Der Spiegel reports (original article in German):
Ab Juli wird dieser Pool nun nach konkreten Nutzungsstatistiken unter den Autoren aufgeteilt. Die kommen zustande, indem jeder einzelne Kindle-E-Book-Reader das Leseverhalten seines Lesers protokolliert und an Amazon zurückmeldet.
[translation mine] Starting in July, the pool of Amazon subscriber money will be shared among authors according to concrete usage statistics. The statistics will come from individual Kindle E-Books that will record reader behavior and communicate it back to Amazon.
Is this a model for content production in the future?
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday June 24 2015, @01:20PM
I miss the overrated button. Yours is a good post, but not +5 good.
I haven't been to slashdot's front page since horizontal scrolls showed up in my browser, so I have no problem with cross posting.
As to e'books, I'm completely against the idea of "selling" them, same as music. Reading has always been free. Were it not for libraries there's no way I could have afforded to read 1% of the books I've read.
When I buy music, I buy a CD. When I buy a movie, I buy a DVD. When you "buy" and e'book, you own NOTHING. You can't loan it out, sell it, or give it away, unlike a real book. That's why I "sell" my e'books for $0, all free on my web site.
I'm so sick of greedy people...
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 1) by Francis on Wednesday June 24 2015, @02:44PM
That's completely untrue. Reading was something you had to pay for until relatively recently. Newspapers, books, magazines, scrolls and libraries required payment.
Ebooks are cheaper to produce, but they're not free. The only work you save is literally in printing and distribution l. Somebody still has to write, edit and do the layout.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday June 25 2015, @01:15PM
Relatively recently? I've been reading free for half a century. Magazines and newspapers have been free to read in taverns, barber shops, Dr offices, etc all my life.
Define "relatively". 1850 is "recently"? [wikipedia.org]
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org