Topical ads at the ends of e-Books

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by weebil

In that realm, I am currently working on a companion recipe book for my novel, (bartending recipes, tips etc) and although I don't want it to be an unending mess of hyperlinks,(although tempting financially, my goal is not to alienate the reader) I would like to add a page at the end so readers can find the products I am speaking about. (a great Bloody Mary product, for instance) Obnoxious? What are your thoughts?

I like product links at the end. I buy a lot of crafting books and having them say, "oh, yeah, totally, get a 4" inch xenofied needle with a carbonated eye and a swiffle edging" makes me want to crawl into a ball and cry desolately because I know from experience that a google search will end with a thousand variations of BUY XENOFIED NEEDLES HERE that then redirect to useless About.com pages.

But a single like to a webpage you maintain would be awesome, too, IF you want to put in the overhead to maintain the page. And you can make it look nice. Otherwise, no. Product links are better and I'm less likely to blame the author if one link sucks.

[Belfaborac]

Recipe books, crafting books, DIY books and whatever is a different kettle of fish and I can certainly see how links to products, tools and such might be a good thing. However, I think elemenoP's suggestion of a reference to a web page containing those links is the better idea.

[Rumpelteazer]

If it's at the end of the book and there are several "more by this author" and "if you liked this book you might like..." I wouldn't mind. I discovered many new books and authors that way when reading pbook. But there should only be a couple of ads with each a short blurb about what the book is about.

[The Terminator]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

Poll, but a bit more specific than the on-going (and very interesting) ads poll.

Would you be bothered by the inclusion of ads at the ENDS of eBooks that feature other works by the author or by similar authors?

Here I'm thinking of the retro full page ads that used to occur at the ends of books that advertised the author's next/other books and/or similar authors in the genre.

In Vince Flynn's newest book the publisher put a whole bunch of excerpts at the end, so it messed with the % left. I think they removed them, because a lot of people complained, he sent out an apology last month.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by The Terminator

In Vince Flynn's newest book the publisher put a whole bunch of excerpts at the end, so it messed with the % left. I think they removed them, because a lot of people complained, he sent out an apology last month.

To clarify, I was thinking a dozen-or-fewer one-page ads, not 200 pages of book previews. I don't consider a "preview" an "ad", but I see now that was confusing.

[Giggleton]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

If it's at the end of the book and there are several "more by this author" and "if you liked this book you might like..." I wouldn't mind. I discovered many new books and authors that way when reading pbook. But there should only be a couple of ads with each a short blurb about what the book is about.

No, what we need is complete and simple access to everything. One book should seamlessly flow into another. There is no need for an end...

[LuvReadin]

I don't mind if it's just a page or two - as someone else said, some of the retro ads can be quite entertaining, as can suggestions on what to read next can be quite entertaining, and they're part of a long-standing tradition in print books. I'm not that keen on these being just a long list of that particular author's books - I prefer to see a selection of different synopses. OTOH, they should be synopses - Elfwreck's quite right about the page count. I absolutely loathe getting to the end of a book and finding a great chunk of it is a chapter from the author's next one. I never read them and it does make me feel duped, and TBH, it also make me wonder how good a book is likely to be if the author's managed to churn it out in the time taken to publish the previous one - either way, it's not calculated to encourage me to buy!

[Yapyap]

I don't mind if it's a handful of covers or short descriptions for either the same author's other books (including the next books in the series) or other authors/books in the same genre.

I generally skip even those, though, and I never read random excerpts.

Originally Posted by LuvReadin

TBH, it also make me wonder how good a book is likely to be if the author's managed to churn it out in the time taken to publish the previous one

Hmm. I've never actually seen excerpts for the next book in the series in brand new releases - aren't those more usual in, say, paperback releases, or later ebook releases, i.e. any releases that have come out well after the original release date? In other words, if the series (or most of it) is already out in hardback, then seeing full chapter excerpts in the paperback or ebook release really doesn't make me wonder about that. But it might just be a coincidence that I've never seen them in brand new releases.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by LuvReadin

it also make me wonder how good a book is likely to be if the author's managed to churn it out in the time taken to publish the previous one

Not exactly fair.

1- Plenty of authors accumulate a backlist of manuscripts just waiting for the first sale. (C.F. Amanda Hocking -- the reason she became an "overnight" sensation was because she already had a bunch of completed works when she went self-pub so when folks liked her work they found a full suit of books to turn to.)

2- Some authors are very prolific and can readily run out 3-4 titles a year so getting a sequel draft completed while the previous volume is proofed and edited isn't particularly hard.

3- The next book doesn't have to be finished to get the first chapter sample into the print edition of the previous one.

4- More importantly, for tight-knit series, the author might prefer to see how the story develops in the sequel before finalizing the earlier volume.

5- Writing doesn't have to be a linear process; authors can, and often do, write mutiple books in parallel, especially when they are independent.

[DuskyRose]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

To clarify, I was thinking a dozen-or-fewer one-page ads, not 200 pages of book previews. I don't consider a "preview" an "ad", but I see now that was confusing.

I don't mind ads at the end of a book, but to me this is way too many pages. One page, to me, is plenty of room to list similar books. I don't want whole page summaries, or more than just basic info. I'd rather one trim list that I can use to go to my browser and pull up summaries and reviews on my own.

I just find pages and pages of ads at the back a huge turn off.

I also really dislike previews at the back of books. They throw the page count/percentage off and I don't start something I can't complete. If I like the book I'm reading and want the next in a series, I'll go and get it at the end of the book without prompting. I don't want to spoil it by reading a preview when I don't have the book ready to dive into.

[theducks]

This would not be much different than a standard Paperback.

As long as this did not bloat the book file size by more than 5% (allows for a smallish cover image)