Will Amazon Put Advertisements In eBooks? 226
destinyland writes "A book editor at Houghton Mifflin argues ebook advertising is 'coming soon to a book near you.' (Paywalled unless you go through Google.) Amazon has filed a patent for advertisements on the Kindle, and the book editor joins with a business professor in the Wall Street Journal to make the case for advertisements in ebooks. Book sales haven't increased over the last decade, and profits are being squeezed even lower by ebooks. According to another industry analyst, Amazon is being pressured to make ebook sales more profitable for publishers, partly because Apple offers them more lucrative terms in Apple's iBookstore. One technology blog notes that Amazon's preference seems to be keeping book prices low, and wonders whether consumers would accept advertising if it meant that new ebooks were then free. Meanwhile, Ralph Lauren has confused the issue even more by publishing a 'shoppable' children's storybook online, prompting a fierce reaction from one blog: 'I hope it's the last. Books are one of the last refuges in our world from the constant cry by advertisers to spend money and fill our lives with unnecessary things.'"
Let the Reader/Consumer Decide If It Works (Score:5, Insightful)
(Paywalled unless you go through Google.)
I apologize for not RTFA but I was brought to the same paywall whether I went through Google or not. Is it some sort of lottery?
'I hope it's the last. Books are one of the last refuges in our world from the constant cry by advertisers to spend money and fill our lives with unnecessary things.'
I would just like to say that I welcome both options. Reader A can pay a high premium and enjoy the original novel as the author intended it to be enjoyed and Reader B can pay little or nothing and try to read Fahrenheit 451 with moving advertisements marketing gallons of premium kerosene at wholesale prices (BUY BUY BUY!). And you know what? I'm really not opposed to this. Maybe the authors are and maybe it offends the your *ism but as long as they keep the old model as an option who cares? I haven't noticed a decline in my ability to purchase paperbacks and hardcovers following the advent of e-readers so why should I fear e-readers installing advertisements into books?
Meanwhile, Ralph Lauren has confused the issue even more by publishing a 'shoppable' children's storybook online ...
It's a 'storybook' except that the children are real children acting in front of a green screen that has superimposed images of chidren's-bookish scenes done up in a flash video. Congratulations, the "fierce" blog has done little more than positively re-enforce this marketing maneuver because I just watched an advertisement for children's clothes!
...
I also am a little bit annoyed that we complain about the RIAA and MPAA as clinging to an old business model and then as book publishers and retailers try something new (or are even rumored to try something new) we hop all over it and denounce it as a crime against humanity. And yet daily I read news sites laden with advertisements. The very site I write this comment on transfers my comments to you, the reader, alongside political advertisements trying to raise your ire about "ObamaCare" or "Barack the Magic Negro [photobucket.com]." Yes, yes, there are tools like AdBlock, NoScript and Flash blockers specifically designed to circumvent this but to the average reader of Slashdot, this is reality.
And despite the horror of advertising, here we are
"options" (Score:5, Insightful)
aye, there's the rub... will we have options?
Do we have the option to get our cable TV without comercials? there are a few pay on-demand channels, but as a general rule, no.
Broadcast radio? no
Magizines? no
Think like a distributer... why charge less for the version with ads in them when you can charge full price AND get the advertising money and make it the only version offered. If I were a heartless corp, I would offer the two versions, then when the next big hit comes out only offer it with ads at full price, then slowly increase the number of ad-only books till that was all I offered in about 5 years or so.
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Do we have the option to get our cable TV without comercials? there are a few pay on-demand channels, but as a general rule, no.
DVDs? iTunes? Netflix?
Broadcast radio? no
CDs? iTunes? Spotify?
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DVDs? iTunes? Netflix?
not cable, and when was the last time you bought a dvd without a wad of ads at the start (some they wont let you skip)?
CDs? iTunes? Spotify?
not broadcast, and both the brick&morter and the online stores get money from the ads they pelt you with while you are there.
If the whole "free market" kumbiya actually held true with a small selection of providers, why do we not have comercial-less channels? or more ad-free pay/contribute webpages? because people realize they can have their c
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None. AnyDVD takes care of that for me.
