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Free E-Books, With a Catch — Advertising
Velcroman1 writes "Barnes & Noble may kick off a fresh price war today for digital book readers, with its new Nook news. But the real news in digital publishing is a novel approach to the e-books themselves: Free books — with advertising. The basic idea is to offer publishers another way to reach readers and to give readers the chance to try more books — books that perhaps they wouldn't normally peruse if they had to pay more for them. Initially, Wowio specialized in offering digital versions of comic books and graphic novels, usually formatted as Adobe PDFs. So it was a natural step for the company to offer graphic ads that are inserted in e-books. 'We think we're creating a broader audience for some of these titles,' Wowio's CEO Brian Altounian told me. 'I think folks are going to download more books because they're saving the costs' of having to drive to the store or pay more for them. Would ads stop you from reading?" The new color Nook goes for $249, and comes with a browser, games, Quickoffice, streaming music via Pandora, and an SDK; reader itwbennett links to an analysis of how well it stacks up as a tablet.
"It was a dark and stormy night.....in beautiful downtown Vegas!"
Table-ized A.I.
There is no price point set for the nook yet. The $249 was the "widely speculated" price, not based on anything but guesses at this point.
Monstar L
It'd be one thing if they just stuck a random graphic here and there. But I expect that the trend would go in the same direction as the multi-page web article. Namely, ads in between the pages that you can't skip. Can you imagine how annoying that would make your book? "I've discovered the identity of the murderer. His name is....." "...and now a word from our sponsor." Brings to mind archaic memories of old radio shows where you really had no choice. I suppose if it's still just another page, you can hit just as fast and skip it. But how long before an ereader has some sort of Flash-like ability to play a quick movie? And then you're stuck.
www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
So, is the idea to turn novels, anthologies and reference works into magazines?
Brilliant!
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Can we escape from the pervasive ads? Sure, people can choose to do whatever they well damn please, but I just don't want this to become the dominant mode of just about every business.
Don't we have enough weaseling in our life as it is?
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
Gah. Looks like I'll be switching to kindle or sony when I get tired of my current reader. Hopefully I'm wrong about the jump to the backlit bandwagon, but it sure looks like they're trying to be an iPad, only less useful.
Advertising.. sure, why not. no-money books will be good for everyone. But why does the choice have to be between way-overpriced in terms of money, and overpriced in terms of time - advertisements. Why not just price the books at what they're really worth, and make it up in volume. Especially as the marginal cost of an eBook is almost entirely licensing. If eBooks couldn't be shared or copied, but were all between $1 to $3...
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
only a matter of time. now if they could just get the hardware costs down a bit.
i really like regular books over staring at a screen, but even i might be tempted to try an e-reader if the price was right.
"Wowio specialized in offering digital versions of comic books and graphic novels"
Just what the new Superman graphic novel was missing, a Viagra ad.
~$250 for a color e-book?
What am I gunna do with it, read "Go dog, go" and "wheres waldo"?
For $250, there better be a happy ending, and I dont mean a kids happy ending, I mean a massage parlor happy ending
Dont spend your money on crap, the Dollar is still worth something!
The Nook Color is slow painfully slow it makes me embarrassed for Barnes and Noble. Horrendous scrolling and zooming and touch responsiveness. Just horrendous.
Are we not all surrounded with enough ads yet? About the only place they're not yet is tattooed on the inside of our eyelids.
To the advertisers: STFU already!
I would happily read books or comics with unobtrusive ads if it meant I didn't have to pay, and if obtaining them was simpler and faster than finding a pirated copy.
This is pretty much the only way the publishing industry will survive. The TV industry will eventually have to do something similar for streaming TV too.
Doesn't Penguin paperback books hold a patent on advertising inside novels?
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
is adblock for Nook!
Slavery is the legal fiction that a person is property; A Corporation is the legal fiction that property is a person.
The same Wowio who managed to not pay the webcomic authors whose work they were selling?
I am become
For decades one of the most-read reference books in my house was 50% ads and was free for the asking.
It was the city phone book.
Before you say "yeah, but you paid for it in your phone bill" you could get a copy for free without a phone by walking into the phone company office at the right time of year.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Ads would stop me from acquiring materials from that source.
