Quote:
Originally Posted by delphidb96
And then there are all those Baen CDs floating around the internet. Baen is quite specific: Take them! Make copies! Give those copies away to friends, co-workers and family members! Give them as party favors! Set up a table at your local subway station and hand them out to passers-by! Just don't charge people for them.
Now why would Baen take this stance? Because each and every one, no matter what generation-removed-from-the-original-CD copy, is a live marketing tool for the Baen authors, that's why.
And those mega-massive torrent collections? They are the Same Damned Thing! At last count, I've 'discovered' over five hundred new 'fave' authors from individual and torrent-collection darknet files. Five hundred authors whose works I have gone on to buy from B&N and Amazon.
In fact, all this talk of 'piracy' has gotten me to reconsider. I'm going to set up each of my two novels (I'm the publisher, not the author.) for 'free-for-download' for one week.
Derek
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Derek, I think you are making a wise move in offering your books.
Oddly enough, Baen seems to sell a ton of p-books and e-books...as Eric Flint has noted, sales of his books WENT UP after he offered them as free downloads on the Baen Free Library.
I am firmly convinced that freebies prime the well for sales of other books.
My disagreement with the torrents is an issue of ethics:
It is admirable when Baen, Cory Doctorow, the fanfic community, etc. offers their own works freely and says, "Please share!"
It is quite another when a third party copies something that somebody else created without getting the creator's permission and gives it away; that is crossing the ethical and legal line -- to me, it is a violation of the creator's rights.
(IMO, it is up to the authors to learn that freebies actually generate sales and then embrace this approach...the wise ones will thrive.)