Quote:
Originally Posted by Piper_
Putting ads in books is a distinct possibility, I think. The idea has been bandied about, and a few months ago, there was even a report about Amazon sketching out a way to implement them.
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Not gonna happen. At least, not at any level that pays for or even substantially reduces the price of books.
Advertisers will pay ridiculous amounts for TV time, because they're counting on hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of viewers, per ad they buy. They'll pay for ads on radio because they can count on thousands of listeners, all of whom live in a known area, hearing the ads. They'll pay for ads in magazines because each zine is flipped through at the store by a handful of people, and read by the buyer, probably buyer's family, possibly whoever the buyer hands it off to when they're done. If it's remotely medical, it might wind up in a doctor's office, seen by dozens or hundreds of patients. If it's pop media, it might be handed around a dorm or an office.
A Kindle book is read by... legitimately... up to 6 people, all of whom share a credit account (at least for the purpose of kindlebooks).
How many sales is that book ad likely to generate? If the ebook sells 10,000 copies, how many of those readers will buy the whatever-it-is? How much should the advertiser pay to reach them--and how can they make the ad both persuasive and non-invasive, so the reader doesn't just skip all future ad-supported ebooks? ("Skip" could include "buy, strip the DRM, delete the ad, then read.")
It's not that they can't put ads in ebooks, but they can't make them cost-effective for advertisers. They can't make an ad that averages $1 profit per ebook sold, and nothing else is going to reduce the price of the ebook.