Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
But that's precisely their intended use - to introduce to Baen a new customer such as you who hasn't previously bought from them. What I'm talking about are people who repeatedly create new accounts at Baen for the specific purpose of getting the free bundle. That seems very wrong to me.
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Technically your statement is not correct, people do not create new address' at Baen to get the bundles unless they are a new customer, existing customers use a throw away address then 'buy' the bundle with their existing account.
You are correct that Baen use this to introduce new customers but that is only one use. The giveaways are also classified as sales and for the purposes of attracting new authors or even the evil that is Amazon the volume of sales is a powerful asset.
The majority of users here that use the scheme are as piperclassique, they use the bundle to discover new authors or sample a new series before buying something they may not have bought. Some people, like yourself perhaps, for whatever reason do not wish to take part in the generosity of Baen, you are free not to take part if you think it is wrong. Baen obviously see nothing wrong with it.
There is another group, that people normally do not admit to being in, of people who will take any free gift even if it is of no use to them. I am in that group and proud of it. I have had dozens of books from Planet Baen, which is another way that Baen give away books with even less reason than the bundles. I can not afford to buy books so I take free ones wherever I can, My Baen account has about 300 sales listed though I have only spent $1 with Baen, in this respect Baen are doing better than any other ebook seller as that $1 represents the total I have spent on ebooks in my life.
Rather more contentiously I sit happily in the group that, if there were no free ebooks available, I would go to the dark web and still get them free. I assume you would regard that as so wrong that it might make the bundles thing less wrong - perhaps.