|
I don't agree with everything Steve has suggested; but in one very important way he's right. No one has ever proven that there has been an increase in sales due to illegal downloading. We've seen studies that may indicate that, and others that say it's not the case, but no one has proved it. Almost all the evidence is anecdotal.
Yes Eric Flint has shown that making his books available for free download has increased his personal sales. But he's not putting those books on the darknet. He's offering them for download on a site where you can read some books for free and buy his latest ones. So he's got people at a site where you can reasonably expect most visitors are willing to pay. Besides, giving away the first book or two in a series in the hopes it will cause people to buy the rest is in many ways similar to handing out free chapters. They still have to buy to finish the story.
So while there is evidence that giving away eBooks does promote sales in some cases, there's none that the darknet provides that benefit.
Having said that, I do have to say that the existence of the darknet is something that all business plans do have to take into consideration. It's out there, so some response is needed.
|