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Originally Posted by nekokami
(But imagine how much more powerful they would be if I could read a chapter online and then immediately purchase the ebook if I like it?)
(I also think Flint could tone down the ad hominem arguments, but that's just me, I guess.)
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Why post a chapter only? Why not 1/4 of the book as Baen does with all their Webscriptions or e-arcs where about that is available free as sample chapters. With one chapter sometimes I can say that I like the book, sometimes I can say that I do not like it, but with 7-8 chapters if I get hooked I gotta read the book "NOW" (a good example of that was the 15$ e-arc of One Jump Ahead by M. VanName, which I probably would have skipped if not getting hooked on the first free 8 chapters and wanting more...). The JB Universe magazine actually offers you up to 1/2 of each story free, and some full stories free like Mr. Flint's salvos.
For real life earning numbers of a reasonably succesful SF author and quite popular blogger check the recent posts of Mr. Scalzi:
http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/004893.html#comments
http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/004895.html#comments
Considering that at least in sf circles and netwise he is quite well known and that those earnings - nice but kind of like a regular paycheck - put him in the TOP 1% of sf authors earnings, think again about INVISIBILITY as Mr. Flint puts it...
Since he does not mention names (though see TeleRead about speculations in that respect) I would not consider Mr. Flint's column as an ad-hominem attack, just a blunt pointer to economic realities versus wishful thinking ("oh man I have this book that if I put online 100000 people will buy it, but for those mean pirates so let's drm it up the wazooo" - this leaving aside the color is a true phrase from a drm exchange I had in another forum with a drm supporter)