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Confusing and Fallacious Comparisons (Score:3, Interesting)
Do we have the option to get our cable TV without comercials? there are a few pay on-demand channels, but as a general rule, no.
HBO? Cinemax? Showtime? And why are you comparing books -- a single finite length of words -- to a streaming service that continually offers new and different content? Wouldn't it be better to compare books to DVDs? Your comparison of a 24/7 service that provides semi-unique programming versus a book smacks of an "apples to oranges" comparison.
Broadcast radio? no
NPR? XM Radio? If they could sell you subscriptions to FM and AM bands, I bet they would (similar to HBO/SHOW/CINE). Again, try comparing books to CDs instead
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Why should I could keep paying full price and suffer through advertisements
because there is no other option? because it is that or you don't get to read it. If the only option is full price, with ads, what do you do?
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Turn that garbage off and go read a bo- oh wait.
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let me tell you a story... a story of a little text message. This little message, let's call him Bill, Bill was a happy little string of 1's and 0's. Back a few years ago, Bill could get anywhere he wanted for just 10 cents! it was a wonderful time, all three of the cellphone carriers had the same fees so Bill didn't care where he was going for his time.
But, one day carrier A decided that Bill was getting too much of a free ride and ramped up the price to 15 cents. Now Bill was sad, he didn't think he wa
I am opposed to it (Score:5, Insightful)
As for the tracking, well, what if you want to read a book about explosives? What if that tips off the FBI, and they come to your house demanding to know why you are reading about bombs? Do you really think that the marketing firms are going to keep their databases secret from the government? Do you remember when the PATRIOT act was passed, and librarians publicly denounced the clause about handing library records over to the government, for the exact same reasons?
Technology is supposed to be improving our lives. Why, then, are we accepting uses of it that do not improve our lives and only serve the interests of publishing and marketing companies?
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Technology is supposed to be improving our lives. Why, then, are we accepting uses of it that do not improve our lives and only serve the interests of publishing and marketing companies?
Because those groups have some of the loudest voices in our societies, and drown out any alternative point of view with their message of "consumer, consume, consume". Everyone is susceptible to be manipulated by this kind of thing, some more than others. Some a lot more than others.
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I also am a little bit annoyed that we complain about the RIAA and MPAA as clinging to an old business model and then as book publishers and retailers try something new (or are even rumored to try something new) we hop all over it and denounce it as a crime against humanity
Digital vs physical distribution is a completely separate issue from injecting ads where previously there were none.
As long as they keep the paid for version separate from the ad supported version as you say, I'm fine with it. If they have ads even in fully paid for eBooks, I'm sticking to paperbacks. Yes, I'm one of those people that see no ads on /. , and I haven't even clicked "disable advertising" on the front page.
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Seriously? eBook are already the same price, if not more, than the physical paperback. Lower the price, leave out the advertising!
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I also am a little bit annoyed that we complain about the RIAA and MPAA as clinging to an old business model and then as book publishers and retailers try something new (or are even rumored to try something new) we hop all over it and denounce it as a crime against humanity.
Well, usually we know that no matter what anyone does (even if he does nothing) there will be people opposing him. Some of those oppose one action, and we hear their comments and some oppose the opposite action and we hear their comments when appropriate.
The problem is when we get someone who opposes both actions with no third option available. These are the really annoying people "We don't want the government to make rules that affect the market but we want the government to stop evil corporations". "We wa
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Re:Let the Reader/Consumer Decide If It Works (Score:4, Insightful)
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If there is a market for it, I can absolutely see publishers offering a premiumly priced advertising free edition. It all depends on what the market will support. The publishers are interested in making big piles of money, so if there is money to be made by selling an edition without ads then they will do it.
Re:Let the Reader/Consumer Decide If It Works (Score:4, Insightful)
The publishers are interested in making big piles of money
exactly... now, what gives you more money:
option a:
Sell book X with adds for $1, and without for $10. Ad mone makes $9 per book, average net for each book sold: $10
option b:
only sell book X with adds for $10 because the only three other e-book retailers are doing the same. Ad money still makes $9 per book, average net is $19.
Why cut your net in nearly half? It is the same reason why your cellphone company can get away with charging 25c a text, because every other cellphone company is charging 25c a text, not because it actually costs that much to do.
