Quote:
Originally Posted by taustin
There are already ads in books (e- and otherwise). They're called "product placement ads." Any time you read about a character drinking a Coke or driving a Ford, you can bet money changed hands to have that happen.
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My characters drink Pepsi and Dr. Pepper, one drives a Toyota Camry, and several bands and books are also mentioned by name, in addition to trips to McDonalds and Starbucks. No one has paid me a cent for it. I just wanted to make sure the world they lived in was very real.
But, that is the sort of advertising, or say, just having terms, places, and things that you can click on, that wouldn't bother me. The idea of having a scene where a character does drink a Pepsi with a little hyperlink that can connect you to a Pepsi coupon might be interesting. The big thing is doing it so that it's not intrusive. I don't want to read page after page of hundreds of name brand items.
It's one thing if your spy asks for his martini made with Stoli. It's a whole other thing to add in a scene where he gets dressed and every item he's wearing has a tag on it. (But who knows, the chic-lit girls might really go for that.)
I'm also not terribly interested in seeing full page ads littered about in my books. Sure, one or two in the back about books by the same or similar authors, fine. Random stuff? Not so much.