Quote:
Originally Posted by tompe
But if you do not pay you will not be able to read more books by the author. The idea is also that if you think the book is crap you do not pay anything.
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Is this because you assume that if not enough people pay, the author won't distribute any further books? Or because by paying for one book, you are given access to the next book?
In the first situation, the author may still write, but probably won't have as much time or motivation to really polish their craft as they would if they were actually paid for each book. There is an assumption that most people *will* remember to pay after reading a good book, and I still think that is a flawed assumption.
The second situation is essentially the same as an author choosing to give away one book as a sample, which many authors do.
Regarding the "collect pre-order payments before the book is published" scenario, I know of one author who effectively did that by asking people to subscribe to a book that would be released one chapter at a time, but only if enough people subscribed (Diane Duane). That project is still ongoing, and is only up to Chapter 8 after over 2 years. See
http://www.the-big-meow.com/ for more info.