Comments on: Amazon to Turn Books Into Magazines With Ads in Books

By: LuxMobiles

LuxMobiles — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 13:23:22 +0000

LuxMobiles – the most professional replica Vertu online shop welcomes you. If you are a true fan of such elite cellphones brands like Vertu, Mobiado, Goldvish, Gresso, then you will be surprised to find more affordable exact luxury replicas of these cellphones at our online shop. All our products are made in South Korea, we are the only vendor of such luxury replica cellphones. Other vendors are just pretend to sell korean replica, but only we can offer it to you. Quality of our products is superb, our mobile phones look, feel and weight the same as genuine models, our prices are the most reasonable in the internet. Visit us and find more on our pages.

By: Annie

Annie — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 04:39:22 +0000

I don’t see the big deal. If I turn the page and see an ad, I’ll simply turn the page again without reading the ad. Not like it will take a huge amount of time or effort.

By: Chris L

Chris L — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:25:20 +0000

Y’know, between Amazon charging me sales tax, and now this. I was going to buy a Kindle, but I will pass. I am also not renewing my prime account.

Maybe just maybe they could lower the cost of books and other merchandise if companies (all companies) didn’t spend billions on needless advertising. It’s getting ridiculous.

By: Deb Kinnard

Deb Kinnard — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 02:06:20 +0000

I’m all for it — provided they share the ad revenue with me, the content creator (a.k.a.) author. A nice percentage, around 50% should do very nicely. But the possibilities of that happening are about equal to the lifespan of a snowball in a blast furnace.

And if I, as author, and my publisher, don’t have some degree of control over the ads’ content, we could be looking at inspirational romances with Cialis or Trojan ads in them. And how about ads for Prozac or Ritalin in kids’ books? Now there’s a marketing strategy!

Oh, no. Do not want. Not that my not want will affect anything, one iota.

By: Jane

Jane — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 01:18:24 +0000

@Suzann: It's an Amazon patent as Kindle is a product not a business and therefore could not have a patent.

By: Suzann

Suzann — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 22:49:24 +0000

Hi Jane,

The patent link you listed was originally filed December 27, 2007 does not mention kindle or amazon.

How did you determine that this was specific to Amazon or the Kindle?
Sounded more like it was for ebooks in general.

By: it was only a matter of time « Collection Developments @ Sno-Isle

it was only a matter of time « Collection Developments @ Sno-Isle — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:47:35 +0000

[...] 9, 2009 · Leave a Comment floating around the blog world the last couple of days is the word that Amazon filed a patent to insert ads into ebooks and p.o.d. titles.Â advertisements will be [...]

By: Jules Jones

Jules Jones — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:38:34 +0000

I wonder how long before Amazon thinks that it would be a good idea to emulate the German soup ads which are infamous within sf fandom? (There's a nice discussion of German soup ads starting at comment 36 and then 43 in this thread on John Scalzi's blog.)

By: Rowan McBride

Rowan McBride — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:40:05 +0000

This reminds me of that Futurama episode where Fry’s having a great dream only to have it interrupted by a commercial. He questions his friends about it and they explain calmly that it was just an ad. Fry’s horrified at the thought and they ask whether the 20th century had commercials. He replies (paraphrasing here) “Well, sure. But only on TV. And the internet. In newspapers… magazines… on the sides of buses… on benches…”

I love that show but at this point in time I’d really rather not take the first step toward making it my life. ;)

As a kid I felt like books were sanctuary. As an adult that hasn’t changed. I don’t want it to change.

By: FD

FD — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:36:01 +0000

Oh wow. I think this could become the story of ‘How Amazon inadvertently encouraged e-piracy.’

By: GrowlyCub

GrowlyCub — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:43:30 +0000

I fear anybody, who believes they’d make the ‘ad books’ cheaper than current price tags, is deluded. They’d cost the ‘regular’ price and we’d have to pay extra to get the ad free books. I think the ‘ads’ for other titles at the end of book at least keep it in the family (although I have to admit I’m baffled and annoyed at Avon putting an excerpt for the book I just read at the end of it, talk about wasted ink and paper). I absolutely do NOT want to have any old ads in my reading material. I hate to read books by authors who obviously get paid for their product placement (Ward anyone?)

I wish with all my heart somebody else had patented this to put it in a drawer forever and to protect us consumers from the greed and commercialization perpetrated by the behemoths, be they Amazon or B&N or whoever else tries to ruin our leisure activity.

