Gimmicks as a form of social DRM

[Barcey]

I was thinking of a couple of sales gimmicks that could be used for ebooks.

1) Instead of an author signing you could have your digital picture taken with the author and download a custom ebook with this as the last page.

2) Upload a photo and have it photo stitched as one of the characters on the cover art. This might work for gifts to people with electronic readers.

Anybody have any other ideas?

Would these work for you as a premium purchase option??

[Phogg]

I sell multiple DRM free illustrated editions with different illustrations. At a very affordable price like a three bucks or less.

Spend some time at deviant art, and other art sites.

There are (and arguably have always been) More artists of decent ability than there are art buyers. Resulting in a lot of good work that is either not done for pay, or done for very low pay. The same is true of musicians, and writing in general.

So I would hold illustration contests periodically, rewrite the post script to tell about the different artists, and see If I couldn't sell multiple copies of my work.



This model (with adjustments for using public domain or affordable classic art) has been the standard model for selling poetry since before I was born. I believe this old horse has quite a few races left, and I am in favor of recycling the idea.

[nekokami]

I don't know if it would be practical as a social DRM method, but I can certainly see something to do with pictures with the author becoming common as an alternative to signatures, especially as multifunction devices become common.

[Barcey]

Sorry I didn't explain my thinking on the social DRM aspect. I was just thinking that people would be more likely to purge the libraries from their electronic readers when they sell them if they know they have personalized content. I personally think it would be more effective then the threat of law suits.

[RobbieClarken]

Originally Posted by Barcey

Sorry I didn't explain my thinking on the social DRM aspect. I was just thinking that people would be more likely to purge the libraries from their electronic readers when they sell them if they know they have personalized content. I personally think it would be more effective then the threat of law suits.

Although I think social DRM would be less effective than current DRM techniques, I agree it would have more of an effect on most people than the fear of law suits. However I think just having someone's full name printed on each page would be more efficient than what you are proposing. That said, I would definitely pay a premium for a personal message from my favourite authors but this obviously couldn't work on a large scale for popular authors.