Last week I saw this article in Publisher's Weekly about how some publishers are implementing direct sales programs. Simon & Schuster, Random House, and Penguin are all now offering books and audios for sale on their websites. The items are not discounted like they are on Amazon.com and consumers pay for shipping and handling. While these are not the first publishers to directly sell to customers, this article left me with two unanswered questions that are still bothering me a week later:

1) Are there really readers out there who visit publisher websites?

2) If there are readers using publisher websites to discover new books, why are they buying directly from the publisher instead of an online retailer like Amazon.com where they could get a discount?

What is even more intriguing to me is what the article reported Harlequin is doing with its online sales. In addition to offering 20% off each title and free shipping for orders over $25, they are making books available to their online customers one month in advance. So right now I could purchase not only October releases, by November releases as well. Can you imagine if other publishers went this route? Cutting the wait time for my favorite authors by a month? Now that's an incentive for me to buy a book from a publishers website instead of a retailers.

I'm kind of giddy at the prospect. Although... while it would be great for avid readers, it would probably stink for authors. Hmmm. I need to give this more thought.

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