It will start with the next huge blockbuster book, think the next harry potter or twilight... it will ONLY come in full price, ad-saturated books, and because everyone wants one, they will pay it. Next big book, maybe not as popular, same thing, then another, and another... within a few years, every book will be full price + ads.
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It will start with the next huge blockbuster book, think the next harry potter or twilight... it will ONLY come in full price, ad-saturated books, and because everyone wants one, they will pay it
Authors might demand that their work is ad-free.
I'm reminded of this:
- Why Terry Pratchett switched his German publishers (from Heyne to Goldmann).
"There were a number of reasons for switching to Goldmann, but a deeply personal one for me was the way Heyne (in Sourcery, I think, although it may have been in other books) inserted a soup advert in the text ... a few black lines and then something like 'Around about now our heroes must be pretty hungry and what better than a nourishing bowl'... etc, etc.
My editor was pretty sick about it, but the company wouldn't promise not to do it again, so that made it very easy to leave them. They did it to Iain Banks, too, and apparently at a con he tore out the offending page and ate it. Without croutons."
(Picture here [colinsmythe.co.uk], it helps if you can read German.)
Of course, Pratchett was in a good position to do this (already successful etc). JK Rowling had trouble getting Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone published, so maybe she'd have accepted anything she could get for it, and we'd have had a Hogwarts Express operated by First Scotrail.
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You've made two unspoken assumptions in coming up with your examples.
One is that Option A and Option B will both sell X number of ebooks. There is no guarantee that both options will sell the same number of ebooks. IMO Option B will lead to more sales of ad-free paper books.
Your other assumption is that the market is full of mindless consumers with no sense of the real value of the product beyond their desire for it. If the inconvenience of the advertisements outweighs the value the consumer draws out
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Newline, carriage return. Best wishes, comma newline newline carriage return, StanleyB. Period.
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Hah, more profits for publishers (Score:4, Interesting)
According to another industry analyst, Amazon is being pressured to make ebook sales more profitable for publishers, partly because Apple offers them more lucrative terms in Apple's iBookstore.
This is completely the opposite of the way a "free market" is supposed to behave. Enjoy your oligopolies, America. I just take heart in the fact that if a Kindle can read it, so can any other device. I will wait for the ad-blocking readers before spending one dime on one.
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Try it..see what you think.
Unable to connect at this time. Please try again later.
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This is completely the opposite of the way a "free market" is supposed to behave.
Howzat? Apple is offering more competitive terms to publishers and Amazon has to respond to remain competitive. Neither can simply raise prices because the customer won't tolerate it.
Now I'll be the first to claim that free markets generally don't exist when there are only two participants, but I'm not seeing how this specific instance is a deviation from the classic "supply meets demand" love story.
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Howzat? Apple is offering more competitive terms to publishers
Define competitive. So they don't have to compete by price? Having all books at $10-$15?
Amazon also has a deal where publishers get 70% of the pie. But in that case the price range of the books is set lower.
In any case, this is not a Free market, not as far as the readers are concerned:
http://www.techradar.com/news/portable-devices/other-devices/apple-and-amazon-slammed-for-e-book-pricing-707275?src=rss&attr=all [techradar.com]
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Ads on the Kindle does not mean ads in ebooks. I imagine Amazon is going down this path to push a version of the Kindle that is much less expensive for the consumer to purchase up front, assuming they are willing to put up with ads. Amazon would sell a LOT more Kindles if the price were $50, even with ads.
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I had bought a CD at Wal-Mart a long, long time ago. Turns out that it was censored, despite no forewarning on the packaging or anything. I never bought another CD from Wal-Mart.
Get the fuck outta here. (Score:5, Insightful)
$9.99 is already WAY too much for an eBook. Why the need for advertising? ::sigh:: I guess it's a good thing that the only ebooks I put on my nook are either released for free through creative commons, or are now considered public works (or borrowed from our local library). I absolutely love my nook, but no freakin' way am I paying $9.99 for an eBook when I can pay $4.99-$6.99 for a paperback.
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$9.99 is already WAY too much for an eBook. Why the need for advertising?
