New Years Action: Giving away my book for free
I've never been one for New Years resolutions. Quit smoking? Yeah, right. However, a New Years action I can deal with. Here's the plan: starting today, I'm going to be giving away the ebook version of Republic for free.
No more sample chapters, partial books that end in the middle, none of that. You can download and read the complete book. Share it with your friends, email it, do anything you want with it except sell it. Hope you enjoy the book and tell others.
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Ebook Links: Adobe Acrobat PDF |
Podcast Links:
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You can also order from Amazon: $16.95
Okay, so maybe you are wondering why? After all, I'm hoping that within the next few years, I'll be making enough money from book sales that I'll be able to write full time. Isn't giving the book away somewhat counterproductive to that goal?
I don't think so. Here's why: the biggest challenge most authors face isn't online piracy. It's not people out there diabolically copying their works and distributing them for free. In fact most authors (including yours truly) suffer from a different problem entirely -- no one has ever heard of them. After all, literally hundreds of thousands of new titles come out every year, and only a few hundred writers in the entire United States (if that many) actuallylive off their books full time. So, by giving away the book, I hope more people actually read it.
Want to share it with a friend? Feel free. Email it to them, send them the link, whatever. If you find that you enjoy the book, I'm hoping you'll order a copy, but that isn't required. You could also post a review somewhere. Post a link in your blog. Ask your library to order a copy, so more people can get it for free. Whatever. If you do post a link somewhere, let me know about it. I'd love to see lots of people reading the book, the more the merrier.
Will giving it away cut sales and make me a poorer person? I don't think so. There's plenty of evidence out there that giving away the book will actually boost sales. If you don't believe me, check out Eric Flint's column in Jim Baen's Universe, which actually runs the numbers and takes down some of the myths associated with Digital Rights Management, publishing, encryption, and copyright fanaticism.
http://www.ericflint.net/index.php/2007/04/27/eric-flint-on-drm-and-copyright/#more-316
Update:
I did not expect this to end up on the front page of Digg. That is excellent. Someone asked about the license -- it's under the Creative Commonse 2.5 Attritibution, No Derivatives license. In other words, read it, give it to other people, but don't make money from it. Thanks to those who mirrored when my server went down last night!
Thijs
[Off topic: Charles, could you please remove/hide my e-mail address in an earlier comment of mine on this post. I just received the first spam batch on that address. Thanks in advance.]
Craig Kudos to you for embracing this model. I'm amazed it hasn't caught on more since Cory Doctorow released his first novel under a CC licence in 2003 and hosted it on his website. He reckons he's sold far more books because of it, and he's done the same thing with all (or almost all, I think there's a few short stories which he hasn't, for some reason) of his subsequent works.
By the way, "Attributions No-Derivatives" would mean that you have to be credited and people aren't allowed to make derivatives of your work such as foreign translations, screenplays, etc. It has nothing to do with profiting or not. The book itself (at least the html version) makes no reference to any CC licence. You may want to post a hyperlink to the exact licence you're using, just to avoid confusion and possible future complications. Anyway, good luck!
General Pepper aw shuks, already bought the book!
no sweat, really good story and great initiative publishing on line Congrats!
Kelvin
Good Charles. Watch out though, because people also perceive that what's free has no value. A nominal fee is usually a commitment to actually read the book.Good luck and thanks.
Lon
what an awesome and bold risk... i totally commend your initiative!
Arthur Miller
Just started reading so far so good! Seems well written and nicely plotted will report again when I finish.
Cailean Babcock
The book is well-written and enjoyable, but the typos are killing me (one unnecessary carraige return, a misspelled idiom, bad hyphenation, and a misplaced apostrophe - before the word "his," of all places.) All within the first hundred pages, too. I'm typically not a grammar Nazi, but this is your professional work, so I thought I'd let you know.
I hope that the free version is different from the one that will go to press, that is to say, from before you had it proofread, otherwise I'd suggest taking these errors up with your editor ASAP.
Able-X
Just found you via Techdirt, and I very much look forward to reading this, as I needed a new book on my blackberry :) Kudos for providing it in so many formats as well!
Larry Winfield Your article is the first one I've encountered that referred to giving away a NOVEL as an ebook. I'm glad to know that this gambit works as well for fiction as for nonfiction books.
I'm 18 chapters in on an Erotic Horror/SF podcast novel that has garnered over a thousand readers (and this is a novel-in-progress). The ebook version will come out this summer. Your efforts provide additional encouragement for me to push on and keep writing.
Darryl Mason I'm also a true believer of giving away novels online. Good on you Charles. I think you will find great success having taken the big plunge.
I've been writing a free serialized novel online for the past few months and it's almost finished. The readership is now over 5500 people, and more than 800 have asked to buy a printed copy when it's done. No bookshop, no publisher, no agent. The book is called ED Day, it's about life in Sydney after a bird flu pandemic and you can read it here for free : www.ed-day.blogspot.com
Art
I've been considering the same approach for my novels (two sitting on the shelf - unpublished) since since some of your same observations became clear to me over the past year or so. I applaud you for being among the first to take this step. If we write to get read and make $$$, at least let's get read. The money will follow if we are worthy. Please put me on your email list and let me know how this goes. Good luck.
josh Always up for a free read - especially when it comes to a political suspense book - never heard of it, but if it's slightly Orwellian (which is what our future seems to be headed towards) and fairly decent, I'll support ya'.
joe
read the first few chapters and was hooked. just bought it from barnes and nobles.
DM
Here via del.icio.us, have downloaded the pdf, only time to read a few pages but already hooked and looking forward to settling down with a nice pot of tea this evening - many thanks!
Muir
I think I'll read half of it on the PC, If I like the way it reads, I'll be sure to buy it.
Craig Thanks for the free read! I hope your new marketing approach breaks the foundations of the old school publishers.
I think you may have started more here than a new marketing spin. Craig
keith
Is this being released under the creative commons license? No license? More info please...
r
kudos to you. you're actions alone have inspired me to read your book.
Dhrumil Looks like it's working. I've never heard of you :) but I got here via Chris Anderson's site and looking forward to reading your book.
Rolf
I have never seen a book from you.
I'll start to read the pdf - and if I like it, I'll order a hard copy. It's too hard to read on the laptop in bed. ;-)
Jeremy
Wow! Well, I'll BE reading this book, thank you!...And by the way, you made the front page of Digg.com Congrats =)
Derrick
Dear Charles,
I clicked "private" yet my email still appeared. I request you remove it please. Feel free to use my mirrors. I have enough bandwidth to share with nice authors. PDF: ut3.yourfirstcreditcard.com/Republic_ebook.pdf Kindle: ut3.yourfirstcreditcard.com/Republic-ebook.zip Rich Text Format: ut3.yourfirstcreditcard.com/republic.rtf
peter jones I have started reading a bit of the book, nice read. how much were you selling the books for , before new years? www.opentopix.com/topic/other/the-future-of-america-get-the-ebook-freepdf , if the link is too long then go to opentopix.com