Quote:
Originally Posted by carld
No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.
--- Samuel Johnson
Famous and often repeated quote.
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Well, that explains why fanfiction is dominated by girls and women.
@Steven: If you like writing as a hobby, you could try getting a free blog and writing serial fiction or short stories without trying to sell, just for the feedback. (And maybe a tipjar.)
Which doesn't solve the problem if you're looking for a "hobby" to earn extra money, but would let you write as a hobby without having to pay for hosting and ebook covers, and would save time with the formatting.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bhartman36
I can't say that's impossible, but it seems very counter to human nature [to later buy what you first got for free illegally]. The most rational thing to do, if you've already got an e-book, is just read it and go on with your life.
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Eh. The first ebook I bought was a collection of short stories the author put on
his deviantart account where I read them for free.
Last month I dropped $15 in the paypal tipjar of a writer putting series of flash fiction I loved
on her blog.
If that makes me inhuman... well, cool. :P
I've seen authors use "If you enjoy my book, you should pay for it!" as argument against piracy... I agree. I also note that that isn't a good argument against the subset of piracy that's used as free sampling, because the corrolary is "I should not have to pay for a book if I don't know if I enjoy it".
Quote:
Originally Posted by jgaiser
Baen has been putting CDs of authors books in certain released hardback editions. Those CDs are available for free, with Baen's knowledge and permission at The Fifth Imperium. Why do you suppose award winning, best selling authors (Lois McMaster Bujold, David Drake, Eric Flint, and John Ringo among others) can be convinced to give away their books for free? Could it be that Baen has shown these authors that sometimes giving away stuff for free ultimately means greater *sales*? |
Well... Lois McMaster Bujold said something to the effect that this seemed a better idea in the first decade of the millenium, when ebooks were more of a sample for paper books, and the current rise of ereading devices makes the usefulness of giving away
whole backlists more doubtful. (I'd think it's probably a better - or less bad - idea for authors who add to series at a clip of a book per year or more.)