Today, subscription service Oyster added a few new publishers. According to the release, they added Andrews McMeel, Globe Pequot Press, and New Word City.
You know what’s been a funny effect of subscription services, at least for me? I actually pay attention to publishers now, where I used to never think about them. When I see a book I want to read, I check the publisher to see if it’s one of the ones available in my service (which happens to be Scribd).
I’m not (yet) familiar with the ones Oyster just added, but I’ll be checking them out. Just because I’m using another service now doesn’t mean I won’t consider changing, especially once Oyster has an Android version. I know they are working on one because I stumbled across this site where you can sigh up to be notified when the service will be available on Android The only tricky part of signing up to be notified? They ask which version of Android you’re running. I’m running two different versions, but I picked KitKat since it’s the one I’m more likely to use while reading.
Anyone else excited about the new Oyster choices?
I am excited about Scribd and Oyster but also sense these services will further feed the narrow avid reading population, which is a small number of people based on current reading stats and total available population. I think the main challenge for reading is to get more people who rarely read to take a baby step and try a new book. To increase the rate of book reading versus other forms of more passive entertainment. I believe ebooks are the best hope to make this happen given lower prices and easier access, plus being presented within the exciting technology frameworks of our era. Possibly services like Noisetrade will do more than paid subscription plans to increase book reading? Whenever I see an author-signing photo on Facebook or attend a book trade show I find myself wondering how do we get a more representative sample of world society to read books and also work in the industry. How do we broaden the participation to become more mainstream? I think part of the answer is technology adoption and part is within elementary school education in encouraging a lifetime love of reading as one important way to learn and enjoy.