Why wireless w/web access = good in an ereading device for small/self-pub authors

[brecklundin]

I was navel gazing and something crossed my thoughts. The more ereaders out there with ubiquitious web access the better it could be for indie/self publishing authors.

Why?

It's a simple thing, authors can add a "donate" link into their content. It can be via Paypal, Google checkout, whatever...but it can leverage those of us out here who feel we want to contribute and support those authors we enjoy. A donation link makes helps reduce the issue of piracy as a factor adversely affecting revenue from a work.

Sure, it can be removed and many devices will not have web access, ever...still it seems to me an interesting and obvious use of the system. Also, it can be a reminder when re-reading a book that the author still can use a few bucks now and then to keep in order to keep them hungry enough to write more so they can eat tomorrow. You know, kinda the same way publishers treat authors today.

I probably got the idea from some book I already found but honestly do not remember.

And to the tinfoil hatters out there we don't want to go off in the direction of assuming annoying pop-up style nag screens, just a couple places with a reminder link that funds are always welcome. And as long as the links remain intact in the book, it can be distributed to friends and family or the cute red haired girl in class.

In fact there might be a way right there to help off set the device costs by partnering with a provider like PayPal or Google to build the ability directly into device firmware in order to ensure secure access.

BTW, this is a spitball idea not an "I think it must work this way" thing...

[Andybaby]

I am all for cheap ad supported books. I know alot of people are not, but I would love to see a business model that works around it.

[brecklundin]

in this case I might not have expressed it clearly, but I was not thinking of so much an ad supported approach but maybe an approach where it is a transaction supported approach if you bring the payment processors into the mix.

Content can be added to the device via some form of wireless. Then at the device owners discretion they could actually make that donation or whatever directly from inside the book (or whatever).

It is at best a half baked idea in my head right now but I just have a sense something is in there....I guess the gist of my idea is to make it almost transparent to the user to make the transaction.

Of course security is an issue. But that can be handled pretty easily with an existing solution. Many companies and other situations which call for added security make use of a keychain device that generates a keycode. This code is then entered either at the time of the login, after submitting your password, or wherever it makes the most sense in the transaction. I have such a key generator for my PayPal account and also use it for my eBay account. So, even should someone have my password, w/o the keycode they cannot get in...the keycode thing could be provided as an accessory used to enable the ability via the reader.

I guess I am describing a universal webstore in your pocket, or at least the ability to complete transactions via the reader device...but that would be over reaching for the idea I have right now...which I suspect I am still not getting across correctly.

I could actually see Amazon eventually moving the Kindle into exactly this sort of position. If they do, it really makes the Kindle even more dominant in the market for the average person...I am a huge user of their Amazon Prime service and would LOVE to be able to order items on the fly via the same device I am using to read my books.

Hmmmm...that was not the direction I saw the idea going when I posted the thread, but it sort of sounds interesting. It does not take a huge amount of processor power or resources to display catalog pages which are so static and basic. Amazon could just port their existing products over to the same code used for the book store now. Not sure if a true shopping cart works but, a one-click thing does.

Anyway, my original idea is to find a way to help out the indie folks because they are where it is all at when it comes to innovative and interesting writing. And there I go with an idea for bigger fish....d'oh!! I think I just killed Kenny!!! again!

[K-Thom]

In short: I tried the eBook-for-free and Paypal-donation-button stunt two or three years ago.

More than 200.000 downloads, but not one donation. Maybe this may work for others, definitely didn't for me.

But - to put the "200.000" into perspective -, this was a series of 25 eBooks with six different formats, so we're talking about an average of about 1.000 downloads per title. Still not a very encouraging prospect.