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| Hearsay: |
Considering the ridiculous growth of the ebook this last year, analysts are thinking this Christmas’s orgy of gratuitous unnecessary spending will be a key benchmark in the rise of the format. Or its DEATH KNELL.*
This holiday season will be a crucial test of whether e-books can cross over from geeky novelty to mass-market must-have. Major retailers are pushing the format — and, of course, the gadgets they’ve developed to display it. Barnes & Noble unveiled its first electronic book reader last month, with access to all of the retailer’s titles and then some. Amazon and Sony, which make the two best-selling e-readers in the country, have introduced new versions just in time to stuff your stocking. And this holiday, for the first time, Best Buy is devoting store space to educating shoppers about e-readers.
All told, about 1.2 million e-readers are expected to be sold in the last three months of the year — roughly 40 percent of the entire year’s stock. By the end of 2010, industry experts predict, 10 million people will be carrying e-readers. As for the number of e-books that people have read, they’ve lost track.
Steve Haber, president of Sony’s digital reading division, can hear his grandkids’ grandkids now: You printed 1,000 pages and you made a million copies of those? Why did you do that?
“To me, it’s just inevitable,” says Haber, who knew printed books were goners when people told him they liked to touch and feel them. “I heard the same thing from LPs and CDs. The mass market, they want convenience and experience.”
*So I have a question for you. Sony has approached me and asked me to hold a contest where first prize is an eReader. In return they want me to put a widget in the contest post that links off to a new social networking books website they’re trying to promote. My question to you is: do you think a place like Bookninja should stay out of this kind of favour trading, or do I get involved and hand one of you a free eReader? (Full disclosure, they’d also give me one to fuck around with, presumably hoping I’d like it.) My inclination is to not get involved. But I’m interested to hear what the public perception is on this kind of advertorial line for blogs. I’ve never claimed to be a journalist in this forum, so I’m not held to those standards, but this seems a bit much. Honest opinions appreciated.
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November 6th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Don’t shake hands with the devil
November 6th, 2009 at 11:56 am
Don’t do it George! You will be just another drone in their army of indistinguishable shills.
November 6th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
And I’m entirely the opposite — so long as they’re not requiring you to LIKE the ereader, what’s the harm in checking one out? And running a contest with a link strikes me as just fine — you run ads here, why the fuck not?
Of course, if I’m the only one who feels this way, you can just send me the reader and be done with the whole thing. Just sayin.
November 6th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
I think that it is perfectly acceptable for you to accept the ereader and give another away on your site. As long as you do not promise a review of the device to Sony or put yourself in a position where you feel obligated to market the device as the best thing since sliced bread, I think you’re morally clear. If you love the device, it can change your reading habits for the better; if you hate it, you never have to try it again.
November 6th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
First an eReader, then a Ford Lincoln Continental, then free trips to Guantanamo Bay to read bedtime stories. Fight the power George! Don’t do it.
November 6th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
It doesn’t seem like a bad plan to me. I’d even check out the networking site, because I’m geeky that way, and I still miss my beloved Readerville.
But next time, make the Man give you a whopping cash subsidy. You deserve it.
November 6th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
You don’t need the draw of a “contest” to bring readers in – so why partner with Sony on this thing? To get an ebook reader? Seems like one of those things where they get way, way more out of it than either you or your readers do.
November 6th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
I’d go for it. Sheesh, it’s free stuff!
November 6th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
oh George, i don’t know about this. I think that, by accepting one as a giveaway for a contest, you are advocating for it. Whether you are under obligation to say that you like it or not, “Read Bookninja, win contest, get Ereader” equals advertising for one. You do accept ads, so… how would you answer their request to place an ad on your site? That’s essentially what you would be doing. They stand to get more out of this than you do.
November 6th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
I’m torn on this one. While we would welcome this offer with open arms I like to think Bookninja has higher standards. By higher I mean existent. Still, I don’t think it’s the worst thing you could do. Watching the Ron James Show on the other hand…
November 7th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
Even if an e-book is the means by which I read a book, I’m still uncomfortable with it. But technology changes, and so must we.
November 8th, 2009 at 8:54 am
I still refuse to read anything that isn’t either hand-lettered in gold foil on vellum scroll or chiselled into a cave wall. But that’s because I prefer the tactile feel of dead sheep and stone to this newfangled “paper” thing.
November 8th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
If you don’t like the one they give you, you could give both of them away. I’m not too ashamed to plead for a cast off model.
November 8th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
You would be a total tool. Ads are not part of your own site content. A contest you create is part of your own site content. In offering an eReader as a “prize,” you would be co-opted. Linking to a “new social networking books website they’re trying to promote” is something you might do in a post, where you’re noting its existence if noteworthy or commenting on its value. But to dumbly, actively participate in its marketing? If you had solicited them, that would be one thing. If they are soliciting you, don’t go there. That isn’t favour trading, it’s product placement.
November 9th, 2009 at 10:49 am
Pat S. Tell us how you really feel, please? wow.. nicely done. I wish i could say something so eloquently and OUT THERE.