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| Hearsay: |
Will giving it away get them reading? The great experiment continues.
Publisher Tor has made another book available for free download: it’s Brian Francis Slattery’s “Spaceman Blues,” described as “a literary retro-pulp science-fiction-mystery-superhero novel.” The book was originally fished out of a pile of unsolicited manuscripts, and it caught the eye of Liz Gorinsky:
When I think back to why I first picked up this book and started reading it, I can’t help recalling a line Brian wrote on his cover letter when he first submitted the book to us a bit over five years ago: “This book is painted in browns and grays, sparked by sudden fires. I suspect it is not for everyone, though I hope it is for you.”
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October 23rd, 2008 at 11:52 am
Whenever I see books being given away for free–whether online or in the real world–I get the impression that they’re free because they’re not worth reading. Anything you have to pay for is automatically considered more valuable, simply because you have to pay to access the information. The book may still suck, but if it’s got a price tag on it, at least one other person in the world thinks it has value! Free books, in my experience, are mainly free because no one else wants them–not the kind of idea you want associated with your publishing house!
October 23rd, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Tor has been giving away free e-books from their backlist for a while now (first via their email newsletter, and now via their site). Cory Doctorow publishes all his books as free e-books as well as dead tree versions.
I see what you’re saying: printing is a hell of a bigger commitment than throwing a pdf on to the internet, but is “free” synonymous with “suck”? No more than a price tag guarantees quality.
The nice thing about e-books is that with download speeds what they are, it’s easy to try before you (don’t) buy.