This sounds alot like the Cruz reader at Borders. The device isn't even beta quality and shouldn't even be on the shelves. No access to the Android market. Crazy limited Cruz market with nonfunctioning search. Downloaded books errored out when trying to read at times. Turning the unit off and back on would reset my email prefs for sound and how often to check. Touch screen missed almost half my presses. Unable to install android apps using SD card. It complained no mem was available when the 4gb internal was largely untouched. I could go on. I even updated it to a very current firmware. You can't even create a borders account using the built in borders app without errors. I want to like android. I don't know if this is typical for these new android tablets or android in general. The iPad costs more, but if a trouble free user experience is what the user is after then it's worth it.
I don't know.. I hate advertising too, but think about it.. all the books I could read, legally free, and all I have to do is skip a few pages every now and then? This doesn't sound like a bad deal at all. Just like reading magazines, in fact, which everyone's already pretty accustomed to. If this means more books for everyone, bring it on!
Speaking of magazines, it only makes sense that mags would eventually start encroaching on the ebook platform. Heck, the fact that I currently can't read magazines on my reader kind of sucks, so again, bring it on!
This, folks, is why Apple rules. Better hardware. Better software (faster, more secure, more apps, more EVERYTHING) etc.
I know I found Robin Hobb's Assassin's apprentice and it's subsequent trilogies after it was put up for free on the publishers website. So for giving me 1 free book I bought 8 more and am still reading her latest stuff to come out since then. If I'd not of seen that free book I'd of never bought the rest.
I *will not* pay for eBooks that are any more DRM encumbered than a PDF with a password. But then, I *like* reading actual books.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
I read books to escape the monotony of real life. I do NOT want to be forcibly reminded of the outside world while trying to lose myself in a novel. So, in short, NO THANKS. I'd rather pay for my books.
So why not loosen the restrictions on lending ebooks and just insert ads into the lent copies? It allows the title to be passed further while still netting some revenue?
That's the one thing I don't get about the digital publishing arguments. It's like both sides don't seem to understand the other is required. Publishers seem to just want to magically print money and charge ridiculous prices, while consumers want everything handed to them on a gold platter for free. It's a co-op game guys, bout time it was played for a win-win.
Awesome! Can somebody link me to AdBlock for Nook?
This is my footer. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
YES! Ads are a deal-breaker. Period.
If you look at the spec's, it claims "up to" an 8 hour battery life with airplane mode, which is drastically shorter than current eInk based technology (I routinely get 25-30 hours of reading out of a nook easily with airplane mode on).
It is also backlit, which contributes to insomnia for those who read late at night or in bed (see La Times).
I'd love to see a color, eInk based technology, but if I wanted a tablet instead of a ebook reader, I'd buy one. They both have their places, but LCD screens are not a substitute yet.
Apparently, a week or two back, an ad agency contacted Neil Gaiman to see if they could get product placement in his next novel. He was aghast in the way that only mild-mannered, scary trousers authors can pull off.
Why block the Android market? If I could install Android apps, then it would be a cheap tablet and I'd gladly buy it. Without Android market, it is a one-off gadget and overpriced. Why intentionally limit a feature that would otherwise be a selling point?
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
The whole thing that makes eReaders so brilliant is the reflective screen. I'm fine with backlit screens, but for laptops and desktops. For reader things, a reflective screen is the way to go not only for battery life but for all purpose readability as well. The Kindle really does look "like paper" they aren't kidding. That is what makes it nice.
We've come to this situation because people don't want to pay for content. Put two plates of cookies side by side, both identical except one is free and the other $0.99. Which will be emptier by the end of the day? All else being equal the only way to even attempt to make money off the free crowd is to apply psychologically refined messages liberally till they lose the will to live and viola, a sale.
You young whippersnappers wouldn't remember this, but back in the Olden Days most deadtree books contained advertising. Paperbacks typically had a glossy insert in the middle (most often a cigarette ad), and hardbacks had several pages of ads in the back, usually something at least vaguely relevant to the book's content, and also sometimes ads for other books (and not only from that book's publisher).
