Digital DC Comics Available for Kindle Users Only?
If you've been paying attention to certain commercials and ads you've seen on TV and in the newspapers, you may have noticed that certain department stores and discount stores promoting and selling specific lines of clothing established by celebrities and high-profile names from the fashion industry. Examples of these are Sarah Jessica Parker's clothing line only sold at the now defunct Steve & Barry's Clothing Store and Jennifer Lopez's new clothing line only available at Kohl's. With clothing lines, I suppose it's okay for one specific retail store to have solo rights to promoting and selling them to the everyday consumer. Selling a certain series of books, however, published by specific high-profile publishers such as DC Comics to be promoted and sold by only one retail store is a whole different story.
When the huge announcement of Amazon Kindle's newest model on its successful line, the Kindle Fire, another major announcement also came beside it. It was announced that Amazon will retain the exclusive rights to selling digital versions of a hundred titles from DC Comics' high-end catalog. In short, if you are looking for the digital versions of your favorite, well-beloved superhero comics such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Watchmen, you can only purchase them at Amazon and nowhere else.
What does this mean for the average comic book fanatic and other enthusiasts? It means that eReading consumers would be out of luck that their favorite DC Comics superhero series would only be compatible with the Kindle readers and devices that support the Kindle app. Readers with Barnes & Noble's Nook eReader tablet series are going to have some problems with this one, being a major competitor of the Kindle and not having support for the competitor's reading app at the same time. This even includes planning to purchase the actual bound printed versions impossible as well.
Barnes & Noble (B&N), as well as Books-a-Million, the third largest retail bookseller in the nation, responded to the Amazon-DC Comics exclusive deal by pulling off all their DC Comics from their shelves. B&N stated in their policy that they do not carry published works if they don't have the rights to sell the digital versions of these said works. Books-a-Million's president Terry Finley stated that the chain will not promote any titles in which publishers chose to pursue these exclusionary deals that would create an unfair, limited marketplace in the readership industry.
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