About Expiring Books!
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So, as many of you may have noticed, I have not been particularly consistent about when exactly I have expired volumes which have had ebook releases from the pre-pub streaming. Like, volume 3 of mixed bathing is still up, etc etc...
Generally I have been giving a pretty decent "grace period" for people to read them even after the ebooks are out, but that sort of ends up with them disappearing at seemingly random times.
So I was thinking maybe there's a better (and more easy to remember) way of expiring books: What if they go down on the 15th each month?
I.e. Any book which has had its ebook release from the 15th of the previous month to the 14th of this month is expired on that day.
Since people get their premium credit on the 15th, you could use it to buy a copy of something you were currently reading that went down, which is why I chose that timing.
So basically books would have a grace period of up to 1 month after ebook release (though it could be shorter depending on the release date), and I can send out a notice each month about exactly which books will expire 1 week ahead of time en masse.
That makes the schedule simpler and should be easier for everyone to keep track of.
Comments?
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Sounds great, especially the part about sending out a notice about what will be expiring that particular 15th of the month.
It won't make a difference to me (cause I buy all the E-Books) but for others who rely on the subscription model I am sure that a notice of takedown will get them into gear on reading what they want to.
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Having a set monthly date is positive in that it's much harder for people to mistake the date but it seems a little unfair that you'd have less time to read some pre-pubs than others. On the flip side, having a consistent grace period length after publication - say, 2 - 3 weeks - means that you always have the same amount of time to read each book but the date then becomes relative to the publication date so it's easier to forget and, I assume, more difficult to schedule and track on your end...
If it's an option, I'd prefer a consistent grace period length but I'm okay with a set monthly date if not. :slight_smile:
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I think the 15th of every month sounds fine. Having a solid date for things being removed will help me a lot, especially if its backed up with a notice a week before means I'll have no excuse for being lazy and not catching up with stuff.
I guess the only issue is if the grace period ends up being like a week - week and a half, as I'm not sure that's enough (and certainly wouldn't be as good as we get now). However, I guess that would be down to how you schedule stuff anyway so it should be easily avoidable.
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@raddevlin well they will still have time to read the pre-pubs from when they are published to when they are complied into books.
So a book that is broken down into 8 parts they still have 8 weeks to read those parts, and even then the e-book won't be released for like 3 weeks and then after that period they will have up to an additional 4 weeks to read waiting for the 15th of the following month.
So for an 8 part book, users will essentially have 12 - 15 weeks to finish all 8 parts.
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Yup. I absolutely need the deadlines though in a newsletter type fashion with cover images. Will be more like reading my library books that way (and less pressure on me to guess what expires next). =]
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I think this is a great idea, and like @Terrence said, it could be nice to get a newsletter blast that also announces what's leaving too.
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Sounds fine to me.
