History has shown that publishing has always been a spectrum of models from ad-supported to pay per content and every mixture in between. Entertainment content tended to be more ad-supported — e.g. when you wanted to be entertained you flipped on the tv or radio, while instructional content tended to be pay for content — when you need to learn something you buy a book, take a class, or spend a lot of time figuring it out yourself.

You are correct though, that our single price point may be a little high for some content. We chose to start with a single price point at $1.99 combined with a credit system for both user simplicity as well as handling financial transaction costs (since credit cards still take more than a quarter out of a $1 transaction). But we have always viewed this as a starting point to explore many different pricing and market mechanisms. Interestingly, we are not the only ones experimenting with different models, since Borders recently announced a model where they would offer written how-to content online for free but ask people to pay for the ability to download it.

Truth be told, as a platform, we do plan to allow authors to offer ad-supported content, as well as other marketing alternative in the coming months. We just chose to start with the thing which they simply couldn’t so anywhere else — Create something valuable and get compensated directly for doing it.

History has shown that publishing has always been a spectrum of models from ad-supported to pay per content and every mixture in between. Entertainment content tended to be more ad-supported — e.g. when you wanted to be entertained you flipped on the tv or radio, while instructional content tended to be pay for content — when you need to learn something you buy a book, take a class, or spend a lot of time figuring it out yourself.

You are correct though, that our single price point may be a little high for some content. We chose to start with a single price point at $1.99 combined with a credit system for both user simplicity as well as handling financial transaction costs (since credit cards still take more than a quarter out of a $1 transaction). But we have always viewed this as a starting point to explore many different pricing and market mechanisms. Interestingly, we are not the only ones experimenting with different models, since Borders recently announced a model where they would offer written how-to content online for free but ask people to pay for the ability to download it.

Truth be told, as a platform, we do plan to allow authors to offer ad-supported content, as well as other marketing alternative in the coming months. We just chose to start with the thing which they simply couldn’t so anywhere else — Create something valuable and get compensated directly for doing it.

History has shown that publishing has always been a spectrum of models from ad-supported to pay per content and every mixture in between. Entertainment content tended to be more ad-supported — e.g. when you wanted to be entertained you flipped on the tv or radio, while instructional content tended to be pay for content — when you need to learn something you buy a book, take a class, or spend a lot of time figuring it out yourself.

You are correct though, that our single price point may be a little high for some content. We chose to start with a single price point at $1.99 combined with a credit system for both user simplicity as well as handling financial transaction costs (since credit cards still take more than a quarter out of a $1 transaction). But we have always viewed this as a starting point to explore many different pricing and market mechanisms. Interestingly, we are not the only ones experimenting with different models, since Borders recently announced a model where they would offer written how-to content online for free but ask people to pay for the ability to download it.

Truth be told, as a platform, we do plan to allow authors to offer ad-supported content, as well as other marketing alternative in the coming months. We just chose to start with the thing which they simply couldn’t so anywhere else — Create something valuable and get compensated directly for doing it.