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Originally Posted by carandol
In reply to the original question, Cory Doctorow has a good answer in the introduction to Little Brother, where he explains why he gives his novels away for free as well as selling them. Scroll down a little way to "The Copyright Thing". http://craphound.com/littlebrother/C...le_Brother.htm |
I agree with a lot of what he says, but this is where he's wrong, and more to the point, everyone on this forum who ones a good e-ink device *knows* he's wrong:
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What's more, I don't see ebooks as substitute for paper books for most people. It's not that the screens aren't good enough, either: if you're anything like me, you already spend every hour you can get in front of the screen, reading text. But the more computer-literate you are, the less likely you are to be reading long-form works on those screens -- that's because computer-literate people do more things with their computers. We run IM and email and we use the browser in a million diverse ways. We have games running in the background, and endless opportunities to tinker with our music libraries. The more you do with your computer, the more likely it is that you'll be interrupted after five to seven minutes to do something else. That makes the computer extremely poorly suited to reading long-form works off of, unless you have the iron self-discipline of a monk.
The good news (for writers) is that this means that ebooks on computers are more likely to be an enticement to buy the printed book (which is, after all, cheap, easily had, and easy to use) than a substitute for it. You can probably read just enough of the book off the screen to realize you want to be reading it on paper.
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Up to now, his giving away of all his books for free has benefitted him greatly. It has helped him avoid the obscurity that he rightly says all authors ought to fear if they want to make a living at this thing.
But in my opinion, his method will only work for as long as the vast majority of readers out there don't have proper e-ink devices. Once that happens, he won't be giving away a sampler any more, a sampler that will never be as good as the real thing: he will be giving away the product itself.
To my mind, that's a whole different situation. At that point in time, he will either find a different way of making those free books pay, or he'll be looking for another job.