The very public fight between Amazon and Hachette illustrates why it's never a good idea to become too reliant on one distribution channel. A bevy of startups are vying to establish a real alternative in the form of a subscription ebook service, with two of them, Oyster and Scribd, enjoying the most funding and press attention.
But in some important ways, it's the lesser known Entitle Books that leading the race. A tiny operation based in Wilmington, N.C., Entitle was the first to give its customers access to the full catalogs of two of the five biggest publishers, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster. While Oyster and Scribd both offer larger selections overall, among the Big Five they both only had deals with HarperCollins until recently, when they signed similar deals to carry Simon & Schuster's backlist titles (but not its new releases).
Entitle is also the only one of the three to support E-Ink readers like the Nook, Kobo and
Today, Entitle bolsters its offerings with a new vertical consisting of over 10,000 Christian titles from publishers including David C. Cook, Baker Publishing, B&H Publisher and HarperCollins Christian. Almost half of Entitle's downloads come from its curated collections, with only a single-digit percentage coming through search.
That's not the only thing that sets Entitle apart from its competitors. While they offer similar all-you-can-eat models wherein consumers pay one monthly rate for unlimited reading -- both, predictably, have been labeled "
Bryan Batten, Entitle's founder and CEO, credits that model for allowing him to win the confidence of Simon & Schuster before his bigger, better-funded rivals. Publishers, he says, see the all-you-can-eat model as undermining their pricing power. "They're really apprehensive about going the same route music or movies went," he says. Entitle's scheme offers publishers transparency and puts a floor on price while still giving readers a discount.
Of course, a fear of having their product permanently devalued is exactly what underlies the suspicion Hachette and other publishers feel toward Amazon. Entitle doesn't have a deal with Hachette yet, but, says Batten, "we'd welcome the opportunity to change the way these relationships are currently handled and create a symbiotic partnership with Hachette. We've been saying for years diversity in the marketplace is extremely important for all stakeholders in the industry."
