One piece of valuable news in the book world we did not touch on last week was the launch of online book retailer, BookDepository.com, the American sister website of the highly successful UK company BookDepository.co.uk which itself has been going for the last five years. In some ways, considering that self-published books are often bought by other self-published authors (the self-publishing community is a strong supportive and cooperative little world), this might prove to be the most significant piece of news this year for readers and authors alike.
Interestingly, the company state on their website that they do not see themselves as a direct competitor to Amazon.com! Frankly, no one is fooling anyone here. Combine this with the fact that the BookDepository offer free worldwide shipping, their parlance for more obscure and difficult to get books, as well as dedicated deals with many publishers to bring out-of-print titles back into circulation through digital print technology—in a nutshell, the BookDepository has just become a very serious online bookseller and they have just starting pissing on the flower beds in Mr. Amazon and Mr. Barnes & Noble’s award-winning gardens!
BookDepository.com has launched with some key titles retailing at cheaper prices than Amazon and they are boasting openly, with 2.4 million titles, that they carry more than Amazon. They had sales of $100 million in 2008 and half of this was from global sales. The website is pretty slick and I particularly like the world map of live sales as they happen—a neat and clever piece of interactive marketing.
We will leave the last word to Review Editor Mark Thwaite from their blog;
“Hello and welcome to The Book Depository! Our new American website,bookdepository.com, the sister website to our five-year-old British websitebookdepository.co.uk, launches today and we really hope that you like it. We've worked hard to create a website that offers you lots and lots of books at really great prices -- and with free delivery on all our books too!The Book Depository was founded in 2004 with the aim of making "All books available to All" through pioneering supply chain initiatives, republishing and the digitizing of content. It is a continuing project, still in its infancy, and one of the most ambitious ventures in the book industry.The Book Depository is also one of the fastest growing booksellers in the world. With over a million loyal customers, with five years of successful bookselling behind us, and led by a great team consisting of professionals with a massive amount of experience in bookselling and in the online world, we hope that we can offer you a matchless service getting great books to you at amazing prices -- and always with free delivery.By the way, my name is Mark Thwaite and I'm the editor around here. I decide which titles we review and feature, which authors we interview, write this blog, send out our tweets -- that kind of thing! If you want to contact me, email me via editor AT bookdepository.com
As I've just mentioned my tweeting, I best tell you that following us on Twitter is a great way to keep up with what we are up to. For instance, I often announce competitions and giveaways on Twitter before get around to blogging about them. Follow us here: twitter.com/bookdepository”
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