While reading, I try to separate myself from the industrial/corporate world. I don't want to think about work, my groceries, the things I need to buy but can't afford. But that might end soon, as Amazon seeks to patent placing ads in books. (Now glad I didn't blow my wad on a Kindle).In a column for CrunchGear, Devin Coldewey speculates that they will probably limit this to reduced-price books to keep Kindle newbies from feeling betrayed.
But, they have left a loophole for themselves with the potential to extend this to print editions of the content. Not sure exactly how that would work now since Kindle downloads aren't printable (so far as I know).
Aside from just being très gauche, this could also cause problems for holdouts (i.e. independent publishers, small presses) down the line.
Ads in books? Also read this column by Michael Klurfeld in TechGeist - if it's annoying but you get books for free, is it worth it? And how will Amazon negotiate this with publishers who offer Kindle-friendly e-books?
1 comment:
Here is one concern: how do ads get matched to books? Is there niche marketing going on here? I feel like books aren't going to be a profitable ad market. They need to go for ads on, like, bags of carrots.
I would be totally convinced by an ad for shampoo on my baby carrots.
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