Scribd signs up Macmillan

[pdurrant]

Another announcement from Scribd of a big publisher signing up with them. After Houghton Mifflin Harcourt they now also have Macmillan.

See the announcement on their blog.

But it's not Macmillan's entire catalogue. Only 'more than a thousand'.

[pidgeon92]

Bah. I just checked my wishlist of Macmillan titles against the Scribd holdings, and not one book on my list is available.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Macmillan is now available on both Scribd and Oyster.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by pidgeon92

Bah. I just checked my wishlist of Macmillan titles against the Scribd holdings, and not one book on my list is available.

I found that good number of books by F&SF authors I like have been added to Scribd. They all seem to be the first in a series. I am guessing that they released these to hook readers who will then have to purchase the sequels elsewhere.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I found that good number of books by F&SF authors I like have been added to Scribd. They all seem to be the first in a series. I am guessing that they released these to hook readers who will then have to purchase the sequels elsewhere.

They probably can purchase the sequels right at Scribd. Scribd sells ebooks too.

[aceflor]

I have started a subscription to Scribd a month ago, already found a lot of good books there, so any addition, even if small, makes me really happy.

[Lin2412]

Macmillan CEO John Sargent had said in December that the publisher would test ebook subscriptions on “backlist books, and mostly with titles that are not well represented at bricks and mortar retail stores,” as a way of battling Amazon’s dominance in the ebook market.

(link)

It should be a good strategy. Now all we need is popcordn while Scribd and Oyster continue their ongoing rivalry with another, while I decide if I go with KU or not..
Hahaha.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I found that good number of books by F&SF authors I like have been added to Scribd. They all seem to be the first in a series. I am guessing that they released these to hook readers who will then have to purchase the sequels elsewhere.

Oddly enough, I thought of doing just that strategy with my books. But I couldn't figure out a very good reason to do it since I get paid if they read the entire series on SCRIBD. I suppose the difference is that if someone likes book 1 well enough they may BUY books 2 and 3 without reading them right away. So if someone loves the Mcmillian books and they were all on SCRIBD and that reader just added the others in the series to the library "to read later," there's no money to be made.

I know that a certain portion of money made in the book world is made by selling books that are not actually ever read so perhaps their strategy is to make sure and lock in both those who buy and read and those who don't.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Lin2412

(link)

It should be a good strategy. Now all we need is popcordn while Scribd and Oyster continue their ongoing rivalry with another, while I decide if I go with KU or not..
Hahaha.

All Scribd needs to do is update their reader app a bit and they would have a ton of new members. Allow us to customize margins and line spacing. It's not too much to ask is it? Right now unless reading on phone the Scribd app is not really optimized for tablets which is it's biggest downfall. I have no idea what Oysters Reader or options is.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Blossom

All Scribd needs to do is update their reader app a bit and they would have a ton of new members. Allow us to customize margins and line spacing. It's not too much to ask is it? Right now unless reading on phone the Scribd app is not really optimized for tablets which is it's biggest downfall. I have no idea what Oysters Reader or options is.

I am not sure there would be a ton of readers signing up. We (another author and myself) recently did a 3 month free SCRIBD giveaway and the response was lukewarm. Now it could be that our main readers are Kindle people and it doesn't work on Kindle or it could be other factors. But I've run quite a few giveaways and this one had the lowest response of any I've done.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

I am not sure there would be a ton of readers signing up. We (another author and myself) recently did a 3 month free SCRIBD giveaway and the response was lukewarm. Now it could be that our main readers are Kindle people and it doesn't work on Kindle or it could be other factors. But I've run quite a few giveaways and this one had the lowest response of any I've done.

Giveaways never work. Seldom people enter those things anymore. You can't go by it. Most Giveaways now are done with rafflecopter app I think is totally bias. So I don't even try any more.

All it takes for Scribd to pretty up their app and for some real positive reviews and they would have alot of new people. Right now Oyster has them on Publicity. When in the mainstream no publisher world news when a service like this is mention it's always Oyster. They call Oyster Netflix for books. Scribd needs to up their marketing but it would do no good if they app doesn't work well for tablets.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Giveaways never work. Seldom people enter those things anymore. You can't go by it. Most Giveaways now are done with rafflecopter app I think is totally bias. So I don't even try any more.

All it takes for Scribd to pretty up their app and for some real positive reviews and they would have alot of new people. Right now Oyster has them on Publicity. When in the mainstream no publisher world news when a service like this is mention it's always Oyster. They call Oyster Netflix for books. Scribd needs to up their marketing but it would do no good if they app doesn't work well for tablets.

Other giveaways I've done recently have been just fine, but it's very prize dependent. The paypal, ebay and Amazon gift certs are the most popular, of course.

I don't use rafflecopter (and you'll see less of that anyway because it's moved to almost completely a pay service so people using it have to pay a fee to set up their giveaways). But I have used it. I didn't care for it's "random" choices (It kept picking the same winner and that winner was disqualified because that person hadn't done any of the requirements). So I did a spreadsheet and assigned numbers and used a random number generator.

But too many people didn't even know what SCRIBD was. On top of that I saw only a few people click through to look at SCRIBD.

Again, it could be other factors. It's January, internet traffic is down in general, and so on. But I was surprised by the low turnout.

[pidgeon92]

I have two weeks left on my 3-month free trial of Scribd, and I haven't finished anything other than a single audiobook. I have about a dozen ebooks on my list there that I want to read, ebooks that aren't available from my public library, but I just can't bring myself to read on that awful app. I can almost tolerate the line spacing, but the margins are way too wide, taking up more than 25% of the horizontal width of the screen. I'm going to cancel at the end of the month.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by pidgeon92

I have two weeks left on my 3-month free trial of Scribd, and I haven't finished anything other than a single audiobook. I have about a dozen ebooks on my list there that I want to read, ebooks that aren't available from my public library, but I just can't bring myself to read on that awful app. I can almost tolerate the line spacing, but the margins are way too wide, taking up more than 25% of the horizontal width of the screen. I'm going to cancel at the end of the month.

I don't blame you but do me favor and let Scribd know why you wont be staying a member. You can send a email via the app. They seem not to care about tablet users. I am reading Scribd on my Volt. which is a phone. I've given up trying to read on a tablet.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Blossom

All Scribd needs to do is update their reader app a bit and they would have a ton of new members. Allow us to customize margins and line spacing. It's not too much to ask is it? Right now unless reading on phone the Scribd app is not really optimized for tablets which is it's biggest downfall. I have no idea what Oysters Reader or options is.

I am one of those who would sign up if the app was better. At least with Scribd, I can sample books without joining so I could get an idea of how the app works. Or actually doesn't.

With Oyster I can't even see what reading would look like without signing up.

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

I am not sure there would be a ton of readers signing up. We (another author and myself) recently did a 3 month free SCRIBD giveaway and the response was lukewarm. Now it could be that our main readers are Kindle people and it doesn't work on Kindle or it could be other factors. But I've run quite a few giveaways and this one had the lowest response of any I've done.

What difference would getting a free 3 month sign up make? If the app is bad, I don't want it even if it's free.