Potentially great debate coming up in June between pro & con folk on both sides of the subject : http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2014/announcing-dbw-debates-ebook-subscription-services/

My own reading on the subject, beginning when I needed to decide whether to join in with Smashwords to distribute to Scribd and Oyster, came up with the idea that book subscriptions, though similar to music streaming, were closer to Netflix’s model.

My personal reading experience, on both platforms, seems to support that idea.

Now, how that will translate to authors, which I am also is still unknown. As per this date, I’ve received no sales or views or reads data from Smashwords. Scribd does show me the number of views for a title, but it’s unknown if it’s a royalty triggering “view.”

However, my view count alone is significantly higher than I guess my views to be on other platforms, but I can only guess that at this point.

Some folk, like Joe Konrath, whom I respect hugely, feel the book subscription model is unsustainable (as per a comment reply from him to me on one of his posts). And without hard data yet, that’s certainly a possibility. I don’t agree with that, but again, without hard data, hard to say yet.

That’s why I began my comment with the link to June’s debate, sponsored by Digital Book World, narrated by Jeremy Greenfield. Reps (from the pro side) from Scribd and Smashwords will debate “NPR” style vs the CEO of ePubDirect and journalist Jonathan Blum.

I make a big deal of this because, there is so much still unknown and/or unreported, and this seems like a nicely open forum for a real debate, where facts and can be compared and contrasted.

If done right, I think this debate will define, either immediately or in hindsight, the book subscription model for the near future.

For now, I’m all in with both Scribd and Oyster.

And remain in my direct sales outlets.