Greed. You should look it up in one of Amazon's eBook dictionary offerings ... it's on the page immediately following Snuggles' teddy bear hawking fabric softener.
Re:Get the fuck outta here. (Score:5, Interesting)
Hear hear. Project Gutenberg has been the source of all of my eBooks -- I've really been enjoying reading through Jules Verne, HG Wells, Dante, Don Quixote, and all sorts of classics that have been on my list for years.
There's so much stuff out there that's really good and now freely available that it's mind-boggling. Yeah for Project Gutenberg and their work!!
Re:Get the fuck outta here. (Score:5, Interesting)
I get a LOT of the stuff I read from Project Gutenburg as well. I usually donate anywhere from $10-$20 per paycheck to them, depending on how much I've downloaded and read in the past couple of weeks.
$9.99 per ebook? No freakin' way. Donations to a project whose purpose is making classic works available for future generations? Absolutely.
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How come you listed all authors then one character, Don Quixote, instead of Cervantes, who wrote the book? O/T, but just wondering. He wrote some other stuff which is worth reading, too.
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In all honesty, I couldn't remember the author's name, and figured the title character would be more recognizable to most people anyway. :-P
I'm not familiar with any of his other work, but Don Quixote has been on my to-read list for a long time.
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Probably true. This crowd would say "Cervantes? Why is Mexican beer on this list?"
Or, "Why are you talking about a Soul Calibur character?"
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I wonder how long before they manage to get rid of the libraries..
Can you borrow eBooks from libraries now? That's pretty cool, if a little strange..
Re:Get the fuck outta here. (Score:5, Informative)
Can you borrow eBooks from libraries now?
Yup yup! [nytimes.com] It generally uses ePub, which my nook accepts natively. To my knoweledge, most ereaders out there now can read ePub as well.
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I'd say it is way too little in some cases, unless you can psychically be assured that the ebook will sell many copies. And while lower price / supply and demand may encourage that, I wouldn't be certain that's always sufficiently the case.
I can't help but think of Stephen R. Donaldson in this discussion -- his General Interview on his website [stephenrdonaldson.com] touches on ebooks, publishing and author's rights several times, and it fairly well boils down to "As long as I receive a reasonable remuneration for my work, things
Not So Expensive When They End Up on Torrents (Score:2)
As e-books become more popular, distribution of e-texts on the torrents has become more prevalent. More and more e-book owners are filling their pads/kindles/nooks/crannies/whatevers with non-PD books for which the author is not reimbursed a dime. Money's got to flow from somewhere if novels are to be written. If in the Brave New World nobody's going to be paying for the books they read, then we might as well open the new shelfspace to the advertisers so that the creators can make a buck from someone.
And
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Sorry, but as an author, I wish that my work was well-known enough to be pirated and read.
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So, ummm, work harder, write better. Maybe read a good book on Internet/Social Media marketing.
What was your point?
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And before all the tired and tedious "but, buts..." begin, remember:
No one has a right to free entertainment.
It's up to the writer whether or not she wants to give out free promotional samples, not her fans.
Sadly will you probably be modded to hell for this. It's true though but few people seem to understand why.
Same applies with software... heck, most things - If you write it, it's your personal choice how you distribute/licence it. Many people who want your stuff seem to have a notion that they have a right to tell you how to give it to them.
NYTimes ebook pricing rundown (Score:3, Informative)
NYTimes gives a decent rundown of what goes in to ebook pricing [nytimes.com], showing that they make about as much profit on a $10 ebook as they do on a $26 hardcover.
They don't give pricing on paperbacks, but going off the numbers they give I'd guess a $10 ebook will give them around double the profit that a $7 mass-market paperback does.
The full article [nytimes.com] goes on to say the reason for obscenely high ebook prices is quite simple: publishers are set up for dead tree books right now. They could face problems scaling down
Re:Get the f... outta here. (Score:2)
Paying $9.99 for a new release can be worth it, just as previously I might have plunked down the $30 or more for the hardback from the favorite author or series that I'm really motivated to read or collect. But come on, no book that
totally there (Score:2)
Same here as the comment in the summary. I'll not buy books with ads, and I'll return them as defective if they put them there without telling me beforehand.
