[SpiderMatt]

Originally Posted by WFT

I'm also interested in hearing what you have to say about Stephen King's experiment with ebooks. I remembered hearing about it previously, but I had to go look it up just now to find out that it was a series of books called, The Plant. He apparently stopped offering it free after the sixth book in the series.

According to Wikipedia, Stephen King and his publisher threated to stop publishing the Plant if more than 25% of the people reading weren't paying. I think that's a bit of an absurd expectation on their part given the nature of the internet. He did reach expectations on multiple installments but Stephen King already established himself as a popular writer. People had high expectations. Electronic books weren't popular at all at the turn of the century, though. There were no eink devices and wireless delivery to portable electronics. Most people were simply not interested in the idea of reading on a computer or PDA. Things are rapidly changing thanks to the publicity of the Sony Reader and the Kindle. So I think the unpopularity of ebooks coupled with the popularity of Stephen King--resulting in his high expectations, knowing he can sell any book by the hundreds simply by putting his name on it--doomed the project. Lesser known authors don't have the comfort of knowing they can put any book on the shelf and make a profit.

Originally Posted by WFT

Can you see what went wrong? It's really very simple. The true Sudbury students knew that the freedom promised to them was real and valuable. The public school students who had one day of freedom saw right through the lie. They treated the experiment the way it deserved to be treated: as a waste of time.

I agree that the students acted in the way they did because they knew the "freedom" they were afforded would last for only a single day. Why waste it? Back to the daily drudge tomorrow. Information doesn't work that way, though. Information is not a tangible good (freedom is tangible and can be taken away). In the "Information Age" people are not concerned about the monetary value of information. People regularly use Wikipedia as a reliable source (though not in academic papers because it can be edited at a moment's notice, but for the most part, its articles are fairly accurate and can be checked via the sources at the bottom). People are more than happy to facilitate the free propagation of information (books, music, movies, software, etc.) and it doesn't make any of those things less valuable. Bootlegged software downloaded from a pirate site is more often than not just as useful and reliable as that same software when you pay hundreds of dollars for it at the store. Information propagates by its very nature. A person who reads your book now has your story in his mind. He can tell that story to his friends or let his friends borrow the book and then they have that story in their minds. They do not own the physical book but most people are not in the habit of rereading books because the ideas, the information, are now permanently in their minds (and even when forgotten, they may eventually be recalled). People realize that there is no monetary value that can be placed on information that makes it more valuable. For physical items, when something is more expensive, it is usually better quality. Things don't work that way on the internet. Indeed, now people expect to get things for free. One of the reasons I'd love to see your book released for free is because I know a lot of people in my age group have the mindset of "if you're not going to give me this book for free, I'll just move on to this book over here which is free." Granted, a lot of people in my age group don't really have much money to spare, so I don't blame them. But a free book is that much easier for someone like me to help push out to others.

Christ Anderson, editor of Wired, recently had his book Free published. It's about the economics of giving away things for free online. He actually had the book up for free on several sites for the first month after it was released. Here's an excerpt I thought pertinent:

This new form of free is based on the economics of bits, not atoms. It is a unique quality of the digital age that once something becomes software, it inevitably becomes free—in cost, certainly, and often in price. (Imagine if the price of steel had dropped so close to zero that King Gillette could give away both razor and blade, and make his money on something else entirely—shaving cream?) And it’s creating a multibillion-dollar economy—the first in history—where the primary price is zero.

In the atoms economy, which is to say most of the stuff around us, things tend to get more expensive over time. But in the bits economy, which is the online world, things get cheaper. The atoms economy is inflationary, while the bits economy is deflationary.

Information used to be sparse and limited because technology limited it. I've always thought of the idea of purchasing ideas to be peculiar. It always made sense to me that people bought CDs or books, physically limited products, not the unlimited information provided via those mediums. I'm not saying you shouldn't be rewarded for your work but ultimately consumers will decide whether you will or won't and you get to decide whether they're reading your work or not reading your work when they finally make that decision.

To sum up my point, the extrinsic value placed on information does not correlate with its intrinsic value. People realize this more than ever in the "Information Age."

Originally Posted by WFT

(1) If The Pirate Bay is what drove Coelho's sales, why is it necessary for me to offer my e-book for free in order to gain the "free e-book" benefit of The Pirate Bay? As you pointed out, they'll tend to pirate it anyway. Why does it follow that I need to offer my e-book for free in order to gain that benefit?

It's not always a guarantee that your book will eventually make it up on a pirate site. And if people don't already know about you, it becomes very unlikely unless you do it yourself. I believe Coelho was helping the piracy of his book privately because there may have been consequences from his publisher had they known in the beginning (they didn't find out until after the Alchemist became a success), possibly a lawsuit. This is just what I'm remembering from when the story first broke. I'm not certain of Coelho's methods or motivation.

If you offer the book for free under the Creative Commons license, that means people are legally able to distribute your book. Many people aren't willing or don't have the desire to figure out how to pirate books. Many people simply won't do it on moral grounds. Many more people won't do it just because they're afraid of the legal ramifications. Your book is more likely to spread if you release it for free yourself. Otherwise, the law, as far as it has an influence and can be enforced, is very prohibitive.

Originally Posted by WFT

(2) What do you think of the alternative that smashwords.com and others offer of giving away the first portion of an e-book for free? In other words, give readers a chance to sink their teeth into it, then require them to pay to see the rest of the story. What do you think of that alternative?

As Elfwreck said, this is always a good idea. If you decide that giving away free copies of your ebook has more negatives than positives then this would definitely be the way to go.

Originally Posted by WFT

(3) Do you see a downside to giving away free e-books?

There's a downside to everything. If your book isn't as successful as you hoped, you may always wonder if releasing your ebook for free hurt sales. There's no sure way to prove whether it did or didn't. I think it's unlikely to hurt more than help, but that's only an opinion based on what I've seen and experienced. Hardly scientific.

Originally Posted by WFT

I'm thinking of putting up the e-books in five formats: pdf, epub, lrf, mobi, and ereader on a web page on my website that allows people to download them without interference but states that they're expected to pay for it on "The Honor System." In other words, I'll have no way to check up on anyone, but I expect to be paid for my work, either before or after the person reads the novel. As you suggested, I thought I'd also include a payment link at the end of the novel itself.

What I'm trying to do is to make the payment strictly voluntary, but remind people that they have an obligation to the author for enjoying his/her story.

What do you think of this idea?

I think you're likely to find more people willing to download without paying than vice versa. This is just how the internet operates. I don't mean for that to be discouraging but I think it's a reality. You're not Stephen King, so expecting something close to 75% of people paying for your work may be a high expectation. Also, if you retain full copyright (i.e. people aren't able to freely distribute your work outside your website) then you don't get the full benefits of releasing your book for free. For an unknown author, the word of mouth promotion and the propagation of a book around the web may be the most important part. Then again, Coehlo seems to have made it work while retaining copyright restrictions. Depends on the book, I guess. If you want to go that route, you can release your book for sale only and if sales don't meet your expectations after the first decade, you can put it online for free.

But seriously, I hope you find something that works for you and your readers.