When you are the most financially successful company in the digital library space, an inflated sense of ego generally occurs. Overdrive is trying to start a new holiday called “Read an eBook Day” and is giving away a number of free tablets and e-readers just by visiting their site.
Read an eBook Day is a new program that Overdrive hopes to draw attention to their various verticals. Patrons can borrow a digital book from their local libraries (as long as its an Overdrive supported one) or they can buy eBooks (from a company using Overdrives WhiteLabel Bookstore system).
Overdrive is trying to start a holiday that basically shills their own products and services and makes no mention of Amazon, Kobo, B&N or competitors such as Axis 360 or 3M Cloud Library. They should have called it “Read an Overdrive eBook day.”
A corporate holiday centered around a specific company and not a movement is disingenuous. Trying to leverage readers and enveloping them into your own ecosystem is considered by many, to be a hostile act. What is next? A “Celebrate Life Day” with Aquafina? “Keep your Lawn Preety Week” with John Deere?
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.
