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replying to several messages up-thread.
Harry, I just spent a weekend at a SF convention. One panel was on the concept of giving away ebooks, and how that does and/or should effect other sales.
One panelist who has inside information about the actual results told about the Steven King serial experiment. Mr King set a limit of a certain percentage of the people downloading that were needed to pay for the download, for the story to continue. I don't remember what he said the actual number was, but I think it was something like 70%. The actual results were closer to 30%. From Mr King's expectations, this was a dismal failure, and the experiment ended. From the publisher's standpoint, it was wildly successful! Lots of money was made, and every bookseller and publisher around said they would have been very happy with the results.
Similarly, the Radiohead free download produced actual results of almost 60% of downloaders paying something for the music, and they made LOTS of money. Then additional money from a physical product, then even more from a premium product that included extras (I'm not a radiohead fan, so I don't even know what they might have included in a premium release).
Of course, both of these products are for well-known artists, done through a well-known venue.
I think Richard Herley''s experiment might be worded inelegantly (I haven't taken time to go look and/or download). It's very possible that percentage sold might increase as time goes on, and I do remember reading in earlier messages that he asked to "only pay if you're satisfied." Under those circumstances, I'd probably choose one to try; if I liked it enough to go back for more, I'd pay for it plus the extras I chose, otherwise I probably wouldn't go look again and therefore wouldn't pay. It depends on how *much* I liked the book, and whether I thought the others might be a different subject or style.
I *did* find time (a couple of weeks ago) to look at Steve Jordan's books, and based on what I saw plus previous descriptions of the books in the forums here, I decided to go for the package deal. They're on my Gen3 and I'll probably get to one of them by next week or so.
My best judgment on both Steve Jordan's and Richard Herley's efforts, is that their problem isn't piracy, it's obscurity. I would know nothing about either of these efforts without reading about them here. I'd recommend trying to get at least one of each of their books onto a more popular site such as Fictionwise, or maybe the Baen Free Library. Hmm, I guess Steve's Amazon listing helps too, but that probably won't reach non-Kindle readers.
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