It occurs to me that if ads were placed at the end of the ebook (much as ads in hardbacks used to be at the back of the book) there's incentive to improve content, to get the average reader to finish the book and see the ads.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Books should be free if they're in e-format. Trying to charge for them when they can be distributed for free is cheesy. This is Cheetos cheesy, with one crunch you can't get enough, so stick a cheetah in your mouth. If books were free, education would be cheaper. I'm talking as cheap as Natural Light Beer. A cheaper education would mean more people would be educated. They'd be educated more than Leap Frog ever did with all their proprietary hardware. Look we got the hardware, because Intel, AMD and Apple are awesome inside. So the software should be free. People think things wouldn't be created anymore, and we fret that that another great song from Justin Bieber wouldn't be released. Yet if someone discovers something new like Newton, of Fig Newton fame.*end cheesiness* Who are going to keep the information to themselves? People are going to share new knowledge and become famous. And if they want to be as much of the corporate shill as the people trying to make the laws today, they can use their fame to make money. But I think the future is bright for people who share information and make it free. If education was free, the world would be vastly smarter. A smarter world researches diseases better. The downside to a smarter populace is they don't buy into corporate BS. There are people with a large amount of wealth to be lost if books were all free. This is the only reason it doesn't happen. Because some people are greedy. People don't say all books are free because there is a minority who wants to oppress the majority. Sure free books and free software would let 3rd world countries have education on par with universities, but greedy people would rather make money on their books. And a lot of the money isn't on innovations. This isn't really a rant as much as this is reality. We can change the future by donating time and money to free software. We can change the future by writing our own books and giving them out for free. This is my plan. I plan on making a couple bucks on Flash games, then I'll move on to re-writing books (similar books, just not plagiarized completely) for education. Finally I'll write custom software to help people learn.
God spoke to me.
If this catches on at first it will be good. People will be able to read books for free in exchange for advertisement. But eventually people will become accustomed to it and then sellers will realize they could make more money if they just charged a little bit for the book. Then this model becomes the much greater profit maker and more and more sellers adopt this model until it's hard to find a book without it.
Finally, now that ads have become the industry standard there's no longer a reason to keep price low, so price slowly climbs back up to it's original level and now books cost the same as they did originally except you have to look at advertising.
I would have no problem with that as long as the ads are on the left page..
It seems most folks here are pretty disgusted at the idea of advertising in books, but how would you feel about direct corporate sponsorships conducted in a tasteful manner? Let's say your favorite sci-fi author's books were all released as Intel Presents or AMD Presents, similar to the old anthology shows from the '50s & '60s such as The Alcoa Hour, Kraft Television Theater, and the Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse; would that inspire the same level of disgust?
I'm very interested in finding a way to distribute fiction for free without DRM, thus maximizing the value to readers, while at the same time raising some profit for the writer. Advertising seems to be the optimal way to get it done. The other leading contender would be the Ransom Model, but that has some inherent weaknesses that are rather difficult to work around. If you have other ideas, I'm absolutely all ears.
You can't win, Darth. If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
There's a time and a place for both substandard "e-readers" and advertisement-laden crap.
I really don't give a crap what an O'Reilly book is presented on - I'm mining it for data, and frankly, digital is better since technology is constantly changing. Dead tree tech books are a stupid idea.
Donaldson? Tolkien? O'Brian? Anything else I'd choose for a cold winter afternoon in front of a fire, coupled with a mug of coffee that has been roasted to perfection?
GTFO, with both your e-crap and your advertisements, before I tell you where you might shove them, good sir.
Unlike "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". That "novel" (since it was really just one long advertisement) was full of product placements, including an advertisement for a Swedish word processing package - complete with URL and price.
At least this way, when I'm blasted with advertisements, I won't have paid for the experience.
It depends...if they are between pages, then probably not. If they are woven into the text of a page I'm trying to read? Screw that.
How is this a novel approach? Almost all content that is "free", does so by putting in ads. This is nothing new. Broadcast tv, iphone apps, radio, websites, etc. Is it really an innovation to do this with ebooks? I guess I should have patented the obvious.
Meanwhile there are some new really interesting concepts in the ebook world, like free online reading coupled with new approaches to low-overhead publishing. See for example Libertary, www.libertary.com, some more varied and interesting books and less hype. Libertary's developing a low-overhead publishing model that uses free online reading to generate interest in books as well as a bit more highly featured free reading model. Or, if you have good Chinese, check out www.read-novel.com, probably the largest book site in the world. Or of course there's always Safari. And Boing Boing opened their own book site today. So there actually is some really interesting stuff going on in the free books field.
I have only half-jokingly suggested reducing copyright terms to 42 years. Yes they ought to go down, maybe further eventually, but 42 seems like a good first step.
I wouldn't make it retroactive (ex post facto), but at least stop the extensions.
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
Leela: Didn't you have ads in the 20th century?
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 written on the sky. But not in dreams. No siree!
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Well, given that the article says "books that perhaps they wouldn't normally peruse if they had to pay more for them", I might consider getting these books, only to see the ads. One can only speculate on the quality of the written works...
