The Free Book Experiment
Some of the big publishing houses have been experimenting with making books available electronically for free. The idea being that word of mouth may increase sales of actual printed and bound books.
Random House offered the new novel Beautiful Children by Charles Bock as a PDF download for three days last week. The Millions reports that at least 15,000 readers took advantage of the opportunity. The publisher is very pleased with the results of the experiment. I downloaded the book, because I could. I’m not sure that I’m ready to read 400+ pages on my computer though.
Meanwhile, HarperCollins had a contest to see which backlist Neil Gaiman novel they would make available for free online. The fans chose American Gods (me, too!). Sadly, the novel is restricted to viewing on HarperCollins site via a clunky interface, presumably as a security measure to prevent piracy. I am even less inclined to read a book using this setup than I am a downloaded PDF. Over at BoingBoing, Cory Doctorow, who has made all of his novels available as free downloads, is largely unimpressed with the Gaiman experiment:
Unfortunately, the “security” has also undermined the experiment’s value as a tool for getting better intelligence about the market. This isn’t going to cost Neil any sales, but it’s also not going to buy him any. We take our books home and read them in a thousand ways, in whatever posture, room, and conditions we care to. No one chains our books to our desks and shows us a single page at a time. This experiment simulates a situation that’s completely divorced from the reality of reading for pleasure. As an experiment, this will prove nothing about ebooks either way.
The only book that I’ve read in its entirety via computer screen was Crime and Punishment, which I read as a series of daily e-mails from DailyLit. I have not felt the need to repeat that experiment.
How about you? Have you had tried to read any books on your computer screen? How did it go?
March 4, 2008 12:01 pm 2 Comments
Other Links to this Post
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Subscribe
By Ms. Journo-friend, March 4, 2008 @ 5:01 pm
You are amazing. I would not be able to read the Cliff’s Notes to Crime and Punishment as a series of daily emails! How will authors survive if their work is free online? You know how much it costs to live in Brooklyn these days…
By Tim, March 4, 2008 @ 10:59 pm
For most writers, apparently, just getting people to know that your book exists is HUGE. The idea in giving these books away is to increase sales by increasing awareness. Or something. Cory Doctorow swears by it, for whatever that’s worth.
I don’t recommend reading any book by e-mail. Except maybe a Dilbert collection. That could work.