From Tech Crunch:
Along with the higher price that Amazon is introducing to Prime this month, the company is also bringing another first to its membership service: physical books. The company now has a new product called Prime Book Box, a subscription service for children’s hardback books, selected by Amazon editors, sold as part of its Prime tier.
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Pricing is $22.99 per box, which Amazon says works out to 35 percent below the cumulative list price for the books, and you can subscribe for books to come in one-, two- or three-month intervals. Books are divided up by age groups of baby-two years, three-five years, six-eight years and nine-12 years, with sample titles including If Animals Kissed Good Night, A Sick Day for Amos McGee, The Willoughbys, and Arlo Finch in the Valley of Fire.
All books are hardcover, and you can opt either for four board books for kids aged two and younger, or two picture books or novels for older children.
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The idea of bringing out a physical book service specifically for children is notable. Parents are more likely to buy (and get gifted) physical picture books and young adult novels rather than e-books as presents, and so kids often build up libraries of these. It also could be a helpful fillip to those of us out there who are trying to figure out engaging ways of reducing screen time for offspring.
Link to the rest at Tech Crunch
One thing to consider is: whose books will Amazon be shipping in those boxes? APub? Other Tradpubs? Indies?
If Scholastic is so dominant in their niche Amazon might find some success just by being an alternative with different books.
Counterprogramming, if you will.
Besides, their are other audiences: home schoolers, for one.
The contrarian in me wonders if maybe Scholastic is going to be vulnerable precisely for being so deeply tied to the establishment.
Most times Amazon does something crazy it turns out they have a different angle of attack.
https://www.geekwire.com/2018/will-new-amazon-service-box-another-small-bookstore-one-sellers-take-staying-relevant/
As I told Nate – remember (if you are American) the scholastic flyers? The single sheet of newsprint your teacher would hand out multiple times a year with offers to order cheap books? That’s still a thing, as much now as ever. This Prime Book Box will probably get some uptake, but it isn’t going to exactly set the world on fire either.
They haven’t been ignoring the www either – https://clubs.scholastic.com/parent-flyer?cgid=W_2
Everything old is new again. I remember subscribing as a child to a monthly book service. Received 4 hardbacks a month, as I recall. I still have some of them.