case, that discount can mean 100% off the list price.
The list includes a nice mix of older and newer release titles:
- America Again by Stephen Colbert
- Alex Cross by James Patterson
- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
- The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man by Michael Chabon
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel by Jeff Kinney
- Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo
- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins
- Back to Blood by Tom Wolfe
- Brave Read-Along Storybook
- Jacques Pépin New Complete Techniques
- Life of Pi by Yann Martel
- The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
- The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks
- The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan
- One Dish at a Time by Valerie Bertinelli
- Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
- The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
- The Shack by William Paul Young
According to a press release on the promotion, “at checkout, the cashier will ask you to provide two email addresses, one for your Nook Book and another for your gift recipient’s. The gift recipient will receive his/her email immediately, or you can request a gift receipt to give by hand at a later time.” The recipient gets “an access code that can be redeemed for the free book at BN.COM/redeem.”
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.
