Kozlowski (2014) believes that piracy would reduce because the content is free,. Therefore the idea is to combat piracy and make profit through advertising. The book industry will in theory become more like the magazine industry.
Issues with Advertising in eBooks
The answer would be yes, it all depends on the device. Hall (2014, pg. 32) states that when Amazon releases an eBook for the Kindle it takes a publishers MOBI file and converts it into its own digital format AZW therefore showing how publishers will need to make advertisers of the different e-reading devices and the formats they use. This will lead to publishers employing more technology geniuses that can use eBook formats from CSS to MOBI to PDF and so on.
According to Johnson (2014) the problem with this concept is books are fortunate to sell over a few thousand copies therefore publishers would have to persuade advertisers to invest in new titles without knowing whether they would be popular or not. The fact that most books would become free is concerning because how do you separate good titles from bad ones?
As a society we are accustomed to term free; music, films, apps, video etc. So with everything moving towards free how can publishers continue to charge for books? In my eyes this is an outrageous idea and would ruin my reading experience but I would be prepared to pay to get rid of advertisements.
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References:-
Hall, F (2013). The business of Digital Publishing: an introduction to the digital book and journal industries. Routledge: Oxford
Johnson, B (2014) ‘Would I read an ad-supported EBook? Probably’. Computers in Libraries, May, 2014, Vol.34(4), p.10(5)
Kozlowski, M (2014). Advertisements in eBooks – Is It a Good Idea?. Available at: http://goodereader.com/blog/e-book-news/advertisements-in-ebooks-is-it-a-good-idea (accessed: 24th November 2014)
Kurtz, D (2013). Ad-driven eBooks are worse—and closer—than you imagine. Available at: http://www.mhpbooks.com/ad-driven-ebooks-are-worse-and-closer-than-you-imagine/ (accessed: 24th November 2014)
Mulvihill, A and Schiller, K. ‘Social reading heats up with ebooks’. Information Today, July-August, 2011, Vol.28(7), p.1(4)