Bookshout has a novel business model, partner up with established companies to give away free e-books. The company has just ironed out a new literacy campaign with Cheerios to give away free titles from Karma Wilson, Frank Asch, Andrew Clement, Ashley Wolff, John Lithgow and Lenore and Daniel Jenneweinarma Wilson, Frank Asch, Andrew Clement, Ashley Wolff, John Lithgow and Lenore and Daniel Jennewein.
Since 2003 Simon & Schuster has put physical book titles inside Cheerios boxes for their Cheer on Reading program. This is the first time ever that 8.4 million e-books will be given away, which cuts down on production costs. The free titles can be read with Bookshouts line of apps for iOS, Android, Kindle or Nook apps.
The one big problem with this campaign is that physical titles can be kept, read and collected. S&S, Cheerios and Bookshout all assume that people have tablets or smartphone.If Bookshout were to ever go out of business, like so many other e-book startups, all of the digital books will simply disappear.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
