Startup Offers Pay-Per-Page E-Books 81
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 'We are trying to rid the world from outdated, expensive ritual of buying a book before you read it,' says founder ~Yoarv Lorch, saying that readers can save money and move on if they start a best-seller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."
Sign me up (Score:5, Interesting)
I would be all over this. I have tons of reference ebooks that I only use a few chapters out of. If it's $40 for a 600 page book, I would gladly pay $10 for the 100 pages I would actually use even though the unit price (per page) would be higher. As it stands now, there are a lot of books I shy away from buying because a good chunk of it is irrelevant to me and the total purchase price is above my budget.
Re:A stupid idea, badly executed (Score:5, Interesting)
Or worse, they go out of business just before you can buy the last chapter of a TotalBoox exclusive.
ILL (Score:4, Interesting)
Haven't these people heard of inter library loan?
Re:Sign me up (Score:5, Interesting)
I also see this being popular with students. Buy a chapter as it comes up in class... less upfront cost and I've never had a course that used every chapter of a textbook - even the one time a professor special-ordered an abridged version of his text of choice with only certain chapters.
This will lead to terrible books... (Score:5, Interesting)
....that just try to keep you turning pages just like soap operas. All the drama will be lost by an effectdriven style that resembles "keep tuned for the next page where he will get the girl....no really just read on a weee bit more."
Re:Sign me up (Score:5, Interesting)
It won't take long before the books are structured in such a way as to make this impractical. Constant references to other parts of the book for example...
Sorry, but this is NOT a good idea, it will only be abused by the book sellers.
Re:BUT (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:This will lead to terrible books... (Score:2, Interesting)
- But, how can we stretch it further?
He landed in his chair and poured a glass of whisky.
- Sir?
- Yes, William?
- May I make a suggestion?
- Go ahead, William.
- You know about Dumas?
- Dumas?
- Classic French writer.
- Yes, yes, Three Musketeers and all that. What about him?..
He was visibly starting to lose his temper.
- They say he was paid by the line.
- Yes?
- And he had a simple trick to make his works stretch out...
- Oh, for God's sake!..
He leapt from his chair, spilling his whisky, and barely stopped himself from grabbing William's collar, opting instead for sticking his finger under man's nose.
- Just spit it all out already, or else!..
William took a step back, visibly shaken.
- Alright, alright!
He took a breath and went on.
- So, basically, he had two or three characters speaking in short lines. Just make each spoken line one printed line and...
- Yes! Oh, yes, I can see now!
He was rapidly pacing across the room.
- Say, what if we stretch it even further by sprucing it up with some short actions and description?
- Splendid idea, sir!
(cont'd)
Re:They have this already (Score:5, Interesting)
Sell the first N pages for $0.01 per page or whatever, but the last chapter is $2.00 per page.
I could see that working for mystery novels...