Quote:
Originally Posted by Atunah
I think the reason Scribd works is the content.
I just don't see how the publisher would want to work with Amazon, there seems to be lots of animosity. 
They aren't participating in the lending program they have now. That is also why that isn't very interesting to me. Very few publishers let their books to be lendable and you end up with mostly self published titles. And many of those that are even in genres I read or interesting to me already have been free at some point in the past. So I would already own those. And unless you have a lot of friends, you have to go to one of the services like lendle and it can take months for some of those titles to come up.
Same really goes for the monthly prime read. Until amazon came out with their own publishing and gave me options for the prime loan, I ran out of stuff I was interesting in. Same thing applied, mostly self published titles with the ones interesting already have gone free or are going free.
A service like this only works when there is the right content. You need the publishers. I wouldn't be willing to pay a fee every month without those publishers. I wish the others would get on board too, but with S&S now on board its a nice selection at the moment.
Heck, I am even willing to read on a LCD screen for the offerings. And I much prefer reading on e-ink.
Plus, unlike Scribd's competitor Oyster, they have android and kindle apps. Oyster is still only for ithingies and they don't even let you see the offerings without signing up.
So I think content is king. And readers are willing to pay for that content. 
I am curious to see if this is successful over some time period, will the other publishers want to come on board. I don't see Penguin ever doing that though. |
Atunah, thanks for the input. I agree. I didn't realize so many of the titles in the prime lending had been free (I viewed putting a book in there as a HUGELY better alternative to putting a book free. But I've never really been a fan of the free bandwagon so I've not tried it. Can't really speak to how well it might or might not work for me.)
I also didn't know about the Oyster difference. Some of my books are supposedly on there and Inkbok, but I see a lot more loaning going on at Scribd--hands down. And I think some of that is the devices and also the publishers participating. I'm really glad to see another possible real retailer--both where I can read and so on.
Don't get me wrong, I like Amazon and I'm thrilled that they have done so much for readers and writers. But I do not want them to be the only success out there because that would be very bad!
I'm a little worried about the pricing of SCRIBD--it caters to those who know they will read more than one "best seller priced" book per month. I hope that price is low enough to keep people coming back.
I read that the SCRIBD CEO was approaching venture capitalists for more money--apparently the publishers want some royalty payments upfront (sort of a guarantee their books will be read at least x and if not they get paid anyway). That might sweeten the pot for the publishers, but I hope it doesn't push the price of membership up.