The Future of the Book World...

...will include advertisements. At least that's what amazon hopes.

Count me out.

Count me out also.

It does give me a thought though - how long until we get 'product placement' in novels? Is it happening already and I just haven't noticed?

As long it's optional... But I wouldn't accept it for a measily $ 25.- discount.

I'm hoping that by 2025 someone will have invented an amazing new way of reading stories. It could be about the size of a Kindle but, instead of operating electronically, could have the words printed on some kind of very thin material - so thin, in fact, that it's possible to fit pretty much any number of these into one item. It would be possible to print on both sides of this . . .um, let's call it 'paper' and the reader would move from one . . .let's call it 'page', to the next, by simply turning it over. The disadvantage of this would be that it would usually only be possible to carry one or two of these things around with you at a time but then, most people only have one set of eyes anyway. The advantages are huge - if you left yours on a train you'd only have lost one story and wouldn't have to download everything you've ever read back onto the device; for students and other scribblers it would actually be possible to make notes in the margin or underline relevant words or passages; it would be easy to mark your page with a scrap of paper, card or other material. Nothing would ever go wrong with one of these . . . .um, let's call them 'books' and they would be so cheap that, if you did happen to lose one or destroy one it would only cost a few pounds (or dollars) to replace. I reckon these things could be manufactured and sold for around the price of an ebook (free stories would be harder to get hold of but most classics could be published in a form that would cost around £1) but without the necessity to pay over £100 for a device with which to read them because you wouldn't even need that electronic middleman at all, you'd be able to read them just by looking at the words on the page and they would never, ever lose power (or consume any). You'd also end up with a collection of cherishable artefacts that would furnish your house and do away with the need for wallpaper in most rooms so that would be another saving

Call me way ahead of my time but I can dream, can't I?

ETA _ Okay, I know I'm getting carried away now but I reckon you could even incorporate some sort of amazing 'book-y' smell into the manufacturing process. Dragons' Den, here I come.

#2

It has already happened. Fay Weldon is probably the most notable author to have taken money for this about a decade ago for the novel The Bulgari Connection. Bulgari actually commissioned the book, which was later sold to a mainstream publisher.

More recently there have been cross-promotion deals (ie no direct money changing hands) between Cathy's book and CoverGirl make-up.

Of course many authors have dropped brand-names into their books. Ian Fleming for example used many brand names. William Gibson does similar. Mainly to try and give a real veneer to their novels. The problem is when the advertisers control the relationship and stuff is shoe-horned into the text.

#5 - cf the The Guinesss Alice which I came across in the British Library. Hysterically funny, but not what I'd want to read every day.

"Off with his Head" cried the Queen,
"But" said Alice, "Guiness never loses its head"
"Oh" said the Queen, "so it doesn't"

etc etc.

Hmm. I think they've missed a trick. In the garment trade they charge more for products with advertisements on them than for the plain ones: I'm sure Amazon ought to be able to find idiots who would be prepared to pay extra for a Kindle covered in logos for motor cars or jeans or something...

>7 brightcopy:

Ha!

>7 brightcopy:

That is awesome!

If there are ads in e-books, they had better give the books away for free!

Like newspapers, you mean?