Writing Wednesday: I Don’t Own a Book

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“I don’t own a tv,” is the hipster’s constant refrain.  They’re too busy reading Luc Sante, holding smug conversations about sustainable design over Stellas in dive bars, contemplating getting owl tattoos, and arguing over which Radiohead song is the best, right?  Maybe sometimes.  But a lot of the time they’re watching tv; they’re just watching in on the Internet.  As in, they’re rewatching the entire season of Arrested Development on Hulu for the sixteenth time now that the series is coming back.

Meet the Hulu Plus of books: 24symbols.

For a paid subscription you can read as many books.  Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, reported about it in the article “A Bright Future for Scandinavian Digital Publishing” on Publishing Perspectives:

At present, users of 24Symbols can read books online for free, and 24Symbols splits the ad revenue with the publisher. Currently, according to Hidalgo, the service is mostly offering public domain content, with about 50% of the content Spanish language. The service has already attracted 50,000 registered users, a number which he expects to reach 100,000 within the next few months. In 2012, the service will launch the paid subscription portion, where customers will purchase paid monthly subscriptions to gain increased access to premium content from mainstream publishers. Hidalgo acknowledges the business isn’t profitable for participating publishers yet, but he expects this to change in 2012 as he scales the reach and participation of paid customers.

Sounds like it still has a way to go, as public domain content is pretty pervasive, but the concept is intriguing especially if you’re a voracious reader or a writer looking for inspiration.  I’d subscribe to 24Symbols if they had the books I’ve been wanting to read available.

Tags: 24Symbols, ebooks, Mark Coker, Publishing Perspectives, Scandinavian Publishing, Smashwords, writing inspiration