I know it might sound weird but I'm sure publishers can make some extra money to fray costs just putting ads between chapters - heck there might be some perks in it for the author if he suggests a product, lol! (Can you imagine the calls Stephen King would be getting?)
I know it sounds horrible - but is there a reason why it hasn't been done yet?
Can you imagine getting a hardback with ads interspersed within? How much would that bother you?
Posted by snapper (Member # 7299) on :
I can think of a reason. It would be tacky.
Card inserts like the ones in magazines...blah!
You know, they do, at least they did. Ads for other novels from the same publisher.
Posted by Meredith (Member # 8368) on :
Now one kind of ad I don't mind. I've read a couple of paperbacks lately where the first chapter of the next book by that author was included in the back of the book. Gives you a chance to see if you want to pick up the next one.
[This message has been edited by Meredith (edited March 01, 2010).]
Posted by Rhaythe (Member # 7857) on :
Don't they? I've seen plenty where the publisher throws in one-pagers referring to other books they will be distributing in the near future. I'm reading "Eye of the Needle" by Ken Follett and it has ads for:
* Harper LUXE * several Michael Crichton books on one page * several Elmore Leonard books ("The Hot Kid" ?!?) * yet more Michael Crichton. Oh, "State of Fear". Good one.
quote:I've read a couple of paperbacks lately where the first chapter of the next book by that author was included in the back of the book.
Those are nice. Yet more proof to the old adage of perfecting the "hook".
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
It is horrible. Go back to the used bookstores and look through the books that are thirty to forty years old...you'll see, usually, a cigarette ad stuck in the middle. Writers fought for years to get the publishers to stop doing that.
Used to be, the publishers would have ads (and often mail-order forms) for their other books in the back of the book---does anybody still do that? Sometimes there'd be a page in the front, devoted to the other books by the writer that they publish. Sometimes the ads would be for non-genre books...
Posted by Crystal Stevens (Member # 8006) on :
I remember when I read comic books as a kid all the ads were in the back and didn't interfere with the story. Also the ads were only a page or two. Then I picked up a comic book more recently, and what do I find? The entire book is more ads than story. Comics used to be about 15 pages of story. Now I bet you're lucky to get 9... and the ads aren't lumped together at the back of the book anymore but strewn all through it. I don't see how kids today put up with that. It'd drive me nuts!
And that's the reason why I would hate to see that happen to paperbacks or hardbacks. When I'm reading a book, I don't want to be distracted with ads. That would be a pain to find an ad on the next page or two in the middle of a book and have to take the time to pick the story back up again... especially if I'm really wrapped up in the story.
Posted by shimiqua (Member # 7760) on :
What a fun idea for a story.
Posted by rich (Member # 8140) on :
Thank you, Robert. I'm glad I'm not the only one to remember those cigarette ads in the middle of the paperback books.
Quite frankly, though, maybe publishers should rethink that avenue. Maybe not cigarettes, but...for example: Cell, by Stephen King. Cell phone ads, while tacky, would generate some amount of income, wouldn't they?
(I honestly have no idea if ads in books are being looked at as a revenue stream becuase of the writer outcry, but...these times, they are a changin'. Writers may have to rethink their "principles" in this publishing industry reality.)
Posted by billawaboy (Member # 8182) on :
Hmm, interestings answers. Ads don't bother me that much - not unless they blink, or make annoying sounds, or prevent me from doing something (Something i think they fix with browsers)
but heck, i wouldn't mind rip-out coupons for books, or furniture, or snacks or cool nifty gadgets etc... Rip em out and your book is ad free.
I think ad folk are worried they not many people read books any more.
Also i think some authors mught be worried that their work is part of a scheme to just get readers to buy books - or worse their work was compromised to suit the tastes of the ad companies...
but if google's making billion with ads having strict rules on how they will be displayed - i think publisher can learn from that.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
quote:Also i think some authors mught be worried that their work is part of a scheme to just get readers to buy books
That is how newspapers and magazines work...they're delivery units for the ads, not the articles or stories comic strips or editorials or anything else contained within.
Posted by JSchuler (Member # 8970) on :
quote:Quite frankly, though, maybe publishers should rethink that avenue. Maybe not cigarettes, but...for example: Cell, by Stephen King. Cell phone ads, while tacky, would generate some amount of income, wouldn't they?
Well, imagine you're Steven King. You have a style that works and pays the bills quite handsomely and reliably. Do you want to go mussing that up by annoying your readers with cellphone ads?
Now, if we could get product placement deals, that would be something!
[This message has been edited by JSchuler (edited March 02, 2010).]
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
On Stephen King's level of success---rich people seldom say no to more money. If the money were good for putting a big whoppin' ad in his book, he'd probably go along with it.
Posted by rich (Member # 8140) on :
I wasn't really thinking along the lines of a Stephen King-type author, but more along the lines of the product itself.
I will disagree with Robert that King would probably be okay with the ad. Nicholas Sparks, maybe, would be okay with it.
But the ad thing would be for mid-list writers, or even YA books.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
In the bad old days, the writers didn't have any say...the ads were just stuck in by the publisher. There's a fantastic tale of the pressure applied by one well-known SF writer to get rid of the ad, that ended with the mailing of a dead gopher and a recipe for dead gopher stew.
There was a lot more to it than that...but does anybody really need to know the leadup to the punchline?
Posted by rich (Member # 8140) on :
That was Harlan Ellison. Got pissed off that his publisher put a cigarette ad in the middle of his book.
The dead gopher thing was a different publisher, I believe. Ask Togersen. I'm sure he knows the story.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
I didn't want to name names...besides, you-know-who takes an unusually proprietary interest in his name being bandied about. Do you want to receive a dead gopher in your mailbox?
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
Dead gopher stew sounds good, we have it every gopher day. I'm still mad at peta for ending the gopher juggling in the gopher day parade.
Posted by rich (Member # 8140) on :
Ellison's already mad at me, and kicked me off his site. He's got my address so he knows where to send the dead gopher.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
