Advertisements and promotions in ebooks are one thing, but in already free books as promotional items? It's like something Jonathan Swift would have written.

BLOT: (13 Dec 2010 - 03:12:31 PM)

Advertisements and promotions in ebooks are one thing, but in already free books as promotional items? It's like something Jonathan Swift would have written.

The Wall Street Journal looks at the often contentious subject of advertisements being inserted into ebooks. Not only contentious, but I think a largely too tenuous concept. What sort of advertisements? Where at in the book? Do these ads just sit there as plain text or as more advanced interactive bits? Would they require some sort of connectivity just to confirm the advert, or would be they "dumb" adverts that are just attached to sales? Would this be pro-consumer in any way (books for free that wouldn't normally be for free)? How safe would they be to reader's privacy? Too many questions up in the air to get down to brass tacks, but still, three immediate thoughts popped in my head.

#1 Do it and I will hate you. Which is unfair, really, since this could be a good way to help the book industry and to keep book prices down. But no, at the same time, there are very few ways that this could be accomplished that wouldn't make me spit like an old raccoon on a particularly cold morning.

#2 Isn't Stieg Larsson already going this? That man has more references per paragraph to Apple products than Steve Job's future eulogy could possibly have. Each one presented to the reader in loving, carressing detail.

#3 The raison d'être for my #1, above, is summed up in one paragraph in the article.... Namely, this paragraph:

As I said in reply to EReads.com's entry, Oprah's Dickens Selection: a Tale of Two Prices, One of them $0": "Pay a convenience fee to get tickets early to a movie opening on Christmas, just so you can get an already free ebook for free, but with the added benefit of advertisements*? To see a Jack Black movie? That's like the best deal ever. I think I'll take two." I then pointed out, as hinted by the *, that this says promotions, not adverts, so it might actually be codes and whatnot for free movie tickets, however, "but even if these are better than just advertisements to use a service you had to use to get the book to begin with, they are surely going to be time sensitive, meaning you get an ebook that has various codes and deals that are probably expired before you get around to reading it."

I'll do you a favor and list a few of the places where you can get the book without a) a convenience fee or b) spending Christmas watching Jack Black:

• Project Gutenberg (Formats include: Mobi, ePub, HTML, txt...)
• Manybooks.net (Formats include just about anything you want)
• Ebooks @ Adelaide (one of the best places to read well formatted ebooks online, but formats are mostly HTML and ePub)
• Feedbooks (formats: epub, "Kindle", and PDF)
• Amazon (format is the Kindle format)
• Fictionwise (formats include just about anything up to smoke signals).

Sadly, BookGlutton, the online "read at the same time and share notes through a collaborative page...like literally with notes showing up in real time" reading experience did not have one in their free books section. I've not talked about that site for a bit and wanted an excuse.

LABEL(s): Book Publishing

BY WEEK: 2010, Week 50
BY MONTH: December 2010