I figure if it won’t be free to download, I might as well guarantee my fifty cents myself. People might be willing to pay, seeing as there are no ads. I could charge more and I’d get every cent of that increase – but at this point I just want to get people reading.

Chebbo

To be fair, Wowio wasn’t exactly pulling the sponsors in, either. Half of the 60 or so Wowio 1.0 books I have are sponsorless, and there were only four sponsors for the rest (Verizon’s a nice sponsor, but Lifelock? Vonage? And some website that I can’t recall…).

Of course, I doubt PlatinumWowio will initially do any better. And shutting the business down for a month can’t help whatever momentum the business had.

I also got clarification on the sponsorships. Now, you might be offered to choose a book to be downloaded for free sponsored by a company. The sponsor won’t choose the books, you choose the book and the ad is added. If there is not a sponsor available for your download, you can set a price on it and get half the price.

I’m not that offended about the 50/50 cut if I raise the price and someone buy sit for the same amount as a print book. That was that person’s choice and I’m not out anything more than I’d pay a printer.

I am offended by the 80/20 split.

Strategies:
Put a really high price on it to discourage purchases and encourage people to download when sponsorship is available.
Plaster your website URL on every single page and discourage people from reading it through Wowio. (That actually shouldn’t be that big of an issue, since it wouldn’t be the most current work anyway.)

I’m considering sticking my foot in the door as a ‘just in case move’ (in hopes that they would revise some of the contract if enough people complain), but having them remove all of my current books.

I am still not trusting them to be around and pay in six months.