I wonder how long until more people are fed up with being constantly bombarded and there's a counter-movement. We already have adbusters et al, but they don't do it. Too much counterculture. Just counter-ads would be more than enough.
But then again, the majority of people apparently enjoy being treated like cattle. Would never admit it, of course.
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Good luck with that. The "license" for the electronic book-like thing you "purchased" will say you can't return it. It will be a take the money and run scenario.
I agree though. How they can sell an electronic copy of a book for the same as the actual book and not be making truckloads of profit off it completely eludes me.
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Good luck with that. The "license" for the electronic book-like thing you "purchased" will say you can't return it. It will be a take the money and run scenario.
We'll see. There is more than enough room between misleading advertisement or misrepresentation (they call it a "book", but it is more like a magazine) and outright fraud that a lawyer would take the case. At that stage, settling silently with me is a ton cheaper than the case, the bad press and the risk of getting a precedent set, however small it may be.
In the US, small claims court will usually get you settled.
Amazon Seeking Patent for Inserting Ads Into Books (Score:2)
Earlier on /.: Amazon Wants Patent For Inserting Ads Into Books [slashdot.org]
Old ads. (Score:3, Informative)
Books have had advertisements in them for a long time. Magazines too. Usually the book advertisements were for more books, but the advertisements in magazines could be for anything.
A guitar lessons ad from a 1930 Astounding Stories.
http://ia311203.us.archive.org/2/items/Astounding_Stories_of_Super_Science_1930/asf193001006a.png [archive.org]
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I didn't look too hard, but I didn't see details on how the ads would be placed. I doubt we'll be looking at, "Her heart was pounding as she unlatched the door and BUY VIAGRA!"
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This is not going to be as innocent and unintrusive as the sort of advertisements you see in paperbacks.
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Yeah, and those Gutenberg messages are already too long and intrusive. I've edited it out of every book I've downloaded from them, simply because it takes about ten page turns on my Nook to get to the beginning of the book itself. Don't get me wrong, Gutenberg is a great service and I'm more than happy to do a little of my own editing in return for free goods. I would not put up with that after paying an already inflated eBook price from Amazon though.
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Not true, I've got some old SF paperbacks with cigarette ads stuck right in the middle of important scenes.
Since they are on thicker stock and in color, you can tell when the monster appears or somebody is about to get betrayed, so I call them "foreshadowing". Because the writers usually didn't use any.
Advertising of yesteryear (Score:4, Insightful)
Nobody needs a patent to put old-style advertisements in eBooks. You do not need proprietary software to do it. These ads will not be the same as the ads you are used to seeing in books.
How will this be used? (Score:2)
If there are advertisements in books I pay for, yeah I'd be pissed about that and I think there'd be a backlash over that.
On the other hand, Amazon makes a lot of books available for the Kindle for free. If those books have ads I wouldn't complain, especially if that category got bigger as a result.
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If they're doing it with the free books that they're truly giving away, then sure. If they're inserting ads into the freely available public domain books? No thanks, I'll keep looking for a service that doesn't want to bombard me with ads.
Precisely what I was trying ask in "AskSlashdot" (Score:2)
See, this is precisely the stuff that's been making me gnaw on my brain the last few weeks and even tried in "Ask Slashdot" (I think I need to reform my questions though to be fair).
Anyhow, the topic is up... there's many options out there to chase for going into eBooks but it seems that short of a plain PDF someone-somewhere is going to be done over a log. I don't want my readers being harassed by adverts or additionally even have the reseller (Amazon etc) modifying the text.
Maybe the reason why I've not
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I tried a couple pdf formatted books on my Nook, talk about a pain, the default font size in the PDF's was either way too big or most commonly way to small, when you adjust the font size in the nook, you can get the font where you need it, but with the bdf's I tried it screwed up the formatting, and the page count was a joke, it was reporting the number of pdf pages left, not the number of p
Publishers suck (Score:2)
I can't imagine why any author would really need a publisher anymore (editors and publicists perhaps, but there's no reason editors and publicists need to own copyrights, they pr
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For eBooks, I agree, they're on murky ground. I suppose the 'trick' they're going to use is to make it rather troublesome for people to add independently-purchased eBooks to their readers (or just reject them outright). Convenience does tend to win out over cost so long as the cost difference isn't too severe.
