Big-time publisher, HarperCollins has announced the first free Web-based, ad-supported, full-text business book.

From Information Today:

Citing the desire to create new revenue streams for authors, mega-publisher HarperCollins (http://www.harpercollins.com) has announced the first free Web-based, ad-supported, full-text business book. Go It Alone! The Secret to Building a Successful Business on Your Own by Bruce Judson is now available on the author’s Web site , where an affiliate link to Amazon, not the publisher, can also be found. Not only can the book be read at the site, but it can also be searched. HarperCollins Publishers is calling the project a test of a new business model. Some self-published authors also offer ad-supported books online, but HarperCollins’ move is the first by a major publisher.

The 229-page book is being supportered by contextual advertising from Yahoo with the advertising revenue to be split between author and publisher. Rather than being published in the traditonal PDF format, it’s being offered up in basic html - 229 of them.

It’s an interesting way forward for publishing, and this test case is being watched closely by all those involved in publishing.

A spokesperson from HarperCollins says:

The results will be measured by the income generated through ads, number of page views and visitors to the site, and by sales of books from the site.

Information Today continues…

As Web users have embraced the idea that “information wants to be free” and have resisted paying for digital content, businesses and even individuals with Web sites have increasingly migrated to the ad-supported model.

This will be interesting to see where it goes, but from first looks at the online book I must say I was slightly disappointed with the overall design: extremely poor, even non-existant navigation system and what’s the point of having an index at the back of the book that’s not clickable.

The good thing, in my opinion, is that the book is spread out over many pages (229 of them) in small chunks. This is good for the reader and good for the author/publisher as printinig the whole book out would be just too time consuming.

At least big publishers are thinking and it’s a step in the right direction, but I can really see this being of ultimate use by small publishing firms and self-publishers.

What’s your view on such an inititative?

~ ~ ~

(via: Make You Go Hmm | Information Today | SmartTechWriting)