Quote:
Originally Posted by ffred
I didn't read the entire thread, so I might be duplicating something already said.
I don't think the choice will be ours (except the choice to buy ad-free or commercial versions -- and maybe, not even then). If it is feasible, it will be done, whatever we think about it. All I wish for, when the ads come, is that they do not blink on and off. If the ad just lies there I can ignore it, just as I do with ads in magazines.
ffred
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It won't blink on & off in my readers; they don't support animated text or images.
This is one of the problems with ads in ebooks--other than the iPad's store, there's no control over how the content is read. Ads are designed to be appealing (or at least unoffensive) to be effective--and they can't be appealing if the designer doesn't know how they'll be read. (On a computer screen with full-feature CSS support? On a black-and-white no-internet e-ink reader? On a phone with a 3" screen? Through a text-to-voice reader?)
Ads can be designed for each of those, but no one ad is going to work for all of them--and the more ads (or variants of the same ads), the more nuisance factor. Cross the line into "too much" and that book drops in sales; possibly that *publisher* drops in sales.
People have been talking about ads in ebooks for years. The closest we've gotten is Wowio's PDF ads (which aren't a notable break on the price, unless you consider "free nicely-formatted PDF version of public domain works" is a discount) and the KSO, where the ads aren't tied to the specific content.