Glad you didn't take it the wrong way

. In a lot of forums, I would have been flamed to hell and back.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
A lot of e-book publishers (including myself) make part of the e-book available for free to read, although I doubt anyone is making 80% available. Most of us offer 1-2 chapters... more like 10-20%. But making more of the book available is worth considering.
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The problem with only offering 1-2 chapters is that it's too little to be representative or become "hooked". There are books that have a slow beginning because of the necessary backstory but are otherwise stunning. Likewise, there are books with a great start that become boring, repetitive or shallow after halfway through the book.
Meanwhile, the authors or publishers do not lose anything with offering more, as long as the climax is sales-only. Apart from mispurchases, of course.
Of course, none of this were necessary, even if nice, if your trusted reviewer(s) had the chance to review all books of interest to you. The sheer number of available books makes this infeasible so the consumer is left with buying the proverbial pig in a poke, provided he actually stumbles across a book he might like. This is the point I agree on with Eric Flint.
Also:
I wanted to link the below in my original post but the post needed to pass moderation, so I couldn't edit it in time:
Piracy & PC Gaming by one of the creators of Sinns of a Solar Empire[forums.sinsofasolarempire.com]