Usually operating like oil and water, ebooks and the bookstore world are having a new go at getting along.
Just announced, the three-year-old startup Shelfie (formerly known as BitLit) has struck a deal to have certain bestsellers sold at Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with a digital copy included. Buy the hardcover of the new TED Talks guide to public speaking by Chris Anderson, and you’ll get the ebook edition with it.
Normally, Shelfie works this way:
- Use its smartphone app to take a photo of your physical bookshelf.
- Shelfie will tell you which of your print books it can sell you (or give you for free, in some cases) as ebooks. The deals it makes are with publishers.
In this case, the publisher (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) is working with the bookstore (Harvard) to choose which titles are offered as ebooks to store customers who buy in print.
Bottom line: It’s a small program, but it’s a three-way partnership between heavy hitters: Houghton, Harvard Book Store, and Shelfie have excellent traction in their respective fields. If the comparatively sophisticated clientele of the Harvard Book Store shows an affinity for getting an ebook copy of a print purchase, this won’t be missed by other independent bookshops or by publishers. This is an experiment, however limited, to keep an eye on.
Editor’s note: Shelfie shut down in January 2017, and was acquired by Kobo in April 2017 for integration into their existing platform.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
