Quote:
Originally Posted by twowheels
Why not? A lot of software is developed that way.
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There was a lot of shareware developed in the 80's and 90's. It was not a successful model then. To the best of my knowledge, it's not a successful model now. That's not to say that it doesn't still get developed, but it gets developed by people who don't care whether or not they actually make money.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sonist
Corry Doctrow seems to be succeeding that way.
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No offense to Corry Doctorow, but could you define "succeeding"? If I get paid one time in 10 for a product or service I provide, I don't necessarily consider that a success.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sonist
Some music is successfully sold that way.
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Talk to the members of Radiohead about
that. If the model is so successful, why aren't they doing it again?
Don't get me wrong: I'm not against people giving away their writing for free, if they want to. I've got some free stuff on Smashwords myself. But the free stuff is meant to whet the readers' appetites for the stuff you want them to pay for. And when you want them to pay for it, you want them to
pay for it, not read it and then decide if they want to pay. (Unlike software, e-books have limited repeat value. A lot of shareware is sold on the basis of, "If I don't buy it, it'll expire and I won't be able to use it again". But once you've read a book, that's usually it. You don't care if it expires after that. Thus, that part of the shareware model won't work.