Excuse us while we interrupt your book reading for a short advertisement. Huh?

Posted on 06. Jul, 2009 by Chris Matney in Book Publishing, Front Page Posts

I hope that everybody had a fun Independence Day filled with fireworks and ice cream. It was stormy along the Front Range in Colorado, but the weather cleared just in time for the festivities – hooray. Now, it’s back to work and with record high temperatures on the way at least I won’t be tempted to go outside.

Over the weekend, Devin Coldewey published a Crunchgear article reporting that Amazon has applied for a patent on in-book advertisements. Now, I stopped watching network television for the better part of a decade simply because I was tired of advertisements ruining a good movie or show. It even killed watching sports for awhile. With the advent of the DVR, I’m back with my finger poised over the Skip button – there were some entertaining shows made during the 90’s and 00’s. However, I bristle at ads still – it seems to be ingrained in my nature.

Now, Mr. Coldewey has told us not to panic – with overtones of Douglas Adams. He purports that this approach would be used in reduced-price books (not full retail), so it would be an opt-in type of arrangement. I’m not sure how he comes to this conclusion, but it seems that it is only a tiny step away from a very bad situation – the advertiser wanting to “control” the content of the book to make sure that it meets corporate standards. I really, really, really don’t want corporate lawyers and marketing executives editing the books I read. Really.

This brings me to an idea that is floating around the halls of Trapdoor Books. We want to support libraries – both to promote literacy and to make sure that well-written fiction is generally available to the public. To do this, we are considering a patronage program where a donor may purchase several hundred hard-back books in advance of its first printing, and we will stamp them with their name and donate them to libraries across America. It seems like a great idea, and I would love to hear your thoughts. However, I would never set up a program that would allow the patron to edit or change the book they are supporting. It just seems wrong in all ways.

Mr. Coldeway’s article does illustrate that the book publishing business is changing in very fundamental ways. If done right, the new publishing order will be better for authors, publishers and readers. If done wrong, well… I would love to hear your thoughts.