Startup Offers Pay-Per-Page E-Books

judgecorp writes "TotalBoox, a startup from Tel Aviv, plans to sell pay-as-you-read eBooks, charging for each page read. 'We are trying to rid the world from outdated, expensive ritual of buying a book before you read it,' says founder ~Yoarv Lorch, saying that readers can save money and move on if they start a best-seller on the spur of the moment and it turns out to be a turkey. But what about slow-burning classics that you have to 'get into'? What about reference books? And all the bits of a reference book that you don't actually need? The company has a beta app on Google Play for Android tablets."

Re:New business scheme

[History's Coming To]

This is pretty much the current model anyway. Authors rarely write an entire book unless they've been commissioned to do so and paid an advance, instead the normal model is to provide a publisher with a synopsis and a sample chapter or two. Self-published authors tend to write whole books up-front, but that's usually because it's a labour of love rather than a way of making a living - there's an awful lot of (generally awful) books out there written without the benefit of an editor or proof-reader and it shows.

just wait for the next scheme...

[girlinatrainingbra]

Next scheme coming up will be to add eyetrackers and scan which words you are reading which will allow (sarcasm begin) two great new additions:
1 -- why, you only pay for the words you read! Boring paragraphs like Jules Verne's 20k Leagues of their Own Under the Sea 5-page long paragraphs describing every color of every fish seen can be skipped and you'll save money!!!
2 -- need to re-read a sentence to grok its meaning? We'll charge you for the opportunity!
(/sarcasm)
Seriously, why do people fall for these crazy crazy ideas? Lke submitting your schoolwork to turnitin and giving them a life-time or perpetual license on your work... as in that other article earlier.... cray-crazy!

Not good

[fyngyrz]

Which is the opposite of the intent of US copyright (note this is not a US app/project), which is to, for a limited time (too long right now, but that's another discussion), secure the rights to the author so that eventually the work will promote progress. From the constitution:

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

In the US context, at least, this would work against such a thing. The way I see it, someone writes a book, eventually, that book should become part of the shared knowledge base, arts base, etc. I'm wary of a concept where a book is only available in part, where readers may never get the whole thing, and where e-readers... not exactly known for avoiding DRM and other such intellectual poison... contain the only (partial) copies.

A used book should be a treasure, something saved and valued and passed along. Electronic or not.

No sir, don't like it.

Re:The Plant

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately he cut it short since the voluntary pay method didn't work very well.

Actually, he cut it short because it WAS working well, from what I read of the issue. He had set out to prove that voluntary pay didn't work well, and unfortunately for hime was proven wrong. Him not finishing the book was a real asshole move on his part.

Re:The Plant

[Anonymous Coward]

That's some interesting excuses and language twisting there.

So, every other downloader voluntarily paying proves that voluntary payment doesn't work? Another missing detail is how many were there downloaders in total.

"We're not making enough!!!" and "Extend copyrights!" are also nice demonstrations of entitlement. Surely, every writer and musician's entitled to a new car every month. If their work brings them just a usual $3-6k a month (you know, like this guy [bay12forums.com], for example), it's surely because everyone's robbing them, not because they overvalue themselves.