Still, the glimmer of hope is that someone will produce an eBook reader that works well enough and isn't encumbered and is priced right.
(for printing, a publisher is becoming somewhat less relevant
Dreams (Score:4, Insightful)
Fry: Well sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio, and in magazines, and movies, and at ball games... and on buses and milk cartons and t-shirts, and bananas and written on the sky. But not in dreams, no siree.
Huh? (Score:4, Insightful)
Book sales haven't increased over the last decade, and profits are being squeezed even lower by ebooks
That makes no sense at all. Ebooks cost the same as paper books, yet there's no transportation, storage, inventory, or other costs associated with publishing them. How could ebooks be bringing profits down?
How stupid do these people think we are, anyway?
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How stupid do these people think we are, anyway?
Do you even have to ask?
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>How stupid do these people think we are, anyway?
Very.
Along with the movie and record industries - all the copyright cartels, basically.
On the upside, they don't think we're as stupid as the politicians they lie to to get favourable legislation to protect and grow their profits.
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Informative)
Book sales haven't increased over the last decade, and profits are being squeezed even lower by ebooks
That makes no sense at all. Ebooks cost the same as paper books, yet there's no transportation, storage, inventory, or other costs associated with publishing them. How could ebooks be bringing profits down?
Baen, a publishing house that specializes in fantasy and sci-fi, mostly with a militaristic bent, says that they've found that e-books significantly increase profits, even though they sell their (DRM-free) e-books for substantially less than they sell dead-tree versions.
That, obviously, is exactly what logic would tell you. Nice to see there are some publishers who are honest.
Does anyone really believe this would lower prices (Score:2)
The belief that any plans to place advertising into ebooks would result in lower prices is fooling themselves. Look at what has happened in the video game market, not only have in game ads become the norm but many of the newer games that use them are coming out at higher prices. The likely scenario is that ads will be thrown in gradually, prices will stay the same and ad free versions will be offered for a higher premium.
Not for me (Score:2)
It is bad enough that I pay for a magazine and get mostly advertisements. I have to time my arrival at a mainstream movie theater in order to avoid the commercials I don't have a TV for.
If Amazon did this, ebooks would be DOA as far as I am concerned.
I would not buy or use them.
Paperbacks are currently cheaper than ebooks (Score:2)
In the past two months, every single paperback, and quite a few hardcovers, that I've bought or considered buying have been cheaper on Amazon itself than Amazon's Kindle ebooks. Do printers, ink makers and paper makers charge Amazon negative dollars?
And they want MORE money? WTF is wrong with these people?
To Paraphrase our Nations Forefathers (Score:2)
Depends on how it's done (Score:5, Insightful)
It all depends on how it's done. Advertising in books is not a new thing; many paperbacks have a few pages at the back devoted to ads for other books by the publisher, or sometimes for things like book clubs. And though I haven't seen one in a while, I remember some paperbacks having a bound-in cardstock insert. If ads are limited to this sort of thing, they probably won't be a problem. They're usually relevant to the reader's interest and they're easily skippable. Where I do see a problem is if ads are done like the promos on a DVD -- Pop in the book, and have to sit through three minutes of advertising before you get to read it.
Still, the only reason why this would work is because of proprietary formats. If ebooks were published using open standards (yay, epub!) someone would just publish a reader which skips the advertisements -- just like you can get DVD players which skip straight over the "mandatory" front-matter on a DVD.
I'll just keep supporting Baen. Their whole catalog, available in open, non-DRM formats, for paperback prices. Even if they were to start including ads, they'd be easy to rip out of the HTML if they got to be obnoxious.
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Baen is awesome. While they are a little heavy on the war-fic, they make you want to buy hardback because they often include a CD with 20 or 30 other books on it, sometimes entire series.
Turning ebooks into emagazines (Score:2)
Hold your trigger finger (Score:2)
I think the idea of ebooks, free of charge, but paid for by advertisements has some merit.
I'm not saying I like it or would use it, but it brings up an important point.
