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Originally Posted by bookwormfjl
That is exactly right! Sample chapters are ok, but many a time I have bought a book after reading some sample chapters only to find out that the book fizzles out.
I definitely base what I buy on authors that I know and like. Baen has done an excellent job in exposing their authors with their free library and their prices on other books are some of the lowest around.
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Exactly.
Baen was promoting
authors, and figured the best way to do that was offer complete books from the backlist. People would read a few books, decide they liked the author, and buy the author's next book in hardcover when it was issued. The author's backlist saw a gratifying sales jump, too.
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I hope TOR and others pick up on this.
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You may assume Tor is aware of it. Tor CEO Tom Doherty used to be Jim Baen's boss at Ace Books when Tom was publisher and Jim was editor, and they stayed friends and in touch when Jim set up his own shop. Tor actually had a deal to offer content via Baen's Webscriptions program for a bit, till someone in the Holtzbrink parent company nixed the plan because DRM would not be used.
I'd heard Holtzbrink changed it's mind on DRM, but I don't know the current status of the Baen/Tor deal.
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Dennis