iAds for iBooks – report

Apple may have a plan to insert iAds within books purchased via the iBookstore, a report explains.

Publishers are resistant to the plan as they feel the move would come at the expense of content, but as they watch profits dwindle and the decline of eReaders in the face of solutions such as the iPad, the scene seems set for ads in books.

“The historically staid and technology-averse publishing ecosystem has been ripped apart and transformed,” notes the WSJ.

Inclusion of ads within eBooks may also be of benefit to independent authors, providing them with an additional revenue stream.

The notion is a moot point at present, however, with just a handful of active paid-for ads circulating through Apple’s new US-only ad service. Authors meanwhile note a huge difference in sales between Apple and Amazon when it comes to eBooks — J.A. Konrath says Kindle books outsell iBooks by a factor of sixty to one.

He wrote, “Publishers might be looking at enriched or enhanced ebooks as their new big-ticket items to replace hardcovers. But the major ebook retailer, Amazon, isn’t set up for video. Kindle isn’t even able to do color yet. That leaves Apple, and according to my numbers Apple is a very small part of the ebook market. I sell 200 ebooks a day on Kindle. On iPad, I sell 100 a month.” the autjhor writes.