With booksellers Barnes & Noble still struggling since disruptive technology has hit the mainstream, forcing the chain to close many of its brick-and-mortar stores, it only adds insult to injury that sales of the company's own Nook e-readers are continuing to pale in comparison to the likes of Amazon's Kindle readers.
Perhaps due to Amazon's own claim that its exclusive Kindle offerings have been downloaded more than 100 million times, Barnes & Noble has now taken to doing all it can to keep up by commissioning its own exclusive e-titles in the form of short stories and essays.
The exclusive Nook e-titles or 'Nook Snaps' will be authored by the likes of Mental Floss managing editor Jessanne Collins and novelist Michael Dahlie, according to a report published by the Verge on Thursday, June 6.
Amazon, meanwhile, has in the past commissioned exclusive titles for its Kindle from the likes of mega-literatus Stephen King.
Although the actual Nook Snaps program -- releasing short e-works -- is not necessarily new, the concept of selling exclusive Nook Snaps is for Barnes & Noble, which will likely release three to five of these titles -- around 5000 words each and costing about two dollars a download -- every other month, the Verge says, quite novel.
Nook Snaps themselves were part of the first wave of "e-singles," which are shorter than books but longer than magazine articles. In a 2011 Nook Color Announcement, Nook Snaps were referred to as content that is "snackable."
The bold move into exclusive content for its Nook Snaps may be a means of bolstering profits of the company division in light of Microsoft reportedly having some interest in purchasing the ecosystem for an alleged $1 billion.
It should be noted that whereas Barnes & Noble did announce back in February 2013 that it saw a 26 percent drop in revenue from its Nook hardware in relation to the previous year's holiday season, content sales in fact increased seven percent.
Hence it may not be such a "bold" move, after all, for Barnes & Noble to launch into sales of exclusive content. Perhaps it's actually a pretty safe and smart one at that.
What do you think about Barnes & Noble selling exclusive Nook e-singles? Are you buying it or are you Kindle all the way? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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