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Wowio to be sold? Freebie e-book company in talks with Platinum Studios
July 2, 2008 | 7:39 am
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By David Rothman
Wowio, the U.S. provider of ad-supported books, recently announced plans to go global.
Now here’s some possibly related news—Platinum Studios‘ talks to buy Wowio.
The big issue where is, Will freebies continue, not just of comics but of regular books?
“Regular” can include anything from software manuals and other how-to books to Kurt Vonnegut novels and William Styron‘s Sophie’s Choice.
Some hope in Platinum President Brian Altounian’s comments
I see some hope in a quote from Brian Altounian, president and COO of Platinum, which licenses thousands of comic-book characters:
“WOWIO‘s commitment to its motto, ‘free books + free minds,‘ has driven the WOWIO team to create a national digital publishing distribution network, both in the comics and traditional publishing world, that brings together creators, publishers and sponsors in a way that allows authors and publishers to be paid, while providing readers access to free books. We feel that WOWIO‘s unique business model has positioned them to be at the forefront of change in the publishing world during this challenging time for the entire industry.”
So, gang, what do you think?
Related: Google news roundup and Wikipedia item on Platinum.
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Comments:
I’m just wishing I had downloaded a boatload more books than I ever did. The quality is not uniformly excellent, but I found several enjoyable reads. Both fiction and some nonfiction. Of the latter, a particularly good guide to botanical illustrations on the net. IMHO the least helpful nonfiction that I read were the drawing books. Just not to my taste at all, and limited to only a couple of authors.
Several of my favorite WOWIO fictions came from Breakneck, which, I understand, is now variancepublishing.com. I’m not sure whether the change was a straight buyout or what. In any case, there are some pretty good thrillers on their list of titles.
From what I saw, WOWIO had relatively few advertisers. And I read on a comics blog that 2 of their principal sponsors are in some financial trouble just now.
It will be interesting to see what the old WOWIO becomes.