Quote:
Originally Posted by LaurelRusswurm
What I find most interesting through this discussion are the assumptions.
First, that revenues generated from internal eBook advertisements in eBooks published by mainstream publishing houses would actually get to the author.
Second, that the costs of reproducing an eBook has any correlation with the actual cost of generating the copy.
And finally, that eBook advertising is somehow necessary to bring the cost of eBooks down.
If you aren't a reader, you will never be able to understand it. Readers of fiction enter into "a willing suspension of disbelief" which would be too easily shattered by the insertion of advertisements in the text.
First and foremost, as a reader I don't want ads in my novels.
But as a self publishing author, I most assuredly do not want ads ruining the reading experience for *my* readers.
Printed copies of books do have substantial real costs to duplicate. Yet somehow they have managed without the insertion of advertising in the text.
Why is this revenue stream perceived as being so necessary for eBooks?
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Reading your posts, I get the feeling that you think book reading is a kind of holy thing that has never and should never be sullied by the filthy taint of commerce. I understand that many people feel this way.
My examination of the history of books indicate that this has never been so.
High fallutin literary publications such as the New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Harper's have published literary fiction-including long pieces-with ads in them. Indeed , I recommend to you The Atlantic's recent Fiction issue- you will find pretty good work, interspersed as it is with ads).
Novels like "Crime and Punishment ", "David Copperfield" and " A Study in Scarlet" were originally serialized in ad-filled magazines.
Readers were in the past and even in the present able to enjoy fiction, even with ads present .
Now as an author you can make the decision that you never want ads in your novels, and that's great. However, I think that if another author decides differently, he should get the choice to put ads in his novel. That author may just need the extra income to feed his family. There's room for both approaches, I think.