Quote:
Originally Posted by stonetools
Back when I was a kid, ALL my comic books had ads in them. Ads have always been in magazines-even high-toned literary journals like Harper's and the New York Review of Books. Ads were in the SF digest mags when I was coming up. Heck, a few paperbacks had ads in the back. Putting ads in books would not be the horrifying, unprecedented disaster that people seem to think.
I think a likely option may be the freemium option, a la games, apps, and streaming music services. You download an ebook for free. There is a banner ad across the bottom. You start reading. Like the book but don't like the banner ad? Upgrade to the "premium" version by paying full price. If you can stand the banner ads, read the book free.
Hey, it may not be for everyone, but if it works for games, why not for ebooks?
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Stop the presses, I think we found something to agree on.
I remember paperback books with ads even in the first few pages. Ponds cold cream, oil of Olay... Magazines I pay for are loaded with them. (They go way overboard, though, so I don't buy many.)
When I go to a movie for ~$20, I have to sit through 20+ minutes of ads before the movie starts, unless I want to stumble in the dark to find a seat in a full theater.
So, I'd gladly suffer through a few pages / 10 seconds of ads in an ebook to get it for free or even a serious discount. (Assuming they are just static pics I can click past.)
(This last week has convinced me that a few page turns > explaining to my husband every month why I'm spending ridiculous amounts of $ on ebooks.
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