Posted on 2013-Nov-25
Scribd’s 100,000 eBooks
Having been long hailed as Netflix for eBooks, Scribd has upped their game by posting the new milestone of having 100,000 eBooks in their catalog. Adding new excitement into the eBook subscription scene, Scribd seems determined to impress their subscribers by providing contents from up to 900+ publishers. Its wide distribution of service also reaches the majority of smartphone systems through Android and iOS.
Fast Growing
Being six-weeks old, Scribd is not fully mature yet but they keep adding best-selling titles and new releases to please their audience. According to the company’s latest blog, more than 1 million books have been bookmarked and saved to subscribers’ libraries. “We blew past our subscriber goals within the first month of launching our premium subscription service,” said Trip Adler, Scribd CEO. One of the great benefits about the subscription service is there is only one app for users to read the book rather than downloading different apps to complete such a basic task. That echoes a lot how their service is received by readers.
Available for All
The availability on different systems Android, iOS, and web browser is considered a great move to attract as many subscribers as possible to the trial Scribd system. Unlike its competitor, Oyster restricts its application to the iOS system only and currently has no specific timeframe to release it on other platforms (i.e. Android, Kindle, Windows Phone, and PC). Being open to any available system, Scribd has a slight advantage over the other five competitors.
Comparison
However, each provider has its own unique pros and cons for readers to choose from. According to the comparison between eBook subscription services done by The Digital Reader, Scribd comes up with the service fee as low as $9 which might be good for readers who normally buy 4 eBooks priced at $2 a month. Oyster comes close in the second place in terms of investment but only for the owners of Apple products. For Kindle owners, Kindle’s Owners Lending Library (KOLL) yearly fee might be a bit overwhelming but Amazon also offers streaming video other than the eBooks.
eBook subscription models give promising appeal to readers who either buy eBooks regularly or love to discover new eBooks through the service provider’s recommendation. Like it or not, it seems they keep expanding their catalog to cater to the readers’ growing need of reading. Essentially, once everyone starts to embrace eBook reading on a bigger scale, readers will be more likely to explore the same works from similar authors and buy or recommend those works to their friends so that eBook will be more accessible and likable.
Netflix for eBook…Maybe Not
However, even if the business model sounds ideally perfect for readers in general, the service providers are obligated to reveal any details about the payment details to authors or publishers. There were discussions about how Kindle Online Lending Library authors would be paid back in 2011 according to a post by paidContent. Smashwords was bold enough to announce the number that authors can write home about not so long ago. Scribd will offer a pay-per-read model to pay for authors or publishers based on the percentage of the eBook that is read. If you as an indie author who is not sure about the subscription, this blog can help you make a decision how you can benefit from the service and how Amazon’s service can be very hard to beat.
Label: eBook Industry News
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