By: XandraG

XandraG — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:18:38 +0000

Do. Not. Want.

And seriously…reduced price? I’m supposed to pay Amazon for the privilege of interrupting a story I’m immersed in, and pay Amazon for the privilege of having to look at yet another “Flat Stomach Obey” ad or stupid dancing-woman mortgage rate ad.

I don’t effin’ think so.

But I do know who would get revenue from it. Whatever broke grad student writes a python hack app to strip out the ad content from the book. As long as they have a “feed me” link on their blog, they’d get something from me.

By: Kathleen O'Reilly

Kathleen O'Reilly — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:01:02 +0000

I actually don’t mind this. As a few people have mentioned, most books contain ads now…. And technically, those “praise from Mary Sue’s other book XX” are ads. Just nicely wrapped… With magazines and books, you have the option to ignore the content. TV (unless you Tivo), not so much. And if it saves me some money on the purchase price, I’m good with that, too. Now, if they deliberately make them annoying (end chapter hook — ad for Coke! — new chapter), then I will be upset. So, that’s my big thing (as both a reader and an author). Don’t take me out of the reading experience. And frankly, if they did that, it would be a massive *fail* anyway.

By: Kalen Hughes

Kalen Hughes — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:52:01 +0000

When I was in NY, I was amazed that there were TV's in the hotel elevators.

My favorite are the ones in the cabs!

By: DS

DS — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:34:46 +0000

The cigarette ads did not bring down the price of books. Mmpb books at the time were really cheap compared to the current price, so they may have allowed publishers to hold the line on prices for a while.

By: Edie

Edie — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:09:43 +0000

I could live with them, as some others have said the older books had them at the end or sometimes in the middle.. as long as they are not throughout so I can ignore them if I choose, all is good, especially if they bring down the price. Though I will believe that when I see it.

By: NKKingston

NKKingston — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:49:29 +0000

I’m not against ads in books per se. God knows most of the books I own have something in the last few pages, even if it’s just ads for books by the same publisher to fill up the white space (and usually a “Join the Penguin Reader’s Club, only 5d a year!” ad, because most of my books are older enough to be in old money). I’ve even seen a few books with ads randomly in the middle.

If it’s to happen to ebooks, though, I want ads like they have in comic books; ads like TV ads, carefully placed to increase suspense and to break up scenes. I want the person placing them to have read the book. I want them to be relevant to the book, not to me (because that’s just plain creepy!), and I want them to be easy to ignore. Full page ads are always easier to skim the margin or mid-page ads. Ideally, I want the author, or at least the editor, to have chosen them and chosen their positioning, and I’d like to know that they’re getting something out of it too.

Saying this, I find the ads in comic books incredibly annoying, expecially since there seems to be a reduction in content as a result, but I understand the argument behind them. I can live with them. Of course, you can see them coming in your peripheral vision, so you’re turning the page before you’ve even looked at them. Whether I can live with them in an ebook does depend on how quick the page turn is, and how long I’m waiting for the story to continue.

By: rebyj

rebyj — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 05:28:44 +0000

It’d be funny if the ads relate to what you’re reading.

Military suspense – You made them strong, WE make them Army Strong!
Criminal suspense – CSI Saturday’s at 9pm!
Contemporary romance- Trojan Condoms, For that natural feel!
Text books – University of Phoenix! YOU can get a degree!
Erotica – Singles in YOUR area are waiting for YOU to call! FREE 1 800 -
Gay romance – The church of Larry Craig and Ted Haggard want YOU!
Vampire romance – Red Cross, Give the gift of life
Lesbian romance – The L Word! Thursdays 10pm on LOGO!
Chick Lit – DSW shoes, prices you’ll love!
Older chick lit – Viagra,you’re still hot but he’ll still need it.

By: DS

DS — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:57:26 +0000

When cigarettes were no longer allowed to advertise on TV the tobacco companies when to to books. I also had an account with Wowio (I think) where downloads of books were priced according to ads or not.

I’m reserving judgment until I see what happens. Should I admit here that I really like the ads in Vanity Fair even though I am highly unlikely to buy anything advertised? This is an exciting time for a reader to live in considering everything that is going on in the publishing/book selling world.

By: Lucynda

Lucynda — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:52:39 +0000

Christ Anderson talked about this a couple years ago in The Long Tail.

His theory, though, is that books would be free.

Lucynda
http://www.LucyndaStorey.com