A truly interesting experiment that was reported in today's PW Daily:
"The Clonefiles initiative was a small experiment, involving a
single imprint of Osprey Group, Angry Robot, and one indie bookstore,
Mostly Books in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England. The store tested
bundling by offering a free electronic edition of every one of Angry
Robot's print novels it sold and promoted the venture with a window
display. But the initiative could have big implications. According to
reports in the Futurebook blog of The Bookseller,
Clonefiles has already been so successful since it began on July 4,
tripling sales of those titles, that Angry Robot is planning to roll it
out to more stores.
Mostly Books owner Mark Thornton told Futurebook that the
initiative has been a game-changer. “It has allowed us to engage with
customers and break the ‘ereader taboo’ with people coming into the
shop,” he said. “At Mostly Books, we assume that everyone coming into
our shop has an ereader. Clonefiles allows us to start a conversation
with them, and it is amazing how customers have responded. From a
slightly-embarrassed ‘let’s all pretend eReaders don’t exist’
awkwardness, customers have opened up to us about their eReading
experience—and in the process are actually telling us what we need to
offer to stay relevant—and survive.”
Given the number
of independent booksellers in the U.S., who have advocated bundling
print books with e-books for several years now, Clonefiles could have an
immediate impact on this side of the Pond as well. In the UK
experiment, purchasers simply gave the bookstore their e-mail address
and were then sent a DRM-free electronic edition. No heavy tech
knowledge required."
Although we're not sure exactly how we would accomplish something similar, we are definitely investigating the possibilities!
