Looking over some of the websites of publishers that seem to be directed primarily towards the consumer I think it's pretty obvious that this is just another marketing tool. It's about giving the consumer more information about both books and authors. It's a way to get consumers to become fans and to get them involved in a community built up around an author, a book, or a series of books.
It seems highly unlikely that these websites are designed to actually foster direct sales from the publisher to the consumer. In my review of several websites that allow someone to buy a book directly form the publisher there were absolutely no discounts being offered. As a matter of fact at the Simon and Shuster site they have links to other online bookstores for you to buy the books. It's hard to believe that they really expect consumers to purchase directly from them.
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I think it's just a variation of the shopping mall, or a strip of restaurants. Eight restaurants near each other will do better than one that is off by itself somewhere. I also think that Amazon won't always be as inexpensive as it is now or that publishers will get into the used book business any time soon.
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