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Free ad-supported edition on the way for Long Tail author’s next book: Nice preview of $20 version?
December 9, 2007 | 11:03 am
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By David Rothman
None other than the The Walt Disney Company—a copyright hawk over the years—is publishing yet another book by the author of The Long Tail, so dear to many Netfolks. But that’s not all. Also to Disney’s credit, its Hyperion division is showing a willingness to experiment with new business models.
Chris Anderson (photo), Mr. Long Tail himself, says that at least one edition of the forthcoming Free: The Past and Future of a Radical Price, will be free—ad-supported. Ah! That oughta make Tim O’Reily’s day (just kiddin’, Tim). As if reading my mind, Anderson says that by paying $20 you can turn off the ads. It will be interesting to see how intrusive they are—I hope not very, but you never know.
Free ad version: Possible preview for the $20 edition?
Meanwhile the ad version just might be one way to entice people to pay up their $20—or far, far more than than the $5-10 that Amazon’s Kindle store is charging for popular books. I’d love to report something else, lack of DRM or at least use of Social DRM on Chris Anderson’s new book. No such luck. Still the planned experimentation is definitely progress, and I wish luck to both Disney and Anderson on this one.
As for Free, Anderson has been busy talking it up and is making some interesting points, among them:
- The cost of storing a gig of information has dropped from $100,000 in 1985 to a mere 40 cents in 2007.
- Transistors are now so cheap that Intel might drop charges for putting chips in various devices—counting instead on a share of the revenue from consumer services associated with them. In other words, the “free” ways of the Net might be spreading to physical goods.
Now let’s look ahead to the time when designs from anywhere can be replicated locally for common products. Will providers of steel or material for plastic actually give away free designs to encourage consumption of their wares? Yes, the concepts here go far beyond e-books and the Net.
Usual reminder about ad-supported books: No, I’m not saying that this approach can single-handedly save the publishing industry from all that free competition from Net-based content. It’s just one model to consider. You need to think book-by-book.
(Thanks to Mike Cane for spotting this one from the Times Online.)
Technorati Tags: Chris Anderson,Long Tail,The Long Tail,Kindle,Amazon Kindle,Social DRM,Free: The Past and Future of a Radical Price
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Comments:
Very interesting thoughts, David. The idea of free designs to help sell stuff is not new–many chip companies offer reference designs to jump-start sales of their stuff. Likewise, HP etc. offer their printers as loss leaders to sell their ink.
I think, though, that ultimately we have to go the other way. The material component of a paper book is not much–the value is in the words. The material component of an eBook is even less–but the value is still in the words. Offering books to encourage electron sales ultimately doesn’t make much sense. Offering free intellectual content to sell abundant silicon doesn’t make much sense, either. Over time, the tonnage and value of physical stuff as a percentage of GDP continues to fall (despite scarcity glitches like the current petroleum fiasco). So, we’ve got to find a way to monitize the intellectual component.
I agree that the ad model is worth investigating–and trying. But if my model is right–that gradually intellectual content becomes more and more dominant–what are we going to advertise? Answer–it’s got to be intellectual content because that’s what it’s all about. Running ads for BooksForABuck.com makes sense to me now because ultimately I make money selling books. But we can’t all give away everything and make it up selling ads to each other–can we?
Anyway, as always a lot of thought-provoking stuff today.
Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com
Heck, Rob, as I’ve said, everything is book by book. You already know I don’t want to see everything ad supported. What’s more, in many cases, I’d be grouchy if I couldn’t turn the ads off.
But back to your arguments: I certainly agree that we “can’t all give away everything and make it up selling ads to each other, can we?” And that’s exactly why I’m intrigued by the possibility of at least some some books serving in effect as ad-supported ads for paid editions. Just one possibilty, of course.
It sure will be interesting to see how things shake out. I doubt that you, Tim O and I in the end are that far apart. We’re all rooting for publishing in all forms, E and P, to be sustainable. And that means experimentation with all kinds of business models.
I especially like your model, by the way, in that you’re trying so hard to give readers a good deal for the money. But if it takes higher prices for publishers and authors to make money? I’m open to that, too.
An aside: This is one reason why I continue to like the library model, which could provide for fair compensation for writers and make oodles of books free at the end user level. Not free ultimately, of course—given the taxes going for libraries. But considering that the typical library spends just a fraction of its budget on content, maybe E can save money in the end. I want to see as much as possible go for content and librarians—as opposed to buildings. I live in Alexandria, VA, but one reason I love the Fairfax system is that the library folks there have avoided the construction of library palaces and focused on branches. Let’s hope they can use E in the future to make their system still more efficient.
Happy holidays, Rob! Whether you agree with me or not, it’s always great to have you around the TeleBlog and the comment section in my PW blog.
David
>>>Now let’s look ahead to the time when designs from anywhere can be replicated locally for common products. Will providers of steel or material for plastic actually give away free designs to encourage consumption of their wares? Yes, the concepts here go far beyond e-books and the Net.
Oh yes indeedy!!
http://mikecane.wordpress.com/2007/05/07/the-future-is-fab/
David,
Holiday wishes to you as well. I realized, from your response, that some of my comments might be taken as argumentative or abrasive. Oops, not meant to be. I’m absolutely a fan of the Teleread concept–and of the notion that readers/authors/publishers need to be open to various revenue models going forward. (And I continue to appreciate your kind words on the BooksForABuck.com pricing model which I think does reflect the savings that can be generated by the move to electronic publishing).
I’m not really against ads at all. I confess that I use ads on BooksForABuck.com (Google ads and ads from other organizations I think have valuable products) to help cover costs. I also buy ads to help spread the word about our product. My response was simply a (perhaps not tactfully worded) consideration of where we may be going in the future and a plea that we keep in mind a world where intellectual creativity is the essence of what production really is.
(I guess I do get ticked off when I read about how books really should all be free–but I recognize this isn’t what you’re saying).
Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com
> (I guess I do get ticked off when I read about how books really should all be free–but I recognize this isn’t what you’re saying).
Not at all, Rob. Someone always pays in the end, whether in time or money (e.g., tax money for libraries). Plus, I want a strong private side so D.C. can’t boss the book business around.
Happy holiday and thanks for your good wishes!
David (now off for a Hanukkah get-together)