Yes, the revolution will be downloaded
I talked already about the success NIN has found by offering the first part of their new album for free online. It’s not just music artists who are using the internet and digital media to get their work exposed to a new and emerging audience. Neil Gaiman has had his book American Gods available to read online for the month of March. (There are a few days left, go here to read it at the publisher’s site.) Critics would argue that making it available to read online, for free, wouldn’t have any effect except negative on sales. They would be wrong though. From Neil’s blog:
It’s worth drawing people’s attention to the fact that the free online reading copy of American Gods is now in its last six days online (it ends 31 March 08). I learned this from an email from Harper Collins, which also told me the latest batch of statistics.
For American Gods:
68,000 unique visitors to the book pages of American Gods
3,000,000 book pages viewed in aggregate
And that the weekly book sales of American Gods have apparently gone up by 300%, rather than tumbling into the abyss. (Which is — the rise, not the tumble — what I thought would happen. Or at least, what I devoutly hoped would happen.)
It’s very cool that more people are getting success from offering their work for free. It vindicates those of us who have said for a long time that sharing does more to help artists than hurt them. Now we can show them even more by supporting Scott Sigler on the release of his novel Infected, which he had released as a free podiobook before getting it published. The book release date is April 1st, but we can see the full PDF for free! But only from 3/27 to 3/31!
Crown Publishing is letting me give away the PDF of INFECTED from March 27 through March 31, leading up to the hardcover in-store release on April 1. So download it! Feel free to email the link to anyone you know.
Please do not email the PDF, email the LINK. This is so I can prove to Crown the value in giving away content, and if your friends click on the link, that counts on their server stats - emailing the PDF doesn’t count on the stats.
THANKS & ENJOY!
Click the cover to get the FREE PDF!!!!
Technorati tags: scott sigler, infected, free book
Posted in Main Punk Blog, Writing |
March 27th, 2008 at 9:59 am
[…] offered his book American Gods for free online for a time. Sales on that novel went up 300%. As Jessika pointed out, it’s not just working for authors; Nine Inch Nails made a fair chunk of change by giving […]
March 29th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Thanks for posting this! I hope your readers grab the PDF so they can try before they buy. What Gaiman did is cool, but keep in mind we’re giving INFECTED away, in full, BEFORE it’s available for sale in print — not two years after the hardcover comes out.
You have to put your work out there and let the customer decide if they like it. Then they can buy it if they want, knowing full well they are getting their money’s worth.