Giving an online version away for free?
Some quotes I was reading tonight, in a thread about a science fiction author who gives away free online versions of his book: * * * "I'll do the same thing I did with his last one: read a chunk of it online, and if I like it, I'll buy the book because it's got a better user interface than on screen." "I like downloading books and reading them on the bus. If I like it enough, I'll go to the bookstore and pick up a copy. If I really like it, I'll get the hardcover edition." "There was this horrible pirating outfit operating a block away from where I lived in Boston. I could walk in there, grab a book, and sit at a nice table and read it, all without paying a penny. I must have sat there dozens of times for hours on length, reading books and magazines alike, surrounded fellow infringers engaging in similar unscruplous activities, the police turning a blind eye to our theft. I believe the name of the place was Barnes and Noble. . . . "Free online distribution brings the bookstore experience into your home, and it provides the author an amazingly low marginal cost for a broad audience." Tonight I've been reading threads about Baen Free Library and other experiments to give away online versions of books that are sold in print. I'm not so sure how much such experiences carry over to my circumstances. I'm not Cory Doctorow; I don't have his audience of print readers. My readers are all online readers; would they be willing to buy a book they could read free online? I've no doubt that, for a press with a primarily print audience, giving away free online editions is a smart idea, but does that apply if your audience isn't primarily a print audience? Or is that how you get a print audience? The figures for sales for both e-books and self-published print books tend to be frighteningly low. Torquere's best-sellers have sold "over three hundred copies," according to Torquere. There are stories of massively successful self-published printed books, but only when the authors put out massive amounts of money to promote. And my books would not be available through the book trade, only through Lulu. My instincts on this are coming from my experience so far as a writer. My series The Eternal Dungeon has been quite popular, even though I've never released it on the Web. By contrast, Michael's House - which is being serialized in MAS-Zine - barely gets any notice, despite the fact that I have the first installment on the Web. This could be because of the chan content or because it's simply not considered to be a good series by the readers. But I suspect that the difference here is that The Eternal Dungeon was serialized by e-mail over a series of several months. It built up an audience gradually, while Michael's House - available only for a price tag - did not. Also, there's the fact of how I work as a reader. I hardly ever buy new books without having read them first in a library. The one exception is authors I really, really love and whom I know to be reliably good. So what are your thoughts about free online versions of books that are sold in print? "Here in the real world, away from the internet, we have a different name for people who take copies of books and let strangers read them without paying money or asking the author's consent -- we call them 'librarians'." --Charlie Stross Related links http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,57152,00.html http://www.thebookstandard.com/bookstandard/news/publisher/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000968186 http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/006479.html
Some quotes I was reading tonight, in a thread about a science fiction author who gives away free online versions of his book: * * * "I'll do the same thing I did with his last one: read a chunk of it online, and if I like it, I'll buy the book because it's got a better user interface than on screen." "I like downloading books and reading them on the bus. If I like it enough, I'll go to the bookstore and pick up a copy. If I really like it, I'll get the hardcover edition." "There was this horrible pirating outfit operating a block away from where I lived in Boston. I could walk in there, grab a book, and sit at a nice table and read it, all without paying a penny. I must have sat there dozens of times for hours on length, reading books and magazines alike, surrounded fellow infringers engaging in similar unscruplous activities, the police turning a blind eye to our theft. I believe the name of the place was Barnes and Noble. . . . "Free online distribution brings the bookstore experience into your home, and it provides the author an amazingly low marginal cost for a broad audience." Tonight I've been reading threads about Baen Free Library and other experiments to give away online versions of books that are sold in print. I'm not so sure how much such experiences carry over to my circumstances. I'm not Cory Doctorow; I don't have his audience of print readers. My readers are all online readers; would they be willing to buy a book they could read free online? I've no doubt that, for a press with a primarily print audience, giving away free online editions is a smart idea, but does that apply if your audience isn't primarily a print audience? Or is that how you get a print audience? The figures for sales for both e-books and self-published print books tend to be frighteningly low. Torquere's best-sellers have sold "over three hundred copies," according to Torquere. There are stories of massively successful self-published printed books, but only when the authors put out massive amounts of money to promote. And my books would not be available through the book trade, only through Lulu. My instincts on this are coming from my experience so far as a writer. My series The Eternal Dungeon has been quite popular, even though I've never released it on the Web. By contrast, Michael's House - which is being serialized in MAS-Zine - barely gets any notice, despite the fact that I have the first installment on the Web. This could be because of the chan content or because it's simply not considered to be a good series by the readers. But I suspect that the difference here is that The Eternal Dungeon was serialized by e-mail over a series of several months. It built up an audience gradually, while Michael's House - available only for a price tag - did not. Also, there's the fact of how I work as a reader. I hardly ever buy new books without having read them first in a library. The one exception is authors I really, really love and whom I know to be reliably good. So what are your thoughts about free online versions of books that are sold in print? "Here in the real world, away from the internet, we have a different name for people who take copies of books and let strangers read them without paying money or asking the author's consent -- we call them 'librarians'." --Charlie Stross Related links http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,57152,00.html http://www.thebookstandard.com/bookstandard/news/publisher/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000968186 http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/006479.html