We all hate ads…right? The irritation they cause us when they interrupt our seamless consumption of media and entertainment. Who invented advertising. They have a lot to answer for. I bet someone in one of those big global corporate organisations. How dare they. But wait. Hand on a sec. Although it pains me to say it, I do think ads deserve a second look. Our world would be vastly different without advertising. In 1988 I hesitantly ventured into East Berlin for a day. It was a world apart from my comfortable western upbringing filled with democracy and capitalism. For almost 12 hours I wandered the dreary streets, of varying shades of grey, greatly intrigued and enthralled but also bewildered as to what was that critical ingredient that was missing. Advertising. At first I was overcome with a sense of relief. I could finally relax, away from the tentacles of corporate greed trying to sell me something. But as the day drew to a close and I was standing on the platform waiting for my train to take me back to the familiar “west” I looked across no-mans land and witnessed a startling sight. There were lights, colours, activity, action, motion, ambition, determination, perseverance and of course competition all bundled up in a world of advertising. We receive so much from advertising. Quality entertainment and sport is provided for us compliments of advertising. Stadiums filled with fans and live music lovers would not occur without advertising. The entertainment and sport which finds its way into our living rooms on a daily basis is courtesy of advertising. Tennis grand slams, cricket, football, golf, world cups and even the Olympics are offered to us “free to air” as a result of advertising. Think Superbowl without the mid game advertising. Movies and music are delivered to us freely compliments of advertising. Can we really complain. Here at bookworm.art we also endeavour to bring reading to you for free with a little help from our friend advertising. Bookworm returns the entire advertising revenue derived from the platform each month back to authors, distributed in proportion to their books page view count. This includes revenue from the Bookworm blog blog.bookworm.art and the Bookworm Youtube channel Michael Richmond. The team at Bookworm will continuously endeavour to optimise the advertising revenue derived from the platform and associated socials suite. As traffic to the platform grows then it is expected revenue will also increase as the advertising options, models and campaigns that become available to Bookworm evolve, meaning anticipated higher yields for authors. We at bookworm also want to keep the ads high quality. This will come as well as traffic to the platform increases. We want authors to keep writing. So when an ad appears on Bookworm, interrupting your reading, spare a thought for the authors. It’s helping them to write. But if the thought of ads is too much to bear then there is always the subscription option. For the cost far less than most newly purchased hard cover books and comparable to the cost of just a couple of averaged priced ebooks your reading can be seamless and ad free. Everyone, including myself, hates ads, but I do think they deserve a second thought. If they contribute to keeping authors writing, then are they the demonized phenomenon that we perceive them to be. Who knows when the likes of another Harry Potter will emerge to bring joy to the world. Would that be such a bad thing?