Mainstream movie theaters and magazines force advertisements on you, even though you pay for those things. I think that is where a lot of resentment comes from. When it is not excessive, people don't mind broadcast TV with commercials, because the advertisers are paying for your exposure to their ads with free entertainment. People aren't
Congratulate Amazon for... (Score:2)
Congratulate Amazon for discovering the one thing that will kill the ebook!
Seriously though if they use this technology only for periodicals how would this be different from traditional magazines except that the ads would alway be up-to-date?
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if they use this technology only for periodicals how would this be different from traditional magazines except that the ads would alway be up-to-date?
Those ads will be better targeted. Amazon has a really robust recommendations systems that I really like. I think part of the reason people hate having ads jammed down their throat is that many of the ads don't relate to them. Targeted ads that are relevant to me based on my purchasing history will be a lot less annoying than ads for tampons and farm equipment.
Ads? Sure, I don't mind... (Score:2)
... because you'll be giving me the book for free, right?
But if not, I don't want the ads. You've already made your money off me, thanks.
One or the other, guys. But not both. This is the one reason I don't subscribe to Sky - I have to pay for it AND put up with ads. Greedy bastards.
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Want more profits? Make Books Cheaper (Score:2)
One reason book sales and profits are limited is cost.
The cheapest of paperbacks starts at about $8 now. Books were known throughout history to be a cheap medium of the people. They are made out of paper.
If the publishers want more sales they can lowering the cost for books.
This is especially true with ebooks where the costs seem to be even lower.
I hate the idea of ebook, but if I can read one for $3 versus $15 for a book I don't care that much about I might consider it.
No need to risk pissing off an alre
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"I hate the idea of ebook"
What? I can understand if you don't like them, but why would someone hate the very idea of an eBook?
Woah (Score:2)
That'd be awesome. I'd gladly flip past ads to get them for free.
Based on my run rate since getting the Kindle, that'd save me $500 a year.
Better yet, Amazon, give me a Zune-like deal where I can pay $20 a month and read any book I want. I only read them once anyway.
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They'll be free just like cable.
Luke 18:22 (Score:5, Funny)
"Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me."
Want to "sell all that thou has" really quickly? Try eBay [ebay.com]!
The froth at my mouth? Enough for 10.000 bud weise (Score:2, Troll)
The froth at my mouth? Enough for 10.000 bud weisers... provided you can find enough american to supply the piss. I doubt it, considering amazon is taking it.
My god, and I stopped watching tv becomes of the constant advertising, haven't heard radio in years and now books too? Books I pay for? Pay through the nose for because I have noticed that despite all the savings with ebooks (basically, pay writer/editor, and that is it) the price hasn't dropped a bit.
Oh and all the bad news about print media? A lie
A return to serials? (Score:2)
I would rather (Score:2)
pay 25 cent more for the book.
I won't buy an ebook with ads.
Sarcasm incoming (Score:2)
To answer the question.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes.
Will the ads be unskippable?
Also, yes.
Will it annoy some people? Yes.
Will enough consumers keep buying them that the people who try boycotting won't influence them one jot? Yes.
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Can I get a pop-up blocker for my Nook?
That's the kind of advertising I think most of us fear. The "Hey you might also like these books" ads currently found in the back of many old and new books are fine. But can the advertisers, publishers and sellers fight the
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Every niche has an equi
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ebooks are going to increase in popularity, and the last thing we want is a precedent of putting ads in them.
Which is precisely why we are concerned. My biggest fear is that Kindle-type devices (iPad included) will become dominant for digital textbooks. Advertising in textbooks? It may happen. DRMed textbooks? It already happens: my institution has a number of subscriptions to online electronic textbooks for our libraries, and they are DRMed, though thankfully not as badly as the Kindle.
The way I see it, eBooks should be improving our lives, not just padding the wallets of publishers. We should never h
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The point is that eBooks take the vast majority of the cost of publishing out of the equation and yet they want those books to cost as much as, if not more, than a physical book made out of paper. Then on top of it they screw you by not letting you resell, loan, or just plain give the book away to someone else despite the fact that it is perfectly possible for a DRM scheme to be created that allows the transfer of electronic content while removing your access to read it.