Someone will eventually make an adblock either by hacking the format or by blanking the ad content fed via the network connection. I can't really guess how, but I'm sure someone will do it.
You could ask the nearby library (remember those?) to get a copy of the book in, and then read it both free and ad-free.
In Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander trilogy ("Girl of the dragon tattoo", etc) the tiresome description of all the gadgets includes specific brands.
The books are great, but that bit about the unnecessary whorish product placement left a bad taste in my mouth...
I'm not a registered user of Slashdot, but I read it every day. When I read this headline, I felt compelled to comment.
Free ebooks with advertising? I don't think so. I would never agree to that. Books are a form of art like film and music and there's absolutely no reason advertising should pop its head out of the hole to popularize it. Books stand on its own merits.
If my publisher said it was going to do this to my novels, I'd gladly rip up my contract with them, gladly pay off the contract (a great loss for me) and tell them to go fornicate themselves with a retractable baton. My agent will have fifty new publishers lined up for me to sign with.
The concept of getting ebooks for free with included ads is complete bullshit. Publishers should be ashamed of herself.
I haven't even seen the first one, and I already want AdBlock. Heck, I want AdBlock for my whole life.
Sure, the ads aren't intrusive...yet. If ads are not intrusive, the advertisers are not getting their money's worth, and they will demand that the ads become intrusive. Look at other media. Commercials DVDs now have unskippable ads at the start - horrible. Ads in web pages also started out pretty harmless. Now, without AdBlock, many sites are practically unusable.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
I wonder if this version of the nook will delete all of your non Barnes & Noble books too?
There is a war going on for your mind.
..and I'll stick by my nice, ad-free, bullshit-free printed books, that need only my eyes and some light to read, that can be read as many times and as often as I want, that I can loan out to as many people as often as I like, that can't be altered or erased after I've purchased it (short of being physically destroyed, anyway).
But by all means, please do use your e-book readers for your textbooks, newspapers, magazines, PDF files, and all other otherwise printed matter than before too long ends up in the recycle bin. That's a great use for them, I think.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Is is only a matter of time before ads will be removed by some nice piece of software that's available for free download. Just as with DRM "protection".
If the ads added value to the book.
Imagine a science fiction book with ads for science fiction magazine or a book about learning about
computers that came with ads for newegg. Technology doesnt have to suck just because it can.
I doubt advertisers will want to just pony up blindly for the ads and cross their fingers that people are actually seeing them. They will probably want statistics - including knowing what you are reading so they can better target their advertising dollars.
And sure, they will remove any identifying information - like IP address, serial number of the device, or even the registered name of the device owner from those records. There is no chance they would want that information to be able to target you directly or sell that information to someone else.
Sure, B&N and Amazon already know what you buy and read but the recent attempt by North Carolina to get information on what NC residents bought at Amazon instead of only the dollar figure shows that people's reading history can have organizations try to get at it.
I think advertisers would just sell it instead of defending their "customers" right to privacy.
However, despite that being the title and mention of one tiny site I've never heard of that does it for graphic novels, does this invention *actually* exist anywhere? Because I'd go out and download a bunch of those books right now.
And why's that headline blended in with a bunch of details about the leaked product? It implies they're related, when they don't seem to be at all.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
"Continued on page 82." "Continued on page 27." "Continued on page 35." "Continued on page 98." "Continued on page 12."
Full price e-books that contain ads.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
We have a term that describes something that is "free but with advertising." People (especially the media) should learn to use it. The word is SPONSORED. It isn't free.
Presented by Rand McNally!
((Shrugs))
Who needs Atlases when you have GPS?
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Baby steps -- a sandboxed "Aspire One" in tablet format with a touch screen (and a less glaring screen?) OK. Whatever.
Is this an admission that e-ink isn't cutting it and responsive, color e-ink isn't happening any time soon?
That's why you can't go on the Barnes & Noble website and buy it right now for .....drum roll please...... $249.00! Crash! Bang! (Now don't you feel silly?)
...and what exactly prevents me from stripping the ads from the pdf file?
captcha: lisped (as this comment should be read)
You can have my book-without-advertising when you pry it from my cold dead brains. Fahrenheit 452.
``Tension, apprehension & dissension have begun!'' - Duffy Wyg&, in Alfred Bester's _The Demolished Man_
Better submissions please.
September 2011: Looking for Cocoa/iOS work in Boston area Cocoa Programmer Quincy, MA
I've made eBook editions of my book, "Chasing the Runner's High", available without ads, and you can name your own price. Well, no ads except for this one....