Obviously I’ve brazenly stomped into the world of online self-publishing. I haven’t given up on traditional publishing–in fact, I have news, but that’s a different post.
This is really just an experiment. No one has done any hard statistical research on the subject, but some writers, like Cory Doctorow believe giving their work away leads to additional sales of traditionally published work.
I believe that we live in an era where anything that can be expressed as bits will be. I believe that bits exist to be copied. Therefore, I believe that any business-model that depends on your bits not being copied is just dumb, and that lawmakers who try to prop these up are like governments that sink fortunes into protecting people who insist on living on the sides of active volcanoes. Me, I’m looking to find ways to use copying to make more money and it’s working: enlisting my readers as evangelists for my work and giving them free ebooks to distribute sells more books. As Tim O’Reilly says, my problem isn’t piracy, it’s obscurity. Best of all, giving away ebooks gives me lots of key insights into how to make money without restricting the copying of bits. It’s a win-win situation.
So, with that in mind, you can read my stuff for free. And share it, if you want. Tell people about it. Whatever.
I’m fairly puzzled about copyright law. Under the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act), if I understand correctly, I have a copyright on everything I write by virtue of having written it. (Registering that copyright is something else, though.) The point is, I still own the text. I can still sell print rights, even though I’ve posted it here for free.
No Comments