Any thoughts on this? (adverts in free ebooks)

[mr ploppy]

http://ebookplus.com/

Pays $0.07 per chapter that gets read. Says it's aimed at people who pirate ebooks, but I can't really see those type of people being interested unless it is really easy to strip out the adverts (which presumably would mean you didn't get paid).

I think it's more likely to attract people who already pay for their ebooks, either as an alternative to paying for anything, or to increase the number of books they can read on a limited income.

[CWatkinsNash]

As a reader:
I'm sure there are some people that would be okay with it, but obtrusive ads and cloud connectivity are two big dealbreakers for me.

Yes, I know the site says "unobtrusive ads" but ads at the beginning of every chapter are obtrusive. Any ad I can't ignore is obtrusive, IMO.

As a writer:
Spending months, possibly years (remains to be seen how long) getting my words as perfect as I can get them, and then putting ads in the book? No freakin' way. Maybe it's because of my background in magazine editing / publishing, and experiencing the battle of trying to make sure the magazine was something more than an ad-wrapper. Because that's where I see this tech going - people creating ad wrappers. A new kind of content marketing, in the same vein as those endless content blogs that do nothing except mess up search results.

Edit after looking more closely, for sake of accuracy:

You can cache up to 10 books for offline use. Good thing.

They are accepting video ads and animated banner ads from advertisers. Bad thing.

[avantman42]

I like being able to have a local copy of my ebooks, because I don't trust random strangers to look after them. Not being able to have a local copy, and not being able to read on an e-ink reader, makes this a non-starter for me.

That said, if they got books that I really wanted to read, and I couldn't get them elsewhere, I might sign up. It's all about the books. I might put up with adverts if it was the only way to read a book that I really wanted.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

As a reader:
I'm sure there are some people that would be okay with it, but obtrusive ads and cloud connectivity are two big dealbreakers for me.

Yes, I know the site says "unobtrusive ads" but ads at the beginning of every chapter are obtrusive. Any ad I can't ignore is obtrusive, IMO.

I'd never buy an ebook that came with ads nor would I buy an ebook that I can't download and keep locally as well as read on the device of my choosing.

[gmw]

I can't see it myself. Not for most novels, and not for avid readers.

The approach is not all that surprising. An "only off the cloud" approach was always going to be something that was tried to try and work around piracy.

I can imagine that this might work for those that only ever read for short periods (riding to and from work etc.). I know quite a few people that (mostly) don't sit down for more than a chapter or two at a time. So ads only at the start of a chapter, when you're first sitting back down to the book after a break, may not be a big problem. Such a system, if enough writers/publishers support it, may well give them reasonable material for a train ride for free (or almost so). So not for me, but who knows, maybe it's something that could catch on.

ETA: Speaking as a writer, the only thing that matters is whether the reader is happy with how the book is presented. If enough readers like the idea then I don't see a big problem in supporting it - as long as it's not exclusive. (You still need to be able to provide the book to readers that want it without ads etc..)

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by rhadin

I'd never buy an ebook that came with ads nor would I buy an ebook that I can't download and keep locally as well as read on the device of my choosing.

The idea is that they are free. It appeals to the same collector mentality as pirate sites, but if anyone does read them the writer gets a small payment. It's not as good a deal as Kim Dotcom was proposing, where the creator got a small payment for every download, but I don't think we will ever see that one now.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by gmw

as long as it's not exclusive. (You still need to be able to provide the book to readers that want it without ads etc..)

And as long as the sales venues don't price-match it.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

And as long as the sales venues don't price-match it.

If they don't price match libraries I don't see why they should price match something like this - that's what it seems to resemble as much as anything.

I can imagine most targeting this venue would submit novels written as serials, where every chapter hangs on a cliff-hanger.

[VydorScope]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

As a reader:
I'm sure there are some people that would be okay with it, but obtrusive ads and cloud connectivity are two big dealbreakers for me.

Yes, I know the site says "unobtrusive ads" but ads at the beginning of every chapter are obtrusive. Any ad I can't ignore is obtrusive, IMO.

Not just there...

Whenever the reader stops reading, whether at the end of a chapter or in the middle, they have to use a page marker so that they can start reading again where they left off. Our page market is in the shape of an ad. You will get paid for this too.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

Not just there...

For the love of...

You know, I'm not usually in the "books are sacred" crowd, but at a certain point (apparently for me, what you quoted is where it lies), the point stops being the text, and that seems really counter-intuitive to the whole point of a book.

Which is why it's going to attract content marketing types, as I feared.

I'm really confused how they got from point A to "eliminate piracy", because that point of their marketing makes no sense. Although, in a sad way it does, since the only way to prevent piracy is to make sure no one sees your book. This is a good way to do that, I think.

Maybe I'm underestimating how much nonsense people will tolerate to read something for free, but when the market is already saturated with free books that may or may not be crap, why would people want to read these, which may or may not be crap with advertising that causes your book to resemble an animated version of yellow pages? (Wow, that sentence was so awful. Apologies.)

I can kind of see the point of LIMITED advertising to subsidize books, but this is just goofy.