Slashdot Mirror
Will Amazon Put Advertisements In eBooks?
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.'"
(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." 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
My work here is dung.
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.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
$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.
Living With a Nerd
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
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.
the preceding post was not spell checked... suck it.
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.
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.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
Why am I opposed to it? Simple: it means more proprietary eBooks and more DRM, and of course, more marketing firms tracking more aspects of our lives. They are not going to allow libre software to render eBooks if they want to shove advertisements down out throats; after all, we could just remove the advertising from libre software. I want to be in control of my books, I do not want Amazon to be in control; did we not learn our lesson with the memory hole scandal?
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?
Palm trees and 8
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?
Free Martian Whores!
Advertising today is far more intrusive than advertising of 50 years ago. Yes, books have generally included advertisements for more books by the author or publishers, but when you talk about eBook advertising, you are talking about an entirely different ball game. Will the ads report back on what you read? Probably, and they will claim it is only for giving you more relevant advertisements. Will the ads get inserted into random places in the middle of the book? Probably, though they will claim that the places advertisements are displayed are chosen so as not to interfere with your enjoyment (e.g. not in the middle of an exciting section of the story). Will the ads be animated? Probably.
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.
Palm trees and 8
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.
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
NYTimes gives a decent rundown of what goes in to ebook pricing, 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 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 their current model too quickly, so they're biding time and slowing down ebook adoption by increasing prices.
I agree, as long as the ads stay similarly confined. However today's advertisers are going to want product placement within the books, and when you hit that product, up will pop a video ad that you can't skip. Or the next page will be the ad.
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 temptation to fully leverage the advertising potential of these modern multi-media capable readers?
I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
"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!
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 of a 24/7 service of semi-unique programming. No advertisements on CDs.
Magizines? no
There are specialty magazines that don't have advertisements. It just turns out that people are used to magazines and newspapers having advertisements so they use this to subsidize the cost. Just like television used these same advertisements to pay for costs, it seems we are used to this and will accept it largely. I highly doubt it will be the same with books, albums and movies. I subscribe to Specialten and it has no advertisements. The subscription price is also outrageous. I think people put magazines in the "service" category and accept advertisements with services. This isn't always the case as ISPs have suffered from trying to put advertisements into failed DNS request redirects.
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.
The simple answer to that is to think like the consumer. Why should I could keep paying full price and suffer through advertisements, I know that they are supposed to reduce the cost unless I've been living in a cave on Mars during the advent of the internet? I have faith in the market in this one and speculate books -- both physical and digital -- will remain mostly advertisement free as most albums and movies have.
If the Kindle provides me a service to access a vast array of copyrighted books for free or cheaply, I would expect that to change though and would assume advertising would be necessary to mitigate the costs.
My work here is dung.
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.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'