With E-Readers Comes Wider Piracy of Books - NYTimes.com
Also among the aggrieved: Harlan Ellison, whose battles with USENET pirates are legion. A sort-of dissenting voice is also heard from: Cory Doctorow, who gives away free digital copies of his books day-and-date with the print versions.
I've considered something similar, but the most I was able to bring myself to do was offer the first few chapters free. Maybe I'll try the same thing later on with books that are specifically designed to be given away as well as sold in print, but my impression has long been that the quality of the material being offered trumps whatever price you're offering it for. A great book that sells for $12 will move more copies than a decent one that's given away.
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Talk to Yuri on this one. It's a trend he's been watching w/Baen and their free e-book program. From what he says, it seems like Baen's experience is that if you're not a NYTimes Bestseller, making books available for free once your next one comes out can only increase the odds of name recognition and reader interest for the new (not-free) material.
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I'll be sure to ask him. My original impulse, again, is not to give away too much too soon, but my instincts are as fallible as anyone else's. Perhaps more so!
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