Update: First Impression re Scribd & Oyster – I Like It!  And Why…

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Pictured Left :

“Love’s Travels – Vermont Paris Austin“

900 Word Poem.

14 Original Images.

Vermont, Paris, Austin.

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“the intent of this blog is to incrementally build a body of thought that works toward integrating various topics, yoga, fitness, and the arts – it’s a process…”

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Fitness ** Arts ** eBooks

Update: First Impression re Scribd & Oyster – I Like It!

And Why…

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Categories : Author Bio Info & Updates

Previous Related Article : First Impression re Scribd & Oyster – I Like It!  And Why…

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Intro

Why I Liked Them :

In my first post regarding the upcoming wider-debut of at least two Netflix-like ebook-subscription services, Oyster and Scribd, I expressed a solid liking of the possibilities, for both readers and authors.

And I am of both type. 🙂

The terms and potential suit me at this time, and I am going forward giving them a whirl via Smashwords, who distributes to both options.

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[added 041014]

Preview embedded sample via Scribd :

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What’s Come Up :

Since that first article, only about a week ago, I’ve come across more and more blog posts, by little guys like me, and on big sites, like Forbes and others.

I’ve also perused around Barnes & Noble forums, Reddit (for Oyster and Scribd), Kindleboards (Kboards), and others – and two legitimate concerns continue to appear and re-appear.

And their resolution may only be settled over time

But there has been information from Smashwords, about terms and provisions, that I think address some of those concerns –

Att least in an anticipatory fashion, that obviously may need tinkering as things go forward.  But for now, I’m happy with how these are being addressed.

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Concerns & Answers : Terms & Piracy

There seem to be two dominant concerns : the terms of the deals, piracy.

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Piracy

I’ll address piracy first.

Joe Konrath, last I had read, believes piracy is a non-issue and worth the PR.

Not all of us are in Joe’s particular situation, and he often advises we have to make our own individual decisions about, well, everything : what and how to publish, etc.  But there’s no denying his sincerity and helpfulness for indie writers like me.  And he may be right.

Still, piracy, as per a lot of blogs, is a legitimate concern.

Below is Mark Coker’s comment on the Smashwords blog regarding his first hand contact information with Scribd regarding this issue :

“…authors who distribute to Scribd via Smashwords will benefit from Scribd’s digital fingerprinting in which they’ll use your Smashwords edition as the authorized version, and it’ll help them flag or automatically remove unauthorized versions. This fingerprinting approach is a great first step on Scribd’s part to deal with unauthorized uploads.”

http://blog.smashwords.com/2013/12/smashwords-signs-distribution-agreement.html

Also look down into the Comments, esp those by Mark.

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Terms

In the same article, details about the terms are also laid out.

An excerpt is :

“The first 10% of the book is a free sample, similar to a retailer.  Excluding the sample, once the reader reads an additional 20% of the book, a full sale is triggered”

and

“Scribd has sweetened the pot by added a secondary sales trigger for the author by providing credit for partial reads.  If the subscriber reads 5% more than the first free 10% but less than the additional 20% necessary to generate a full sale, this triggers a credit for partial read.  For every ten partial reads, which Scribd calls a “browse,” the author earns credit for a full sale.”

For Oyster, see : https://www.smashwords.com/about/beta and scroll to the dates October 25 – 29th.

An excerpt :

“…an Oyster reader can sample the book from any point of the book, much as a reader of a print book can open it to any page.  For the 70% or more of you who write fiction or narrative non-fiction, your readers are still most likely to engage with your book starting at page one and then read forward, sequentially because that’s how we read fiction.  For those of you who write nonfiction that can be consumed non-sequentially, this abilility for Oyster subscribers to dive into your book at any point has a positive benefit for you.”

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Final Word

There’s lots more in the Smashwords article noted above.

Does this guarantee or preclude something going wrong, or even not being to my liking?

No, of course not.

But these are large corporations who have spent a lot of time and money analyzing why this subscription model for books should work, and the terms are good for (non-exclusive, good percentages), so I default to giving this a strong try.

But my main reason for holding firm is the same as I mentioned in the first article.

Like my wife and mine’s nearly decade long stay with Netflix, we order and view movies not on what they originally cost (too little, too much) as an indicator whether we’d like them or not, and not if we’re convinced beyond any doubt whether we might like the film or not, but –

we order with a willingness to try things, because it’s a set price, for however and whichever works we want to see.

That tells me I have a chance with my relatively unknown body of work : fiction, poetry, images, and mash-ups of verse and story and image, like the book I’m featuring today :

“Love’s Travels – Vermont Paris Austin”

It’s worth it for me to try. 🙂

I hope you’ll sample some of my work on either of these subscription services, or simply purchase one at any of the major online outlets with my work.  After all, without Amazon’s initiative, where would the majority of us be right now? 🙂

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More Info Noted in Previous Article

Scribd

http://blog.scribd.com/2014/01/06/trip-adler-co-founder-and-ceo-of-scribd-named-in-forbes-30-under-30/#comment-5176

http://www.forbes.com/video/2965861610001

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Oyster

https://www.oysterbooks.com

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1st of 2014, Available all kinds of ways, soon and now. 🙂

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Update, more new articles

Is There Really A Netflix for Books?

http://www.babble.com/tech/is-there-really-a-netflix-for-books-oyster-vs-scribd/

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Oyster and Scribd release different, but significant app updates

http://www.teleread.com/scribd/oyster-and-scribd-release-different-but-significant-app-updates/

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namaste´- con dios – god be with you

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