Analyst Defends eBook Windowing

Today at the Wharton School’s Future of Publishing conference, Codex Group president Peter Hildick-Smith mounted a passionate defense of windowing eBooks–encouraging the delay of digital releases to maximize hardcover sales.

According to Hildick-Smith, his audience research and pre-publication book testing company polled thousands readers, asking them if they would be more likely to buy a book with an “Only in Hardcover” sticker. When looking at the results, he noticed a more positive response to books marked with the “Only in Hardcover” sticker.

“I absolutely, one hundred percent believe that windowing is the only way this industry is going to survive,” Hildick-Smith told GalleyCat when asked about the experiment. “For whatever reason, the major publishers don’t agree … [simultaneous release] is lethal.”

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