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Originally Posted by Alex Sokoloff
Yike, what a question! OF COURSE NOT. Good writers should be paid a good living. I've been making my living as a writer for all of my adult life, first screenwriting and now novels, and there are always iterations in the way writers get paid and we have to adapt to new technologies and new business models.
I think bestselling author Scott Nicholson has a good grasp on what comes next now that so many books are available for free in his article Subsidizing the Freebie.
After all - that's what supported "free" television since its inception. |
Interesting stuff. You should understand that Mobile Readers are for the most part dead set against the idea of ad-supported ebooks,even as they rail against "unconscionable" ebook prices:
Money quote from Nicholson:
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But what happens when the $2.99 and 99 cents drop to permanently free? Where’s your sponsor? Are you willing to go there? It's not going to be as clumsy as an image of a refreshing Bud Lite popping up when the main character enters a bar (though it's not unthinkable at some point.) Can you see Jack Reacher with a favorite brand of soft drink, or Bella Swan wearing only Calvin Klein? At what point is your willing suspension of disbelief shattered? At what point do you realize the ad is the only reason the book can exist at all?
My informal polling on ad-supported ebooks yields statements like: "I'll quit reading before I put up with that." I also remember saying I'd never carry a cell phone, or be on Facebook, or give up my vinyl albums, or start thinking that maybe nuclear energy is the best short-range answer to our energy addiction. Or that I’d ever read an entire book on a screen.
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